Emergency Response (ER) Program

If you are interested in the national infrastructure for responding to the release of hazardous substances and spills administered by EPA's Oil Program, you have come to the right place. The U.S. EPA's Emergency Response Program coordinates and implements a wide range of activities to ensure that adequate and timely response measures are taken in communities affected by hazardous substances and oil releases where state and local first responder capabilities have been exceeded or where additional support is needed.

Additional information on the Federal government's role in responding to emergencies involving hazardous substances and oil can be found by linking to the National Response Center and the National Response Team's home pages.

The main Emergency Response areas are described below. For information on a specific topic, visit the Contents page. Don't forget to bookmark the pages most useful to you.

• Inside the Emergency Response Program offers an inside look at EPA's Emergency Response programs and activities, and how they all fit together. The deeper you dig, the more detail you will find.
• National Response System offers an in depth look at how the federal government works with a multi-layered system of individuals and teams from local, state, and federal agencies, industry, and other organizations to share expertise and resources to ensure that control and cleanup activities of a wide range of oil and hazardous substance releases are timely and efficient, and that they minimize threats to human health and the environment.
• Reporting Triggers provides information for professionals who need to know when to report a hazardous substances release or an oil spill to the National Response Center.
• laws and regulations includes overviews and summaries of key provisions, as well as links to actual text, for all the statutes and regulations governing EPA's role in the the federal system for responding to hazardous substances and oil emergencies.
• Resources includes links to software and databases available online; a library of available publications and videos; a directory of EPA emergency response program contact and organizational information; a gallery of photographs; a calendar of important regulatory dates and professional events; and links to other online resources.
• Community Involvement offers an overview of key elements in EPA's efforts to keep the public and local officials informed about threats posed by the presence of hazardous substances and local activities to clean them up. Links to databases of information on local spills and emergency response actions are also included.
• Local Governments Reimbursement outlines how local governments can take advantage of federal programs set up specifically to help pay for the costs of local responses to emergencies involving hazardous substances.