The Environmental Protection Agency Friday announced final adoption of a rule it said would help keep at-risk communities safer from chemical accidents. EPA Administrator Michael Regan said it strengthens safety requirements for communities vulnerable to chemical accidents. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI |
License Photo
March 1 (UPI) -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced final adoption of a rule meant to better protect at-risk communities from chemical accidents, especially those near industry facilities with high accident rates.
The "Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention Rule" aims for stronger prevention, preparedness and transparency, requiring facilities to perform safer technologies and alternatives analysis and in some cases implement reliable safeguard measures when possible.
"Many communities that are vulnerable to chemical accidents are in overburdened and underserved areas of the country," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in a statement. "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."
This new rule will apply to all 11,740 EPA Risk Management Program facilities nationwide. Accidental chemical releases from those facilities, the EPA said, cost more than $540 million a year.
"There are approximately 131 million people living within three miles of RMP facilities, of which approximately 20 million identify as Black or African American, 32 million identify as Hispanic or Latino, and 44 million earn less than or equal to twice the poverty level," the EPA statement said Friday.
Among the things the new finalized rule will require are Implementing a process to allow employees and their representatives to anonymously report specific unaddressed hazards and Increasing transparency by providing access to RMP facility information for communities nearby.
It will require third-party compliance audits and root cause analysis incident investigations for facilities that have had prior accidents.
The rule tightens restrictions that originated from an Obama-era rule put in place after an explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas in 2013 killed 15 people but were rolled back by former President Donald Trump's administration in 2019.
The EPA under Trump reduced rules requiring companies to publicly provide information about the chemicals stored at their facilities, noting the cause of the fire was arson.
It also reduced measures companies were required to take to prevent accidents.
