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Leaders of the Blair County organization responsible for planning how to handle hazardous-material emergencies are hoping to reinvigorate the organization by revitalizing its subcommittees.
Local Emergency Planning Committee leaders resolved to do that Thursday after a plea by member and Blair County Director of Public Safety Mark Taylor.
"There's so much more we could do, (especially with) prevention," Taylor told the group. "How do we get other people engaged and get more accomplished?"
Needed first is a roster of subcommittees, accompanied by lists of their current members, said LEPC Chairman Joe Adams, the safety and environmental director at McLanahan Corp.
When that's done, LEPC will ask members to volunteer to join subcommittees whose missions they're passionate about, Adams said.
The group can also call for nonmembers to join, Adams suggested. "That would be even better."
LEPCs are a creation of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, which charges them to develop plans for emergencies at sites that handle hazardous materials, while making information about the materials at those sites available to residents, according to the Environmental Protection Agency website.
LEPCs are regulated under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 and EPCRA, according to the Blair County website.
The Blair LEPC has done "great" work, according to member Gene Sajeski, emergency management specialist with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency's central district.
By contrast, most LEPCs in the state are in "shambles," because they have trouble getting cooperation from industry -- with groups from Cumberland and Westmoreland counties being exceptions, Sajeski said.
Still, the Blair group's effort has lagged, Adams indicated.
"It just got away from us," he said, without elaborating on how it happened.
The LEPC subcommittees include planning, finance, communications and training.
Planning is "a big one," Adams said.
After its reboot, that subcommittee will be tasked with reviewing and updating all the specific plans for the SARA facilities in the county, including chemical firms and hospitals, making all of the plans consistent with each other, according to Adams and Taylor.
Among side benefits of the LEPC rejuvenation effort will be the wider sharing of information, according to Sajeski.
"Cross-pollination," Sajeski said. "You can pick up different things when you work together."
An example, not necessarily destined to be part of the rejuvenation, is the Blair County Hazardous Material Response Team's work with the ammonia cooling system at the Sheetz Distribution Center in Claysburg, Sajeski said.
The hazmat team is staffed by the Altoona Fire Department.
Another example, likewise not necessarily part of the coming rejuvenation, is the Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response program, which has led to training of SARA facility representatives, so they can interact easily and helpfully with emergency responders in a crisis, according to Sajeski.
"Let's see what we can do to get this thing moving again," Adams said of the planned revitalization.
"There's a wealth of knowledge in this room," Taylor said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.