The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) was passed in 1986 in response to the 1984 leak of methyl isocyanate gas at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, India that killed thousands of people. This horrible accident raised concerns in the United States about the chance of a similar accident happening to an unsuspecting community. The possibility of a “Bhopal”-scale accident is remote, but the risks of chemical releases in communities are real. According to the United States Public Interest Research Group and the National Environmental Law Center, a chemical accident is reported in the United States an average of 21 times a day and one in twenty of these mishaps resulted in immediate injuries, evacuations or deaths.
EPCRA was enacted to deal with this very real concern. In keeping with the philosophy that “forewarned is forearmed,” EPCRA is designed to inform communities about chemicals and chemical hazards present and transported in the community, and to involve the community in developing emergency planning and response to a potential leak of those chemicals.