EPCRA
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act
The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986 was created to help communities plan for emergencies involving hazardous substances. EPCRA requires hazardous chemical emergency planning by federal, state and local governments, Indian tribes, and industry. It also requires industry to report on the storage, use and releases of hazardous chemicals to federal, state, and local governments.
Sections 301 to 303: Emergency Planning
Local governments are required to prepare chemical emergency response plans, and to review plans at least annually. Facilities that maintain Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHS) on-site in quantities greater than corresponding threshold planning quantities must cooperate in emergency plan preparation.
Section 304. Emergency Notification
Facilities must immediately report accidental releases of EHS chemicals and “hazardous substances” in quantities greater than corresponding Reportable Quantities (RQs) defined under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to state and local officials. Information about accidental chemical releases must be available to the public.
Sections 311 and 312. Community Right-to-Know Requirements
Facilities manufacturing, processing, or storing designated hazardous chemicals must make Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) available to state and local officials and local fire departments. MSDSs describe the properties and health effects of these chemicals. Facilities must also report, to state and local officials and local fire departments, inventories of all on-site chemicals for which MSDSs exist. Information about chemical inventories at facilities and MSDSs must be available to the public.
Section 313. Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
Facilities must complete and submit a toxic chemical release inventory form (Form R) annually. Form R must be submitted for each of the over 600 TRI chemicals that are manufactured or otherwise used above the applicable threshold quantities.
Section 313. Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
Facilities must complete and submit a toxic chemical release inventory form (Form R) annually. Form R must be submitted for each of the over 600 TRI chemicals that are manufactured or otherwise used above the applicable threshold quantities.
Links
Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA)
Lists of Lists
EPA Region 4 Website
Right to Know Network
Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA EPD)
GA EPD Hazardous Site Inventory
GA EPD Emergency Response
E-Plan
CAA
Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act (CAA) is the comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources. The Risk Management Plan (RMP) Rule implements Section 112(r) of the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments. RMP requires facilities that use extremely hazardous substances to develop a Risk Management Plan. These plans must be revised and resubmitted to every five years.
CFATS
Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Security
Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Security (CFATS). A Federal rule that imposes comprehensive federal security regulations for high-risk chemical facilities. This rule establishes risk based performance standards for the security of our nation’s chemical facilities. It requires covered chemical facilities to prepare Security Vulnerability Assessments, which identify facility security vulnerabilities, and to develop and implement Site Security Plans, which include measures that satisfy the identified risk-based performance standards. It also allows certain covered chemical facilities, in specified circumstances, to submit Alternate Security Programs in lieu of a Security Vulnerability Assessment, Site Security Plan, or both.
CERCLA
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, was enacted by Congress on December 11, 1980. This law created a tax on the chemical and petroleum industries and provided broad Federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances that may endanger public health or the environment. Over five years, $1.6 billion was collected and the tax went to a trust fund for cleaning up abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. CERCLA:
- Established prohibitions and requirements concerning closed / abandoned hazardous waste sites;
- Provided for liability of persons responsible for releases of hazardous waste at these sites; and
- Established a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no responsible party could be identified.
The law authorizes two kinds of response actions:
- Short-term removals, where actions may be taken to address releases or threatened releases requiring prompt response.
- Long-term remedial response actions, that permanently and significantly reduce the dangers associated with releases or threats of releases of hazardous substances that are serious, but not immediately life threatening. These actions can be conducted only at sites listed on EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL).
CERCLA also enabled the revision of the National Contingency Plan (NCP). The NCP provided the guidelines and procedures needed to respond to releases and threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants. The NCP also established the NPL. CERCLA was amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) on October 17, 1986.
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
SARA
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act
The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) amended the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) on October 17, 1986. SARA reflected EPA’s experience in administering the complex Superfund program during its first six years and made several important changes and additions to the program. SARA:
- Stressed the importance of permanent remedies and innovative treatment technologies in cleaning up hazardous waste sites;
- Required Superfund actions to consider the standards and requirements found in other State and Federal environmental laws and regulations;
- Provided new enforcement authorities and settlement tools;
- Increased State involvement in every phase of the Superfund program;
- Increased the focus on human health problems posed by hazardous waste sites;
- Encouraged greater citizen participation in making decisions on how sites should be cleaned up;
- Increased the size of the trust fund to $8.5 billion.
SARA also required EPA to revise the Hazard Ranking System (HRS) to ensure that it accurately assessed the relative degree of risk to human health and the environment posed by uncontrolled hazardous waste sites that may be placed on the National Priorities List (NPL).
RCRA
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) gives EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from the “cradle-to-grave.” This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. RCRA also set forth a framework for the management of non-hazardous solid wastes. The 1986 amendments to RCRA enabled EPA to address environmental problems that could result from underground tanks storing petroleum and other hazardous substances.
The Federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments are the 1984 amendments to RCRA that focused on waste minimization and phasing out land disposal of hazardous waste as well as corrective action for releases. Some of the other mandates of this law include increased enforcement authority for EPA, more stringent hazardous waste management standards, and a comprehensive underground storage tank program.