EPA Issues Proposed Revisions to its Risk Management Program Regulations Under the Clean Air Act

On August 31, 2022, EPA published proposed revisions to its Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations under the Clean Air Act. RMP requires facilities that produce, handle, process, or store any listed toxic and flammable substance to develop a risk management plan. The proposed changes address three RMP requirements: accident prevention program requirements, emergency preparedness requirements, and information availability requirements.

For the prevention program revisions, EPA is proposing to reestablish the requirements for a safer technologies and alternatives analysis, root cause analysis incident investigation, and third-party compliance auditing. EPA is also proposing to add new requirement for employee participation. Finally, the agency is proposing to emphasize its existing requirements to address natural hazards, loss of power and facility siting in hazard evaluations. The agency proposed to modify the existing emergency response provisions to include reestablishing the 10-year frequency to conduct a field exercise and mandating the current recommended exercise evaluation report elements. EPA’s proposed changes to the information availability provisions includes allowing the public to request specific chemical hazard information.

EPA plans to hold three virtual public hearings for this proposal on September 26, 27 and 28. You can register to attend and provide comments at the hearings.

Comments are due on October 31, 2022.

Read the proposed rule and submit comments.

Advocacy contact: Tabby Zeb at 202-798-7405 or email at tayyaba.zeb@sba.gov.