On March 11, 2024, the EPA’s final rule amending the Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations was published in the Federal Register.

“As major and other serious and concerning RMP accidents continue to occur, the record shows and EPA believes that this final rule will help further protect human health and the environment from chemical hazards through advancement of process safety based on lessons learned,” the final rule states. “These amendments seek to improve chemical process safety; assist in planning, preparedness, and response to [RMP]-reportable accidents; and improve public awareness of chemical hazards at regulated sources.”

“Many communities that are vulnerable to chemical accidents are in overburdened and underserved areas of the country,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in an Agency news release. “This final rule is a critical piece of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to advancing environmental justice by putting in place stronger safety requirements for industrial facilities and new measures to protect communities from harm.”

Regan signed the Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention (SCCAP) Rule on February 27, 2024, to further protect vulnerable communities from chemical accidents, especially those living near facilities in industry sectors with high accident rates. This finalized the RMP revisions.

What is changing?

The final rule includes new safeguards such as identifying safer technologies and chemical alternatives, requiring implementation of safeguard measures in certain cases, more thorough incident investigations, and third-party auditing. Final amendments to the rule include:

• Requiring a safer technologies and alternatives analysis and, in some cases, implementation of reliable safeguard measures for certain facilities in industry sectors with high accident rates;
• Advancing employee participation, training, and opportunities for employee decision-making in facility accident prevention—for example:
• Reiterating the allowance of partial or complete process shutdowns in the event of a potential catastrophic release, and
• Implementing a process to allow employees and their representatives to anonymously report specific unaddressed hazards.
• Requiring third-party compliance audits and root cause analysis incident investigation for facilities that have had a prior accident;
• Enhancing facility planning and preparedness efforts to strengthen emergency response by ensuring chemical release information is shared with local responders in a timely manner and a community notification system is in place to warn the community of any impending release;
• Emphasizing the requirement for regulated facilities to evaluate risks of natural hazards and climate change, including any associated loss of power; and
• Increased transparency by providing access to RMP facility information for nearby communities.

In publishing the rule, the EPA also created a query tool (Risk Management Public Data Tool) that allows community members to access RMP information. The Agency plans additional updates to the tool, including allowing the visualization of climate change hazards.

Compliance dates

This final rule is effective May 10, 2024.

The EPA is requiring regulated sources to comply with:

• New safer technologies and alternatives analysis (STAA), incident investigation root cause analysis, third-party compliance audit, employee participation, emergency response public notification, exercise evaluation reports, and information availability provisions by May 10, 2027;
• The revised emergency response field exercise frequency provision by March 15, 2027, or within 10 years of the date of an emergency response field exercise conducted between March 15, 2017, and August 31, 2022; and
• Updates and resubmission of RMPs with new and revised data elements by May 10, 2028.