The federal Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act became law in 1986. Title III of these SARA provisions is also known as the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). SARA Title III requires states to:
Promote outreach for developing local emergency preparedness programs such as the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC)to respond to chemical releases.
Receive reports from the regulated community by way of EPlan for industries in NC and Richmond County.
Organize, analyze and disseminate the resulting information on hazardous chemicals to local governments and the public.
Specifically, this has required the establishment of state emergency response commissions and local emergency planning committees. The nationwide regulated community of manufacturers and non-manufacturers of hazardous chemicals must report concerning their emergency chemical releases; their Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS); their facility hazardous chemical inventories (Tier I and Tier II reports); and their toxic chemical releases to the air, land or water (Toxics Release Inventory).