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AcuSafe Feature: Chemical Safety Act

• The Act applies to both accidental and criminal/terrorist acts (including theft of chemicals) at chemical facilities. 
• The Act would cover fixed facilities (as covered by RMP Rule), storage facilities, and transportation of covered substances of concern. Substance of concern are those hazardous substances and pollutants listed in CERCLA , plus petroleum and any petroleum fraction. 
• Within 1 year of passage, the EPA Administrator, the Attorney General, and other state and local emergency response officials shall publish a list of high priority categories of combinations of chemicals and sources of concern. There are a number of factors in the law that describe how to choose the high priority categories (level of risk, proximity to populations, effects on infrastructure, threats to national security, etc.)
• Within 1 year of high priority regulations, regulations shall be promulgated to require action by facilities including safer design and maintenance of the chemical source, to prevent, control, and minimize the potential consequences of an accidental release or a criminal release of a covered substance of concern. 
• The Act contains a general duty clause (OSHA's current GDC is referenced) that requires owners of high priority category facilities to identify the hazards, ensure safer design and maintenance, and limit the consequences of releases. This general duty would also cover prevention of releases, including security of facilities.

In addition to the above issues, the issue of safer design and maintenance includes, with respect to a chemical source that is within a designated high priority category, implementation, to the extent practicable, of the practices of:

• preventing or reducing the vulnerability of the chemical source to a release of a covered substance of concern through use of inherently safer technology; 
• reducing any vulnerability of the chemical source to a release of a covered substance of concern that remains after taking the appropriate measures through use of well-maintained secondary containment, control, or mitigation equipment; 
• reducing any vulnerability of the chemical source to a release of a covered substance of concern that remains after taking the measures described above by making the chemical source highly resistant to intruders and by improving security and employee training, including personnel background checks.
• reducing the potential consequences of any vulnerability of the chemical source to a release of a covered substance of concern through the use of buffer zones between the chemical source and surrounding populations (including buffer zones between the chemical source and residences, schools, hospitals, senior centers, shopping centers and malls, sports and entertainment arenas, public roads and transportation routes, and other population centers)

This Act will mandate use of inherently safer technologies, which is a concept that was rejected by EPA in the final RMP Rule. What is considered "inherent" and "safer" is open to wide interpretation. Inherently safer technologies include input substitution, catalyst or carrier substitution, process redesign (including reuse or recycling of a substance of concern), product reformulation, procedure simplification, and technology modification so as to:

• use less hazardous substances or benign substances
• use a smaller quantity of covered substances of concern
• reduce hazardous pressures or temperatures
• reduce the possibility and potential consequences of equipment failure and human error
• improve inventory control and chemical use efficiency
• reduce or eliminate storage, transportation, handling, disposal, and discharge of substances of concern. 

Record keeping has been allowed in the required regulations but not specified in the Act. All records are public unless subject to national security laws and regulations, or are trade secrets.

The Act contains provisions for abatement of operations (courts action required) and right of entry, for administrative orders by the Attorney General, and for civil and criminal penalties, and is not an un-funded mandate - appropriations allowed, but not specified in current version.