To:
Members & Affiliates
From:
National Office
Date:
August 24, 1999
Subject:
New Requirements For Some POTWs to Hold Public Meetings - Accidental Release Information
Reference:
LA 99-13
Public Meeting Required By: February 1, 2000
On August 5, 1999, the President signed into law (P.L. 106-040) the Fuels Regulatory Relief Act, requiring many stationary sources, including POTWs, to hold public hearings within 180 days of enactment to discuss the implications of the risk management plan and the off-site consequence analysis.
The only exception is for facilities that are only regulated under Program 1 requirements of the Risk Management Plan regulations (see below). For all relevant POTWs, the public meetings must be held by no later than Tuesday, February 1, 2000. Failure to comply will be a violation under the Clean Air Act.
We anticipate that about half of the AMSA membership will be affected by Risk Management Program (RMP) requirements. The criteria for inclusion in the original RMP provisions was, among others, whether the facility uses substances on the hazardous materials list including gaseous chlorine and sulfur dioxide, and whether the POTW is located within one (1) mile of any dwellings. The text of the law is attached to the alert. Refer to Section 4, “Public Meeting During Moratorium Period” (page 214) for the specific language on the public meeting requirement.
Background Section 112(r)(7) of the Clean Air Act, as amended, required EPA to promulgate regulations and appropriate guidance to provide for prevention and detection of accidental releases of chemicals and for response to such releases. EPA promulgated a final Risk Management Plan (RMP) rule on June 20, 1996. The regulation requires the owner or operator of stationary sources at which a regulated substance is present to prepare and implement an RMP. This RMP must include a hazard assessment that evaluates the potential effects of an accidental release of any regulated substance and must also include a five-year accident release history.
The final rule outlined EPA's tiering approach for imposing requirements is based upon: (1) the potential for offsite consequences associated with a worst-case accidental release; (2) accident history; and (3) applicable compliance with prevention requirements under OSHA's Process Safety Management (PSM) Standard. Program 1 (Tier 1) is available to any process that has not had an accidental release with offsite consequences in the five years prior to submission of the RMP, and has no public receptors within the distance to a specified toxic or flammable endpoint associated with the defined worst-case scenario. Program 3 (Tier 3) applies to petroleum, chemical, and paper manufacturing processes (Standard Industrial Classification [SIC] codes 2611, 2812, 2819, 2821, 2865, 2869, 2873, 2879, and 2911) and all processes subject to the OSHA Process Safety Management Standard (29 CFR 1910.119), unless the process is eligible for Program 1. All other covered processes must satisfy Program 2 requirements.
Fuels Regulatory Relief Act - P.L. 106-040
The purpose of the Fuels Regulatory Relief Act is to restrict the availability of off-site consequence information contained in an RMP in order to guard against the risk of terrorist or other criminal use. The Act directs the President to assess the risks of terrorist and criminal activity associated with the availability of off-site exposure information and the incentives created by public disclosure of off-site consequence analysis information for reducing the risk of accidental releases. Following the assessment, the President is required promulgate regulations which limit the public availability of such information. Among the requirements of the Act is a 1-year moratorium on sharing information from off-site consequence analyses with the public. The public meeting provision is intended as a compromise measure to keep the public informed during the moratorium period.The public meeting requirement was inserted into the bill, S. 880, in the House by Congressman Roy Blunt (R-MO) prior to the bill's passage. The provision was intended as a means of recognizing the public's right-to-know about worst case scenario information in their neighborhood.
Certain POTWs Are Exempt
According to Section 4(a) of the Act, the public meeting requirement does not apply “to sources that employ only Program 1 processes” (see above) defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Risk Management Plan rule promulgated on June 20, 1996. Therefore, if your facility was only subject to Program 1 requirements under the Risk Management Plan rule, then the public meeting requirement does not apply.For More Information Contact ...
EPA does not have any further written guidance on the public meeting at this time. For more information on the new requirements, please call Carol Macko at EPA's Office of Solid Waste & Emergency Response at 202/260-7938. In addition, please feel free to contact Greg Schaner, AMSA's Manager of Government Affairs at 202/296-9836 if you should have any questions.Attachment:
- Chemical Safety Information, Site Security and Fuels Regulatory Relief Act (Please contact Greg Schaner, AMSA, at 202/833-2672 for a copy of this document).