On December 20, 2000, Governor Ridge signed into law the first amendments to the Hazardous Material Emergency Planning and Response Act since its initial enactment in 1990. The act will take effect on February 18, 2001. There are a number of changes that will affect businesses in the Commonwealth, including some which are more restrictive than the federal requirements in the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act, sometimes referred to as SARA TitleIII ("EPCRA"). The changes are summarized as follows:
A new entity called a "Mentoring Council" is authorized at the local level. It is defined as a "voluntary organization of companies which handles, manufactures, uses or distributes chemicals and other interested groups, formed in conjunction with a Local Emergency Planning Committee with the primary purpose of improving safe work practices." If your Local Emergency Planning Committee decides to appoint a Mentoring Council, you probably should try to get a seat on the Council.
The following new requirements must be included in the Comprehensive Emergency Response Plans developed by each Local Emergency Planning Committee:
a) the latitude and longitude of each covered facility;
b) the vulnerability radius for each Extremely Hazardous Substance that meets Threshold Planning Quantity requirements;
c) a list of all appropriate response organizations that would likely be called to the facility in an emergency;
d) the location, quantity and type of any Extremely Hazardous Substance that meets the Threshold Planning Quantity;
e) a standard list of information to be collected for each emergency in the initial notification system; and
f) a statement the Local Emergency Planning Committee will review results of emergency response activities and hazardous materials exercises to incorporate relevant adjustments to the Plan.
For no readily apparent reason, the new Act makes the reporting threshold a uniform 10,000 pounds for all Hazardous Chemicals as defined by OSHA, for reporting purposes under §§311 and 312 of EPCRA. This is both more and less restrictive than federal law, which makes the threshold quantity 500 pounds (or whatever amount is established by EPA) for Extremely Hazardous Substances, and 75,000 gallons and 100,000 gallons for gasoline and diesel fuel respectively, if in underground storage tanks at retail stations.
The Legislature has added the requirement that owners or operators of facilities report information concerning any employee who required medical treatment as the result of an emergency. The provision is included in a sentence establishing threshold reporting requirements, but does not state to whom this information is to be reported.
The owner or operator of a facility must now provide to health care providers the appropriate MSDS for a hazardous or extremely hazardous substance necessary for appropriate medical treatment for an employee exposed to it. EPCRA limits this requirement to medical emergencies.
The Act reduces the period from 30 days to 5 days that rolling stock containing Extremely Hazardous Substances above the Threshold Planning Quantity must be in the county before it is subject to notification and emergency response plan requirements.
Owners and operators of facilities that manufacture, produce, use, transfer, store, supply or distribute any hazardous materials must now:
a) provide the notice and information required by 302(c) and 303(d) of SARA Title III to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Council and the Local Emergency Planning Committee within five business days after an Extremely Hazardous Substance is first present at the facility. (This is reduced from the 60 days allowed by EPCRA);
b) provide MSDS or chemical lists and inventory forms to the Department of Labor and Industry, the Local Emergency Planning Committee and the fire department within five business days after the hazardous chemical is first present in the facility. (This is reduced from the three months allowed by EPCRA); and
c) submit a revised MSDS to the Local Emergency Planning Committee within five business days of discovering any significant new information on a hazardous material. This is reduced from the three months allowed by EPCRA. These five day notification requirements are obviously ridiculous.
By law now the notice of a release to PEMA will fulfill the requirements in other state laws and SARA Title III that DEP is to be notified. Instead, PEMA is to notify DEP.
A provision has been added that allows citizens to enforce the Act if the Attorney General, the Office of General Counsel, or the local county or municipality have not brought an action within 180 days after the alleged violator is notified of the alleged violation.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Robert W. Thomson at (412) 562-1695 or email thomsonrw@bipc.com. Bob is a member of the Environmental Law Group at Buchanan Ingersoll's Pittsburgh office and the author of the chapter entitled "Federal EPCRA and Pennsylvania Hazardous Material Emergency Planning and Response Act" in the Pennsylvania Environmental Law and Practice book published by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.