Long-awaited chemical safety rule finalized
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The federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board on Wednesday released its new rule that requires an owner or operator of a chemical facility to report any accidental chemical releases to the board for investigation.
The long-awaited rule, which follows a process that began in 2004 when the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general called for the board to create incident reporting requirements, will ensure that the “CSB receives rapid, accurate reports of any accidental release that meets established statutory criteria,” according to a summary.
“The accidental release reports will require only information that is already known or should be available to an owner/operator soon after an accidental release,” states the rule, which will go into effect 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
The final rule calls for an eight-hour reporting window “to provide the owner/operator more time to gather the necessary information,” the rule states, adding that the “required information is also limited in scope to critical information” for the board to make “informed decisions about its jurisdiction, interagency coordination, and deployment decision-making.”
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