The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, Washington, DC; www.epa.gov) said it is tweaking its Risk Management Program (RMP) to better protect people living near plants producing or using chemicals, especially facilities with high accident rates.

All 11,740 plants nationwide that are regulated by the RMP will be covered by the enhanced regulations, the EPA said, adding that a subgroup of facilities that pose the greatest risk to communities will face stricter standards.

All in all, the agency boasts that its updated Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention Rule will include “the most protective safety provisions for chemical facilities in history” and will contain stiffer mandates for prevention, preparedness, and public transparency.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who since taking office in 2022 has wrapped concerns for the environment together with better protection of communities in close vicinity to or downwind of chemical plants, said the final rules will also offer assistance in planning for and responding to accidents, as well as increase public awareness of chemical hazards at regulated sources.

To reduce the frequency and severity of accidents, the EPA also plans to enhance the responsibilities of plant owners, in some cases requiring them to employ safer technologies and to implement more reliable safeguards against accidents.

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Other provisions call for involving workers in company safety decisions, optimising their training, and increasing access to facility information for nearby communities. Additionally, employees and their unions would be emboldened to anonymously report specific unaddressed hazards.

As a means of emergency response, the EPA said plant owners in future will be obliged to ensure that chemical release information is shared with local responders in a timely manner, and that a community notification system is in place to warn of any impending chemical release. 

A more unusual – and potentially forward-looking – provision would oblige the owners of regulated facilities to evaluate risks of natural hazards and climate change, including any associated loss of power.

For facilities that have had a prior accident, the EPA plans to require third-party compliance audits and root cause analysis incident investigations.

The US environmental watchdog estimates that accidental releases from RMP facilities cost society more than USD 540 mn annually. Most endangered by the accidents, it said, are the estimated 131 mn people living within three miles of the plants, who have income at or near the poverty level.

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To illustrate the consequences a chemical accident can have, both for the local population and the plant owner, the EPA points to the November 2019 explosion and fire at C4 specialist TPC Group’s (Houston, Texas; www.tpcgrp.com) site at Port Neches, Texas.

This required the evacuation of 50,000 people – a record number – and caused USD 153 mn in offsite property damage. It also led the company and several of its subsidiaries to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, from which they later emerged.

Had the provisions currently being finalised been in effect prior to the accident, the facility would have been required to perform a safer technologies and alternatives analysis and implement at least one safeguard measure, which may have mitigated or prevented the accident from occurring, the EPA said.