Ottawa County Sheriff's Office
Emergency Management
Community Right-To-Know
On December 4, 1984, methyl isocyanate was accidentally released from a chemical plant in Bhopal, India. The cloud of the highly toxic chemical blanketed the surrounding area killing over 2,000 people and injuring thousands more. Eight months later, a less toxic derivative of that chemical escaped from a plant in West Virginia.
Following these incidents, the United States Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 1986. The law was designed to improve local hazardous material emergency response and provide the public with information concerning hazardous and toxic chemicals in their community. This act is also known as Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA).
Community Right-To-Know involves four activities:
- Emergency Planning - Sections 301-303 of the act establish state emergency planning and community
right-to-know commissions (SERC) and Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC). There are requirements
that facilities that use, handle, store, or manufacture extremely hazardous substances develop an
emergency plan.
Ottawa County currently has 130 know sites. - Emergency Release Notification - Section 304 - This area covers what needs to be done in the event of an accidental release of a toxic chemical. There are two lists that need to be consulted under this activity. The first is the list of extremely hazardous substances (EHS) found in section 302 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act. The other is established under section 102(a) of the Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). If there is a release of a chemical on either of these lists that has the potential to go off site and exceeds the reportable quantity (RQ), the local fire department, the Michigan Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Commission, the LEPC and the National Response Center must be notified immediately.
- Hazardous Materials Storage Inventory - Section 312 - This area requires annual report of chemical inventory. Any facility that has 10,000 lbs of any substance that requires a Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) or EHS at the Threshold Planning Quantity (TPQ) or 500 lbs., which ever is lower, must submit this report, called a Tier II Inventory, to their local fire department and the LEPC by March 1st of each year.
- Toxic Chemical Release Inventory- Section 313 - The Toxic Chemical Release Inventory provides information about the quantities of toxic chemicals released (routinely and accidentally) into the environment during a year. Those industries that need to file Toxic Chemical Release Inventory report must submit it to the SARA Title III office and US Environmental Protection Agency by July 1st. of each year .
