By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau
MARION — The Williamson County Local Emergency Planning Committee is looking for additional help, WSIU News reported, a quiet appeal from the body tasked with keeping the county ready for the next chemical spill, industrial accident, or disaster.
LEPCs exist because federal law requires communities to plan for hazardous-materials emergencies — the kind of unglamorous, unpaid civic work that only gets noticed when it's missing. In a county with a mining and industrial past, and railroads and highways still running through it, that planning isn't hypothetical.
No further specifics on what roles are needed or how residents can get involved were detailed beyond WSIU's report. But committees like this one run on volunteers willing to sit through training and drills nobody else wants to attend. If Williamson County's LEPC is short-handed, that's worth the county board's attention before, not after, the next incident.
— Compiled from reporting by WSIU News.
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