United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Solid Waste
and Emergency Response
(5104)
EPA 550-F98-022
December 1998
www.epa.gov/ceppo/
xvEPA
Recent Changes to the Risk
Management Program Rule
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published revisions to the Risk
Management Program rule, part of the regulations under Clean Air Act section 112(r).
These changes include shifting from Standard Industrial Classification Codes to North
American Industry Classification System codes; new data elements in the RMP; and
requirements for the submission of confidential business information.
EPA established a list of regulated
substances and thresholds and issued
Risk Management Program regulations
under section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act.
The goals of the regulations are to prevent
accidental releases of chemicals that could
cause serious harm to human health or the
environment and to reduce the severity of
releases that do occur. A central element
of this program is providing state and
local governments and the public with
information about the risk of chemical
accidents and what facilities are doing to
prevent such accidents. Covered facilities
must implement a risk management
program and submit a summary of that
program, the Risk Management Plan
(RMP), to EPA. In turn, EPA will make
the RMP available to the public,
intending that the RMP will stimulate
dialogue between industry and the public
to improve accident prevention and
emergency response practices.
Changes in the RMP Program
EPA recently changed the RMP
regulations to:
(1) Adopt a new system to classify
regulated processes;
(2) Add four mandatory and five
optional RMP data elements; and
(3) Establish specific procedures to
protect confidential business
information.
New Classification System
Section 112(r) divides covered processes
into three categories — Program 1
involves minimal requirements and
applies to processes that would have no
potential impact on the public should an
accident release occur. Processes in
Program 2 or 3 have additional
requirements based on the potential for
offsite consequences associated with the
worst-case accidental release and their
accident history. Part of the method to
determine whether Program 3 applies to a
facility involves Standard Industrial
Classification (SIC) codes.
On January 1, 1997, the U.S. government,
in cooperation with the governments of
Canada and Mexico, adopted a new
industrial classification system, the North
American Industrial Classification
System (NAICS), to replace the SIC
codes. Therefore, EPA is replacing the
nine SIC codes used to determine
Program 3 applicability with 10 NAICS
codes.
Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention Office
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New Data Elements
Companies must provide EPA with new mandatory data
elements in the registration section of the RMP:
Method to determine and description of latitude and
longitude;
CAA Title V permit number (if applicable); and
Percentage weight of a regulated toxic substance in a
mixture in the offsite consequence analysis and five-
year accident history, and;
• NAICS code for the process that had the release in
the accident history.
Companies can opt to provide EPA with the following:
• Name of the Local Emergency Planning Committee
(LEPC) for the planning district in which the facility
is located;
• Notice of a facility's designation as a Star or Merit
rating recipient under OSHA's Voluntary Protection
Program;
Public contact telephone number for the facility;
Internet homepage address; and
E-mail address of the facility or its parent company.
Confidential Business Information Claims
The Clean Air Act requires EPA to protect trade secrets,
or confidential business information (CBI), from public
disclosure. EPA has identified which data elements may
be claimed as CBI, and which data elements cannot be
claimed as CBI and has established procedures for RMP
submissions that contain CBI.
Eligibility: Certain RMP data elements (including
chemical identity and maximum quantity in a process)
can be claimed as CBI, if a facility can show that making
this information publicly available would divulge trade
secrets, either directly or through reverse engineering.
Businesses claiming CBI based on the threat of reverse
engineering must show how reverse engineering could
succeed if someone used RMP information that was
unprotected.
EPA requires facilities to substantiate all CBI claims.
Unsubstantiated claims will be denied. Only a limited
number of facilities, chemical manufacturers primarily,
are expected to claim RMP data as CBI.
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Qualifiers: To qualify for CBI protection:
• Data must not be available to the public through other
means;
• The facility must take appropriate steps to prevent
disclosure; and
• Disclosure must be likely to cause substantial harm to
the facility's competitive position.
Claims Process: To claim CBI, a facility must:
Submit a sanitized RMP that identifies each data
element, except chemical identity, claimed as CBI by
the notation "CBI" in the data field;
For chemical identity, provide a generic chemical
category or class name instead of the actual chemical
name; and
Substantiate each item claimed as CBI.
Substantiation or supporting information also may be
claimed as CBI. If all or part of the substantiation is
claimed as CBI, a sanitized version of substantiation also
must be submitted to EPA. The agency will review CBI
claims according to existing CAA regulations.
Claiming data as CBI must be done at the time of
submittal. Any material not claimed as CBI when the
RMP is submitted is considered publicly available data.
The owner, operator, or senior official must certify the
accuracy of any CBI substantiation claims.
What's Next?
In December 1998, EPA will announce a mailing address
where companies should submit their RMPs. In January,
the RMP compliance package (diskette or CD-ROM and
users manual) will be available.
For More Information...
CAA Section 112(r) Hotline
Monday - Friday, 9 am - 6 pm, EST
(800) 424-9346 or (703) 412-9810
TDD (800) 553-7672
CEPPO Home Page at http://www.epa.gov/ceppo/
Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention Office
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