Is there Grant money available for LEPCs?
Yes there is. Parts of several Federal and State Laws, including SARA Title III, requires chemical manufacturers, transporters and storage facilities to pay fees to either the Federal and/or State Governments for various things. Portions of these fees are given to the State to be used for planning and training purposes. These are called Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning (or HMEP) Grants, and are issued to LEPCs for such purposes. The Mitchell County LEPC recently applied for an HMEP Grant to fund the purchase of an LCD projector for use in training for and public presentations on Hazardous Materials incidents. We also recently sponsored a Hazardous Materials First Responder Operations level training class, which was paid for by Grant money. Other HazMat training is planned locally in the near future, and we hope to be able to receive another Grant to help pay for this training.
