Hazardous materials grants sent to Illinois communities

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - The Illinois Emergency Management Agency is awarding $435,378 in grants to communities to help them better prepare for hazardous materials spills.

Thirty-three local emergency planning committees are benefiting from the funding, which comes to the state agency from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Money from the federal transportation department is distributed to the states based on population and factors related to the handling of hazardous materials.

The money supports local emergency planning to better ready local agencies for hazardous materials spills.

Grants can be used by the agencies to develop emergency plans and determine the needs of regional response teams.

The more than $435,000 in grants is less than the $740,000 requested for local planning projects.