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Chemical accidents can occur at businesses of any size. Many businesses handle propane, ammonia, chlorine, and other chemicals that could pose a risk to the surrounding community if an accident were to occur. When Congress passed the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, Section 112(r) required EPA to publish regulations and guidance for chemical accident prevention at facilities that use substances that pose the greatest risk of harm from accidental releases.
Subsequently, EPA established chemical accident prevention requirements at 40 CFR 68 for businesses of all sizes that use certain listed regulated flammable and/or toxic substances. The regulation is known as the Risk Management Plan (RMP) rule. Owners and operators of a facility (considered a stationary source) that manufactures, uses, stores, or otherwise handles more than a threshold quantity of a listed regulated substance in a process must implement a set of hazard assessment, accident prevention, and emergency response elements and submit a single written RMP to EPA or the state implementing agency for all covered processes at the facility. The submitted information helps local fire, police, and emergency response personnel (who must prepare for and respond to chemical accidents) and is useful to citizens in understanding the chemical hazards in communities.
An owner or operator of a stationary source that has more than a threshold quantity of a regulated substance in a process, as determined under 68.115, must comply with the requirements of Part 68.
The regulations do not apply to transportation, including storage incident to transportation. However, transportation containers used for storage not incident to transportation and transportation containers connected to equipment at a stationary source are considered part of the stationary source and are potentially covered by the regulations.
Determine the following: