D.R. Kuespert, Ph.D.
Director, AcuTech Consulting National Capital Operations

November 5, 1999 -- Washington, DC

Congress, in Public Law 106-40, directed EPA to delete propane and other flammable fuels from the Risk Management Plan regulation, trumping the temporary administrative stay EPA announced earlier this year. Propane and other flammable chemicals are still required to comply with the regulation if they are used for nonfuel uses or are listed on the RMP toxics list. The EPA is drafting a rule to align RMP with PL 106-40. The rule will do no interpretation of the law, so they're going to issue it as a direct final rule (no public comment). This was done recently with the last minute changes to the RMP Rule for flammable liquids in May of 1999.

EPA is attempting to regulate the fuels community through other means. The new law directs the agency to actively participate in the consensus standards process, including the committee for NFPA 58 (LP-Gas Code). At the recent National Fire Protection Association committee meeting, EPA proposed changes to the standard covering most of the requirements of the RMP regulation.

Many of these changes, including a requirement for written operating and maintenance procedures, were accepted. The "fire safety analysis" already required must now be written, be conducted every 5 years, and the results made available to the public upon request.

The public review process (required for attaining American National Standards Institute certification for NFPA 58) is under way. Then the requirements will flow into legal codes around 2001 as the updated standard is adopted by local and State legislatures. We will post the public review version of this standard on AcuSafe as soon as it is available.

EPA is also concentrating on General Duty Clause issues for fuels. The Clean Air Act includes a general duty to operate safely regardless of the chemical or amount used, similar to the general duty requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Whether a facility could be cited for failing to follow the new NFPA 58, which will include retroactive requirements (applying to facilities already in existence), even if the local law does not require compliance, is an open question.