Emergency Releases

Scope

Regulatory and Statutory Citations

40 CFR 302 — Designation, reportable quantities, and notification

40 CFR 355 — Emergency planning and notification

33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq. — Water pollution prevention and control

42 U.S.C. 11004 — Emergency notification

Key Definitions

CERCLA hazardous substance: means a substance defined in section 101(14) of CERCLA and listed in Table 302.4 of 40 CFR 302.4.

Environment:

• For the purposes of 40 CFR 302, means (1) the navigable waters, the waters of the contiguous zone, and the ocean waters of which the natural resources are under the exclusive management authority of the United States under the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, and (2) any other surface water, ground water, drinking water supply, land surface or subsurface strata, or ambient air within the United States or under the jurisdiction of the United States.
• For the purposes of 40 CFR 355, includes water, air, and land and the interrelationship that exists among and between water, air, and land and all living things.

Extremely hazardous substance (EHS): means a substance listed in Appendices A and B of 40 CFR Part 355 .

Facility:

• For the purposes of 40 CFR 302, means (1) any building, structure, installation, equipment, pipe or pipeline (including any pipe into a sewer or publicly owned treatment works), well, pit, pond, lagoon, impoundment, ditch, landfill, storage container, motor vehicle, rolling stock, or aircraft, or (2) any site or area where a hazardous substance has been deposited, stored, disposed of, or placed, or otherwise come to be located; but does not include any consumer product in consumer use or any vessel.
• For the purposes of 40 CFR 355, means 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). Facility includes manmade structures, as well as all natural structures in which chemicals are purposefully placed or removed through human means such that it functions as a containment structure for human use. For purposes of emergency release notification, the term includes motor vehicles, rolling stock, and aircraft.

Hazardous chemical: means any hazardous chemical as defined under 29 CFR 1910.1200(c), except that this term does not include: (1) Any food, food additive, color additive, drug, or cosmetic regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. (2) Any substance present as a solid in any manufactured item to the extent exposure to the substance does not occur under normal conditions of use. (3) Any substance to the extent it is used: (i) For personal, family, or household purposes, or is present in the same form and concentration as a product packaged for distribution and use by the general public. Present in the same form and concentration as a product packaged for distribution and use by the general public means a substance packaged in a similar manner and present in the same concentration as the substance when packaged for use by the general public, whether or not it is intended for distribution to the general public or used for the same purpose as when it is packaged for use by the general public; (ii) In a research laboratory or hospital or other medical facility under the direct supervision of a technically qualified individual; or (iii) In routine agricultural operations or is a fertilizer held for sale by a retailer to the ultimate customer.

Hazardous substance: means any substance designated pursuant to 40 CFR part 302.

LEPC: means the Local Emergency Planning Committee appointed by the State Emergency Response Commission.

Mixture: means, for the purposes of 40 CFR part 355, a heterogeneous association of substances where the various individual substances retain their identities and can usually be separated by mechanical means. This definition includes, for the purposes of Part 355, solutions but does not include alloys or amalgams.

Release: means:

• For the purposes of 40 CFR 355, any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles) of any hazardous chemical, EHS, or CERCLA hazardous substance.
• For the purposes of 40 CFR 372, any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles) of any toxic chemical.

Reportable quantity (RQ): means:

• For any CERCLA hazardous substance, the quantity established in Table 302.4 of 40 CFR 302.4, for such substance.
• For any EHS, the quantity established in Appendices A and B of 40 CFR 355 for such substance. Unless and until superseded by regulations establishing a reportable quantity for newly listed EHSs or CERCLA hazardous substances, a weight of 1 pound shall be the reportable quantity.

Safety Data Sheet (SDS): means the sheet required to be developed under 29 CFR 1910.1200(g). This term means the same as the term “material safety data sheet or MSDS.”

SERC: means 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): means, for a substance listed in Appendices A and B of 40 CFR part 355 , the quantity listed in the column “threshold planning quantity” for that substance.

Summary of Requirements

• Determine if your facility’s chemicals are listed under 40 CFR 302.4 or 40 CFR 355 Appendices A and B.
• Understand which types of releases are exempt under Parts 302 and 355.
• When there’s non-exempted release of an RQ or greater quantity of a substance within a 24-hour period from your vessel or facility, and the substance is either (a) on the list of CERCLA hazardous substances (40 CFR 302.4), or (b) on both the list of CERCLA hazardous substances and the list of EHSs (40 CFR 355 Appendices A and B), then:
  1. Notify the National Response Center (NRC) immediately per 40 CFR 302; and
  2. If the release did not occur during transportation or from storage incident to transportation, notify the SERC and LEPC immediately and provide written follow-up as soon as practicable after the release, per Part 355; and
  3. If the release occurs during transportation or from storage incident to transportation, you may meet the notification requirements of Part 355 by notifying the 911 operator (or in the absence of a 911 emergency telephone number, the operator). No written follow-up is required.
• When there’s a non-exempted release of an RQ or greater quantity of a substance within a 24-hour period from your facility, and the substance is on the list of EHSs but not on the list of CERCLA hazardous substances, then:
  1. If the release did not occur during transportation or from storage incident to transportation, notify the SERC and LEPC immediately and provide written follow-up as soon as practicable after the release, per 40 CFR 355; and
  2. If the release occurs during transportation or from storage incident to transportation, you may meet the notification requirements of Part 355 by notifying the 911 operator (or in the absence of a 911 emergency telephone number, the operator). No written follow-up is required.
• Be aware that the word “immediately” generally means within 15 minutes. Delays in making the notifications should not exceed 15 minutes after the person has knowledge of the release. Immediate notification requires shorter delays whenever possible. After 15 minutes, the penalties may begin. Also, the failure to know what could have been known in the exercise of due diligence amounts to knowledge in the eyes of the law.
• Understand the reduced notification requirements for releases that are continuous and stable in quantity and rate.