333 S Franklin Street
Decatur, Illinois 62523
The Macon County LEPC was formed in 1987, as required by Federal law.  The State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) oversees the Macon County LEPC.  The Macon County LEPC meets every February, May, August, and November at the Salvation Army, and is made up of a committee at large with representation from, elected officials, law enforcement, emergency medical services, fire, local media, local industry, state and local emergency management, hospitals, transportation, public health, community groups, and local environmental groups. These representatives participate in three subcommittees:  Audit and Hazard Analysis; Emergency Alert Systems, and the Training and Resource.

The primary responsibility of the Macon County LEPC is to seek input from all aspects of the community to develop comprehensive emergency plans including, but not limited to, chemical emergency planning.

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RESPONSIBILITIES


Some of the other duties of the Macon County LEPC include:

·        Establish procedures for receiving and processing information requests

·        Designate a community emergency coordinator

·        Establish procedures for coordination and communication between the community emergency coordinator and the facility emergency coordinator

·        Establish notification procedures in the event of a release.

·        Establish procedures for making facility information available to the public.

·        Annually publish notice in the local newspaper about the LEPC.

·        Establish procedures for filing and maintaining Material Safety Data Sheets, chemical inventory forms and other administrative data required by
        SARA Title III.

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CHEMICAL PLANNING


In October of 2001, the Macon County LEPC undertook the task of developing a comprehensive chemical emergency response plan for each facility in Macon County subject to federal reporting requirements, 70 total.  Federal guidelines spelled out what the plan must meet, including:

·        Identification of the facilities, chemicals used, stored, or created, the transportation route(s) used for transport and any facility that may contribute or be subject to additional risk.

·        Methods and procedures for responding to a release.

·        Designate a community response coordinator for the LEPC and a facility emergency coordinator for each facility.

·        Describe notification procedures for the response personnel and the public.

·        Describe methods for determining the occurrence of a release and the affected populations.

·        List all emergency equipment available from the facility and the community, as well as the number of trained response personnel.

·        Develop evacuation plans with primary and alternate routes.

·        Develop training programs.

·        Describe methods and schedules for exercising the plan.


In October of 2002, the Macon County LEPC was recognized by the SERC for excellence in facility specific planning at the 2002 Chemical Emergency Planning Conference.

This recognition was given for being the first LEPC in the state to develop a comprehensive facility specific chemical emergency response plan that not only met, but exceeded state and federal planning requirements.


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Audit/Hazard Analysis

The duties of the Audit/Hazard Analysis committee include:

·        Audit the hazardous material plan to ensure all local, state, and federal requirements are met.

·        Audit drills and implementations of the Emergency Response Plan.

·        Develop a database of all chemicals in the county, their locations, characteristics, and their transportation routes.

·        Review previous hazardous material incidents as well as inventories of hazardous chemicals stored in the county, to develop a list of vulnerable areas.