Emergency planning

Scope

You must comply with the emergency planning requirements at 40 CFR 355 if your facility meets either of the following two conditions:

• Any listed EHS is present at your facility in an amount equal to or greater than its TPQ; or
• Your facility has been designated for emergency planning purposes, after public notice and opportunity for comment, by one of the following three entities:
  • The State Emergency Response Commission (SERC);
  • The Governor of the state in which your facility is located; or
  • The Chief Executive Officer of the Tribe for the Indian Tribe under whose jurisdiction your facility is located.

Regulatory citations

• 40 CFR 355 — Emergency planning and notification

Key definitions

• Extremely hazardous substance (EHS): A substance listed in Appendices A and B of 40 CFR 355.
• Facility: All buildings, equipment, structures, and other stationary items that are located on a single site or on contiguous or adjacent sites and that are owned or operated by the same person (or by any person that controls, is controlled by, or under common control with, such person).
• LEPC: The Local Emergency Planning Committee appointed by the State Emergency Response Commission.
• Mixture: A heterogeneous association of substances where the various individual substances retain their identities and can usually be separated by mechanical means. This definition includes solutions but does not include alloys or amalgams.
• SERC: The State Emergency Response Commission for the state in which the facility is located except when the facility is located in Indian Country, in which case, SERC means the Emergency Response Commission for the tribe under whose jurisdiction the facility is located. In the absence of a SERC for a state or an Indian tribe, the governor or the chief executive officer of the tribe, respectively, shall be the SERC. Where there is a cooperative agreement between a state and a tribe, the SERC shall be the entity identified in the agreement.
• Threshold planning quantity (TPQ): For a substance listed in Appendices A and B of 40 CFR 355, the quantity listed in the column “threshold planning quantity” for that substance.

Summary of requirements

• Aggregate (i.e., add together) the amounts of each EHS onsite at your facility to determine if the aggregate amount meets or exceeds the TPQ. Keep in mind:
  • If an EHS is present in a mixture, you must determine the quantity in the container according to 40 CFR 355.13.
  • You do not have to count an EHS in a mixture if the concentration of that EHS is less than or equal to one percent.
• Find your SERC and LEPC address information.
• Within 60 days after your facility first becomes subject to 40 CFR 355:
  • Provide notice to the LEPC (or the SERC if there is no LEPC, or the Governor if there is no SERC) of your facility representative who is the facility emergency response coordinator who will participate in the local emergency planning process; and
  • Provide notice to the SERC and the LEPC that your facility is subject to the emergency planning requirements of 40 CFR 355. If no LEPC exists when you first report, then provide an additional report to the LEPC within 30 days after such LEPC is established for the emergency planning district in which your facility is located.
• Within 30 days after any changes occurring at your facility that may be relevant to emergency planning, provide notice of the change to the LEPC.
• Promptly provide any LEPC information necessary for developing or implementing the local emergency plan, if the LEPC requests it. The LEPC may specify a time frame for this information.
• Be sure to provide the above information in writing to ensure appropriate documentation. EPA does not require a specific format, but the SERC or LEPC may request that this information be submitted in a specific format.