The last 2+ years have been nothing but a whirlwind of anxiety for the RMP chemical sector. It all started with executive order 13650 from past President Obama that led to a proposed new/modified law. This new/modified law is what we we call the RMP (Risk Management Plan) also know as 40 CFR 68 in code language. The new code has been in hibernation at the federal register until recently. Many in the industry have had their fingers crossed that the this would be reversed by now and that we would not have to deal with the uncertainty of this political agenda. February 19, 2019 was the date on many calendars and now we are told it is effective of as last month!
- What do we do as an industry?
- Does this federal agency that filed new code not support it?
- Is EPA going to reverse the entirety of the new law?
- Is EPA going reverse portions of the new law?
- Is EPA only going to reverse anything that has a proposed time line for compliance?
- Is the administration confused?
- Should we expect these expectations of compliance when the agency itself does not?
This is the PDF that EPA recently released: The PDF can be found at this link. The agency responsible for the oversight and enforcement looks to not be supporting the agenda. Below is what EPA announces in the document.
“Because EPA is proposing to revise and repeal significant portions of the 2017 final rule that amended
the Accidental Release Prevention Requirements for Risk Management Programs, EPA delayed the
effective date of the rule. However, due to a court decision that vacated the effective date delay, and
the court’s expedited issuance of its mandate, the final RMP Amendments rule is now in effect. Because
the 2017 rule contains a schedule of compliance dates for many of the major provisions, the issuance of
the mandate does not create current compliance obligations for some parts of the rule. The following
describes the RMP Amendments rule provisions that have current compliance obligations and those for
which compliance will be due in the future. EPA has proposed to repeal many of the provisions with
future compliance dates.“
If this does not change the following elements are significantly impacted by the filed CFR!
- Training
- Incident Investigations
- Emergency Planning & Response
- Compliance Audits
- and the new Public Meetings
Feel free to give us a call @ 620.271.0037 if you have any questions or email us @ ammonia@pld.com. GCAP is ready to be a resource for you compliance and training needs.
