In the event of an emergency, contact
| California State Warning Center | (800) 852-7550 |
| US EPA Region 9 Duty Officer | (800) 300-2193 |
| CDC/ATSDR 24-Hour Emergency Response Center | (770) 488-7100 |
CARPA
The California Air Response Planning Alliance (CARPA) is a network of local, state, federal air and public health agencies and resources joined together to improve coordinated response to major air releases and emergencies with air quality impacts.
The California Air Resources Board is one of the partners in this Alliance and maintains this CARPA website. The alliance provides actionable incident response information to protect public health and the environment from the impacts of accidental or deliberate releases of hazardous compounds into the air.
Requesting State Support
The process for requesting State support was established by the Emergency Services Act and the Standardized Emergency Management System. To obtain State support, contact your Operations Area or County Emergency Operations Center and they will coordinate assistance from the State.
CARPA Mission Statement
To provide actionable incident response information to protect public health and the environment from the impacts of accidental or deliberate releases of hazardous compounds into the air.
CARPA Charter
The CARPA is established to provide a forum for air districts, environmental and public health departments, emergency response agencies, and public information officers, to facilitate an increase in response coordination and agency capabilities for responding to large hazardous air release incidents and protecting the public’s health in California. More Information
CARPA Background
Following the 2003 Southern California wildfires, issues surrounding the massive air quality impacts underscored a critical needs to improve the coordination and capabilities of federal, state, local, and tribal agencies to collect, interpret, and provide air quality information to the public, media, and elected official in a timely and effective manner.
In later 2005, Jeff Cook (ARB, now retired) and John Kennedy (US EPA) formed a partnership with the California Office of Emergency Services (now the California Emergency Management Agency, CalEMA) to convene an ad hoc group of agencies involved at the federal, state, local. and tribal levels in the disciplines of air quality management, emergency response, public and environmental health, and public information. In 2006, the CARPA was formed.
CARPA Structure
Membership in CARPA is open to anyone interested in strengthening California' capacity to respond to major airborne releases or other emergencies with air quality impacts. To join, simply subscribe to the CARPA e-mail list.
The CARPA Subcommittees are always looking for dedicated and energetic members who prefer to focus more specifically on one or more of the practice areas within emergency management of airborne emergencies:
- The Data Subcommittee focuses on the analytical aspects of airborne releases including emergency air monitoring, sampling, modeling, meteorology, and data management.
- The Data to Message Subcommittee focuses on developing, standardizing, and applying public health guidance for making rapid decisions about health and safety during emergencies.
- The Message to Audience Subcommittee focuses on training and tools for messaging and emergency communication during an airborne release.
The CARPA Steering Committee is the overall coordination group responsible for designing the direction of CARPA activities, including training and outreach. Steering Committee members represent groups that will likely interact during emergencies including public health, environmental health, emergency management, first responders, hazmat, air quality, and public information, as well as technical specialists in a variety of fields from meteorology and modeling to sampling, analysis, and toxicology.
The Steering Committee is organized by two-co-chairs who serve overlapping two-year terms.