As expected, EPA has formally declined to create new Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements to prevent or contain industrial chemical spills, dismissing calls from state emergency responders and environmentalists, who argued a rule is mandated by law and needed in the wake of a 2014 spill that closed the drinking water system in Charleston, WV.
September 16, 2026
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is dropping its appeal of a federal district court’s order for the board to issue by February a final rule requiring accidental release reporting from chemical facilities, reaffirming the board’s plan released this spring to comply with the order’s timeline.
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AUSTIN, TX -- A top EPA waste official is vowing that the agency will soon send for White House pre-publication review its final rule to undo Obama-era changes that tightened facility safety risk management plan (RMP) requirements, a surprise move refuting environmentalists’ suggestions that the rollback was “dead in the water."
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A House panel voted June 19 along party lines to approve Democratic legislation renewing and strengthening the Department of Homeland Security’s chemical facility safety program, though lawmakers pledged to continue working to reach a bipartisan deal before the program expires next year.
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A Senate panel is gearing up for a new round of debate on reauthorizing the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, but senators signaled during a June 4 roundtable that while they agree on the need for a long-term extension, they remain divided over how much flexibility to provide.
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A Texas refiner is petitioning a federal appellate court to review a controversial ruling from OSHA’s review panel that industry attorneys say “dramatically” expands the agency’s process safety management (PSM) rule's applicability to boilers and other “interconnected” units.
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Environmentalists say the Trump administration’s just-announced monthslong delay of its self-imposed deadline for finalizing a rollback of an Obama-era rule tightening facility safety Risk Management Plan (RMP) requirements may suggest the plan is “dead in the water” as it signals ongoing legal doubts about undoing the changes.
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The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB)is urging EPA to reassess its 26-year-old study on the potential risks from refineries’ accidental releases of hydrofluoric acid (HF), citing two recent refinery fires as highlighting concerns over whether the facilities’ risk management plans (RMPs) are adequate to control unplanned HF releases.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is pledging to renew efforts to get the Defense Department (DOD) to weigh contractors' safety records before awarding contracts after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found a series of contractor violations as well as problems with OSHA and DOD tracking systems.
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Citing worker safety and other risks, food safety advocates are urging the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to halt approval of line speed wavers for poultry processing plants and to reopen the comment period for a 2014 final rule after a Georgia plant was granted a waiver despite failing a required safety inspection.
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