Upcoming Changes to EPA's Risk Management Program: Implications for Industry, Emergency Responders and Communities

摘要

In the summer of 2014, EPA published a Request for Information (RFI) regarding Risk Management Program (RMP) seeking comment on potential revisions to EPA's RMP regulations and related programs aimed at modernizing regulations, guidance, and policies in response to the President's Executive Order 13650 - Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security. The RMP RFI requested that comments and information be submitted by interested parties, including the public at large, industry and environmental groups, no later than October 29, 2014. The RFI identified possible changes and enhancements to RMP that EPA is considering that may have far-reaching implications on the types of chemicals and facilities that are regulated and the extent to which concepts aimed at reducing potential risks such as Inherently Safer Technologies, may need to be considered. Presently there are about 12,000 facilities across the United States that are subject to RMP and the revised regulations may result in adding facilities to this program. As EPA plans to promulgate revisions to RMP (40 CFR Part 68) by the end of 2016, 2015 is the appropriate time to consider and explore how these changes may affect what types of facilities are regulated, how regulated processes are designed and operated and elements that will need to be added to existing risk management programs. Given that the Executive Order also gave direction to OSHA to examine how Process Safety Management (PSM) regulations can be improved, EPA and OSHA are expected to collaborate to ensure that changes to RMP and PSM are consistent. This paper will review the drivers behind the changes under consideration by EPA and OSHA, the latest available information on EPA and OSHA's plans to adopt these changes, the implications for currently regulated industries and how newly regulated industries may be affected. The extent that these changes will materially enhance public safety by improving accident prevention and emergency preparedness will also be explored. The ways in which key changes will affect Risk Management Programs will be illustrated through a case study. The paper also identifies the next steps in EPA's the rulemaking process with continuing opportunities to track and influence the regulatory process.