Cambridge Wins Statewide Emergency Planning Award

Cambridge is prepared for chemical emergencies—and now the city has won the award to prove it.

“We worked hard, and it’s a credit to the facilities, the universities and the city government,” said Larry Ferazani, chair of Cambridge’s Local Emergency Planning Council (LEPC), which was named the best council in Massachusetts at the state’s Emergency Response Commission conference dinner on Tuesday.

Founded in 1988, Cambridge’s LEPC brings together local agencies to plan scenarios for local response to any accidents involving dangerous chemicals.

“The LEPC’s been tasked with planning for a response to a biochemical accident,” Ferazani said.

One of four fully certified councils in Massachusetts, Cambridge’s LEPC was created after Congress passed the Superfund Amendment and Renewal Act (SARA) in 1986, which mandated statewide and local emergency planning teams. About 150 other LEPCs statewide are in the process of gaining full accreditation.

Ferazani credits long-time Cambridge City Manager Robert W. Healy with prioritizing the creation of an LEPC in Cambridge—despite the fact that the federal government provided no funding for an LEPC.

“Healy really wanted it implemented,” Ferazani said.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.