National 112r/EPCRA Conference Denver, CO John Higgins and Ellen Banner, Region 2

National 112r/EPCRA ConferenceDenver, CO

John Higgins and Ellen Banner, Region 2

October 9, 2014

The Effective Chemical Risk Management Pilot Project, Region 2 (ECRM2)

• Background • Meetings• Outreach Events• Sub Work Groups• Outputs• SOPs• Coordinated Inspections• Discussion

Overview

• April 17, 2013 - an ammonium nitrate explosion occurred at the West Fertilizer Company in West, Texas. Fifteen people were killed, more than 160 were injured, and more than 150 buildings were damaged or destroyed.

• August 1, 2013 - President Obama signed an Executive Order (EO 13650) to improve chemical facility safety and security.

Background

• Deploy region-based pilot program including EPA, OSHA, Department of Homeland Security to:– validate best practices– test innovative methods for interagency collaboration using facility

information, stakeholder outreach, inspection planning, joint inspection efforts.

– develop integrated standard operating procedures for a unified Federal approach for identifying and responding to risks in chemical facilities (including during pre-inspection, inspection execution, post-inspection, and post-accident investigation activities), incident reporting and response procedures, enforcement, and collection, storage, and use of facility information.

Executive Order EO 13650 Regional Pilot Program

• July 30, 2013 (NYC) - Kickoff with RAs & State Commissioners (20+ Attending Agencies)

• September 18, 2013 (Edison) – Working Group• November 19, 2013 (Edison) – Working Group & stakeholder

listening sessions – NGOs & Industry• January 14, 2014 (Pomona, NY) – Working Group & 2 NYS

Counties (Rockland and Orange)• March 25, 2014 (Edison) – Working Group• May 20, 2014 (Edison) – Working Group

Meetings

Each meeting was preceded by a conference call the month prior. Meeting agendas and summaries are available on the website.

• Jun 27, 2013 - NJ First Responder meeting in Middlesex County, NJ

• Dec 20, 2013 - New York State Fire Administrators in Montour Falls, NY

• Feb 5, 2014 - National Listening Session in Newark, NJ.

Outreach Events in Region 2

• First Responder, Best Practices, and Challenges

• SERC/LEPC, Best Practices, and Challenges • Tier 2 Form Content, Best Practices, and

Challenges • High Risk Facilities/Chemicals • Data Information Sharing

5 Subgroups

• Questionnaire: August-September 2013• Workplan: September 2013• Websites (Private & Exclusive): August – June 2013

– Private (must be registered): http://www.epaosc.org/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=8769– Exclusive (includes OCA data): http://www.epaosc.org/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=8909

• Formation of 5 Subgroups: September 2013• January-June 2014 Inspection Coordination:

– Coordinated Inspections– Top 10 Facility flags for each Agency– Agency One Pagers on Inspection/Enforcement Process– Collaboration on targeting and conducting routine RMP inspections

• April-June 2014 Nonfiler Compliance Initiatives:– ECRM 2 EPCRA Nonfiler Initiative in NYS & NJ– Followup to RMP\CFATS National Nonfiler Initiative

• Standard Operating Procedures: May 2014• Multi-Agency Inspector Guidance• LEPC Fact Sheet (under development)

Accomplishments

• Region 2 Regional Response Team (RRT) – Change in participation to include inspection and enforcement programs

• Improving Coordination with Federal and State Agencies on Programs, Roles, and Contacts – Getting to Know You 1. Questionnaire

2. Top 10 Facility flags for each Agency

3. Agency One Pagers on Inspection/Enforcement Process

4. Multi-Agency Inspector Guidance (condensed version of 2&3 under development)

5. ppt summaries, excel details, word documents on website for Items 1-3

• Enforcement Initiative identified EPCRA 311/312 violations

Standard Operating Procedures (1/3)

Completed:

• Sustainability:– Routine inspection collaboration (ppt on web)– Coordinated Inspections (ppt and excel details on web)– Monthly phone calls– Semi-annual meetings

• Cross-Cutting Issues between Sub-groups:– Mapping and other GIS tools for displaying potential facility impact to

downstream drinking water intakes (ppt on web)– Providing facility information to first responders. – Conducting facility and community exercises at RMP facilities

• Inter-Agency Inspection Information, Data Requests, and Database Access• Inspection Referrals• Revised Inspection Protocol – inspector will check on the arrival of new

chemicals to determine compliance with 90 day reporting requirements and program office will continue to work with SERCs and LEPCs to enhance EPCRA data availability.

Standard Operating Procedures (2/3)

Continuing:

• Incident Commander and Hazardous Material Supervisor Training

• Approach for Specific HAZWOPER Training Standard • Evaluation of Work Products - tabletop exercise protocol to examine

the effectiveness of the SOPs after an incident

• First Responders Guide to “Subject Matter Experts” – Single Point of Contact for Facility Chemical Information

• LEPC Best Practice Implementation and Support• Outreach to Regulated Industry - Concerning the “Emergency

Contact” listed on the Annual Tier II Form and prompt reporting of new chemicals.

• Joint Drills and Exercises

Standard Operating Procedures (3/3)

Planned:

• Status of Eplan– funding concern – with no current Federal support the system is

currently reliant on user fees in many states. If users balk at the fees, the completeness of tier 2 data may decline.

• Keeping all stakeholders involved– USCG & NYS Dept. of Ag. did not engage in High Risk Subgroup

• Implementation– Monthly or quarterly inspection group calls?

• Communication– How will ECRM guidance be funneled down to inspectors?– How to reach building and fire inspectors?

• SERC and LEPC Inactivity• Joint exercises at chemical facilities

Unresolved Issues

Lesson Already Learned

• R2 near miss – firefighters responding to recent fire at RMP facility parked response vehicles on concrete pad covering an underground isopentane tank.

• Owner shooed responders from hazard.• Incident demonstrates need for exercises at RMP facilities.• R2 RMP Pre-inspection letter revised to stress EPA review of

coordination of the facility emergency response plan will be more rigorous than in past and will include LEPC involvement.

It could happen here!

• Challenges of joint inspections with other agencies:– EPA - Enforcement confidentiality, inspector credentials, h&s certifications – DHS- Not desired– OSHA - Resources and statutory deadline– NYS DEC - Authority & security

• Challenges of joint inspections with Non Government Organizations:– EPA – 17c + facility willingness – DHS- Confidentiality– OSHA - Only union/employee reps would be allowed– PHMSA – Resources– NJDEP TSCA - TBD- benefit?, purpose?, logistics?, qualifications?– NJ DCA – Not practical– NYS DEC - Authorities & Site Acceptance

Highlights of Questionnaire responses on joint inspections

• Single lead agency + interested observer agencies (NJDEP & OSHA could not participate as observers where they had authority)

• Focus on learning how other agencies inspect• EPA developed list through email exchanges• For completed inspections without actionable

violations, inspection reports were loaded onto website

Coordinated Inspection Concept

• Toll manufacturing facilities (no SIC):– Used a commercial marketing website marketing

• Ammonium nitrate facilities (multiple CAS):– Joined various Eplan downloads in excel– Only one facility filed for storing solid AN (inspection

showed switch to liquid form)• 2 RMP High Risk facilities in NJ previously inspected by EPA

were selected for EPA to observe NJDEP & OSHA inspections• Lists were exchanged through exclusive website (part of the

OSC web page)

FY14 Coordinated Inspection List Process

Coordinated Inspection Results

St FacilityName FacilityType Inspection Type Inspection Outcome Lead Agency EPA Inspectors Observing Agencies

Inspection Date County

NJ Ames Advanced Materials Corp

AN storage facility- Ferro on Eplan list

General Duty Clause (GDC) inspection

EPA Ellen Banner Dwayne Harrington

NJDEP 4/23/14 MIDDLESEX

NJ ASHLAND - formerly HERCULES INCORPORATED -

RMP HiRisk Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act routine inspection

NJDEP Francesco Maimone Ellen Banner

EPA 3/18-21/2014 MIDDLESEX

NJ American Spraytech, LLC

OSHA & EPA HiRisk PSM routine inspection OSHA - Khara Brown; Patricia

Dwayne Harrington EPA 4/21/2014 MIDDLESEX

NY Ames Goldsmith Corp 21 Roger St.

AN storage facility - related to Ames/Ferro in NJ

GDC EPA Francesco Maimone Ellen Banner

EPA, NYSDEC

4/9/2014 WARREN

NY CardinalHealth NEDC AN storage facility GDC EPA Ellen Banner DHS, Orange County

5/16/14 ORANGE

NY Josh Lowenstein & Sons Paint & Pigments NYC RMP facility inspection

NYCDEP Francesco Maimone EPA 5/7/2014 QUEENS

NJ CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES

AN storage facility GDC EPA Dwayne Harrington DHS, NJDEP

6/10/2014 CUMBERLAND

NJ Veckridge Chemical Company

RMP Invalid Paper filer GDC EPA NJDEP

Francesco Maimone NYCDEP 6/17/2014 HUDSON

• 3 toll manufacturing facilities dismissed as candidates– small amount of chemicals & safe operations observed during EPCRA

inspection

• 4 Ammonium nitrate facilities inspected but no safety concerns were identified– no agricultural facility id’ed in r2 with solid form of Ammonium

Nitrate

• EPA observations of OSHA PSM & NJDEP TCPA inspections of High Risk RMP facilities were successful in building bridges between the agencies– observing another inspector during an inspection– having an opportunity to discuss each other’s programs– sharing information

FY14 Coordinated Inspections Summary

• Facilities with recent chemical accidents• Facilities storing pools chemicals such as

sodium hypochlorite• Metal platers• Specialty Gas Facilities < RMP Thresholds• Facilities that are regulated by both EPA’s

RMP rule and the DHS Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS)

FY15 Plan for Coordinated Inspections

Discussion and Questions

ECRM2