Facility Safety

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is floating a draft plan to overhaul its years-old chemical security program, seeking to break from EPA methods that were the basis for its 2007 rule for determining which chemicals and facilities to regulate, though the program’s future hinges on Congress reauthorizing it before it expires in July.

With new support from 18 more lawmakers, a group of House and Senate Democrats is renewing its call for EPA to toughen its proposed risk management program (RMP) rule when it finalizes the rule later this year, seeking to shore up the rulemaking just days after one of their key supporters announced plans to leave EPA after failing to win Senate confirmation.

Officials with the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) say the group is pushing both OSHA and EPA to prioritize enforcing their Risk Management Program (RMP) and process safety management (PSM) standard facility safety policies rather than overhauling and expanding them through pending rules.

OSHA is citing Amazon over a wide range of alleged safety violations at three of the retailer’s warehouses in Florida, Illinois and New York, marking the latest step in an investigation prompted by rare referrals from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the agency.

EPA will collect $600,000 in penalties for alleged Risk Management Program (RMP) violations by a Denver chemical distribution site under a newly announced settlement that also includes a $200,000 supplemental environmental project (SEP) -- just as the agency is readying a new RMP rule that would tighten many of its requirements.

For the second time in less than three months, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is pressing EPA to prioritize hydrofluoric acid (HF) for TSCA evaluation, and to also boost inspections of facilities that work with the chemical, following the board’s investigation of a Wisconsin refinery explosion.

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has released its report on a 2019 accident at a butadiene production facility in Texas, recommending that both the operator and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) strengthen their policies for the chemical to prevent similar incidents, just as EPA is evaluating its risks under TSCA.

The Senate has confirmed former EPA chemicals chief Steve Owens as chairman of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) and former California utility regulator Catherine J.K. Sandoval as the panel’s third member, moving it a step closer to full strength after years of shorthanded operations.

The United Steelworkers (USW) is urging OSHA to quickly propose and enact a sweeping overhaul of its process safety management (PSM) standard, arguing that the current “activity-based” model is inadequate and that the agency instead should require employers to show they have eliminated process safety dangers “to the greatest extent feasible.”

Leaders of the Chemical Sector Coordinating Council (CSCC), an industry coalition that works with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), are urging Congress to swiftly reauthorize the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program before it expires in 2023, emphasizing what they say has been valuable public-private collaboration and successful work preventing cybersecurity and other chemical incidents.