About Us - Deer Park Community Advisory Council (DPCAC)

Mission 

The Deer Park Community Advisory Council (DPCAC) is a forum for an open and frank mutual exchange of ideas between representatives of the local community and industry. The group engages in frequent dialogue to develop a shared understanding of the interdependency of industry and community. The DPCAC serves as a resource to industry and the community at large on topics such as health, occupational, environmental and economic issues.

Objectives

• Influence industry decision makers by sharing community questions, concerns, and suggestions about plant operations.
• Provide input to the communities from the plants about plant operations and issues of plant or community concern.
• Provide a mechanism for plants to “test” ideas/plans before they are implemented.
• Promote understanding of and address identified community/industry issues that are important to the community.
• Serve as a means to “educate” the community about the plants and the plants about the community.

Membership

DPCAC members include individuals who live, work or attend school in Deer Park, and representatives of organizations and government entities serving Deer Park.  Currently, there are 30 DPCAC community members.

17 Deer Park, Texas industrial facilities sponsor DPCAC.  Twenty plant members represent a petrochemical plant, refinery, storage terminal, hazardous waste management firm, or other industrial facility. Industry members include 17 plant managers or operations managers, plus 3 community relations managers.

The DPCAC works to keep the proportion of community-to-industry members approximately two-to-one.   New members are added periodically to ensure the membership is reflective of the Deer Park community.  

If you're interested in joining the DPCAC or attending one of our meetings, please contact our facilitator at info@deerparkcac.org.


Organization

The DPCAC meets 9-10 times a year to engage in dialogue about issues.   Members select agenda items, focusing on topics that relate to industry. Topics include:

• Health
• Safety
• Environment
• Security
• Hazardous materials transportation
• Emergency response and communications
• Economy
• Education

The organization addresses topics by group dialogue, plant presentations and data-sharing, tours of plants and related facilities, and inviting outside speakers to share their views.  

Meetings are run by a neutral, third-party, professional facilitator.  Ground rules guide work.


History

DPCAC held its first meeting in March 1990 and celebrated its 20th anniversary in March 2010.  Five charter members who remained active in the organization were recognized for their service. 

DPCAC met 60 times between March 1990 and November 1995, prior to the keeping of a paragraph-a-meeting history of activities, meeting topics, tours, and speakers.   See DPCAC history of activities.

Fact Sheet

Short fact sheet about what DPCAC is and does. DPCAC web fact sheet