83 FR 34967 - Accidental Release Prevention Requirements: Risk Management Programs Under the Clean Air Act; Notification of Data Availability and Extension of Comment Period

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 142 (July 24, 2018)

EPA is providing notice that it is supplementing the record for the proposed Risk Management Program (RMP) Reconsideration rule published on May 30, 2018. We have placed into the rulemaking docket the November 2017 version of the RMP database containing risk management plans submitted to EPA. EPA used this version to support analysis of changes in the RMP reporting facility universe discussed in the Regulatory Impact Analysis of the proposed Reconsideration rule. To afford the public an opportunity to comment on the updated RMP database and its impacts on the proposed Reconsideration rule, EPA is extending the comment period for the proposed rule.

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 142 (Tuesday, July 24, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 34967-34968]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-15715]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 68

[EPA-HQ-OEM-2015-0725; FRL-9981-07-OLEM]
RIN 2050-AG95


Accidental Release Prevention Requirements: Risk Management 
Programs Under the Clean Air Act; Notification of Data Availability and 
Extension of Comment Period

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposed rule; notification of data availability and extension 
of comment period.

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SUMMARY: EPA is providing notice that it is supplementing the record 
for the proposed Risk Management Program (RMP) Reconsideration rule 
published on May 30, 2018. We have placed into the rulemaking docket 
the November 2017 version of the RMP database containing risk 
management plans submitted to EPA. EPA used this version to support 
analysis of changes in the RMP reporting facility universe discussed in 
the Regulatory Impact Analysis of the proposed Reconsideration rule. To 
afford the public an opportunity to comment on the updated RMP database 
and its impacts on the proposed Reconsideration rule, EPA is extending 
the comment period for the proposed rule.

DATES: The comment period for the proposed rule published on May 30, 
2018 at 83 FR 24850, is extended. Comments and additional material must 
be received on or before August 23, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments and additional materials, identified by 
docket EPA-HQ-OEM-2015-0725 to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from 
Regulations.gov. The EPA may publish any comment received to its public 
docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be 
Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose 
disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, 
video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written 
comment is considered the official comment and should include 
discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA will generally not 
consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary 
submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For 
additional submission methods, the full EPA public comment policy, 
information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance 
on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James Belke, United States 
Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Land and Emergency 
Management, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW (Mail Code 5104A), Washington, DC 
20460; telephone number: (202) 564-8023; email address: 
[email protected], or Kathy Franklin, United States Environmental 
Protection Agency, Office of Land and Emergency Management, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW (Mail Code 5104A), Washington, DC 20460; telephone 
number: (202) 564-7987; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Detailed background information describing 
the proposed RMP Reconsideration rulemaking may be found in a 
previously published document: Accidental Release Prevention 
Requirements: Risk Management Programs Under the Clean Air Act; 
Proposed Rule (83 FR 24850, May 30, 2018).

I. What action is EPA taking?

    During the week of July 9, 2018 several stakeholders notified EPA 
that we had failed to provide in the rulemaking docket for the proposed 
RMP Reconsideration rule (referred to herein as the Reconsideration 
Proposal) the risk management plan data we used to compare the number 
of facilities reporting in the February 2015 version of the RMP 
database to those reporting in the November 2017 version. This analysis 
of the change in the number of facilities was presented in the 
Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) for the Reconsideration Proposal. 
Stakeholders requested that EPA supply the risk management plan data 
used in the RIA that supported the comparison analysis. They also 
requested that EPA extend the comment period for the Reconsideration 
Proposal for 60 days to allow the public to access and review the data 
so that they may have enough time to assess the impacts of the updated 
data on the proposal and provide comments.\1\
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    \1\ Earthjustice first informed EPA about the failure to place 
the November 2017 version in the docket in an email dated July 9, 
2018. Between July 10th through close of business on July 11th, EPA 
received requests for a 60 day-extension of the comment period from, 
or on behalf of, the: Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, 
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the Union of Concerned 
Scientists, Coming Clean, Air Alliance Houston, Coalition For A Safe 
Environment, Clean Air Council, Sierra Club, the United 
Steelworkers, the United Autoworkers, and the States of New York, 
Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
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    As a result, in this supplemental action, EPA is providing 
additional information in the docket for the proposed action. On July 
11, 2018, EPA placed into the docket the November 2017 version of the 
database containing risk management plans submitted by RMP facilities. 
This database does not contain the restricted offsite consequence 
analysis (OCA) data. This database (Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OEM-2015-0725-
0989) consists of a digital versatile disc (DVD) containing the RMP 
database as a 1.4 gigabyte size file in .mdb format. The database file 
is too large to be provided online through regulations.gov. To view or 
receive a copy of the DVD, contact the EPA Docket Center, Public 
Reading Room, as follows: In person/writing: Environmental Protection 
Agency, Docket Center, 1301 Constitution Ave. NW, 2822T, Room 3334, 
Washington, DC 20004, telephone: 202-566-1744, fax: 202-566-9744, 
email: [email protected]. EPA will address all comments 
received on the supplemental data being provided and any comments 
submitted in response to this action in our final rulemaking action. 
EPA is extending the comment period for Reconsideration Proposal 
through August 23, 2018.

II. What is the background for this action?

    On May 30, 2018, EPA proposed a rule (Reconsideration Proposal) 
that seeks comment on various proposed changes to the final RMP 
Amendments rule (Amendments rule) issued on

[[Page 34968]]

January 13, 2017 (82 FR 4594). The comment period for the 
Reconsideration Proposal was to end on July 30, 2018. The 2017 
Amendments rule amended 40 CFR part 68, the chemical accident 
prevention provisions under section 112(r) of the CAA (42 U.S.C. 
7412(r)).
    The RIA for the Amendments rule utilized a February 2015 version of 
the RMP database to compile the universe of RMP facilities. The 
database reflected that approximately 12,500 facilities had filed 
current risk management plans with EPA and could have been potentially 
affected by the Amendments final rule. EPA had provided in the 
rulemaking docket, the non-OCA version of the risk management plan data 
submitted by facilities as of February 2015. (Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OEM-
2015-0725-0311). For the RIA for the Reconsideration Proposal (Docket 
ID: EPA-HQ-OEM-2015-0725-0907), EPA compared the February 2015 version 
of the risk management plan database to the most recent version of the 
database from November 2017 for the purposes of understanding and 
comparing how the universe of RMP facilities had changed in the 
intervening period between developing the Amendments rule RIA and the 
Reconsideration Proposal RIA. EPA also developed a comparison of the 
number of RMP facilities by industry sector, by employee size, by RMP 
program level, by process complexity and by responding/nonresponding 
status. These counts of RMP facilities are presented in various data 
tables in Chapter 3 of the Reconsideration Proposal RIA and were 
extracted from the two versions of the RMP database. The comparison 
revealed that the number of RMP facilities and processes had 
experienced minor changes in the more than two years between 
rulemakings. In total, the number of RMP facilities decreased by 1.8% 
over the time-period and included small changes in the number of 
facilities in most industry codes and process levels. As discussed in 
Chapter 3 of the Reconsideration Proposal RIA, EPA determined that the 
differences between the databases were minor, with the exception of the 
number of accidents. As a result, EPA utilized the costs estimated for 
the 2017 Amendments rule RIA as the baseline set of costs to be 
impacted by the Reconsideration Proposal.
    For the Amendments rule, EPA had also provided in the docket as a 
separate dataset data on accidents occurring at RMP facilities from 
2004-2013, as reported in the risk management plan database as of 
February 2015. This accident data was provided in an Excel spreadsheet 
file (Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OEM-2015-0725-0002). This ten-year set of 
accident data was used as the basis of some of the cost estimates 
discussed in the Amendments rule RIA. EPA provided similar accident 
data in an Excel spreadsheet in the docket for RMP accidents occurring 
in 2014-2016 (Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OEM-2015-0725-0909), as a supporting 
document for the Reconsideration Proposal. EPA developed the latter 
spreadsheet from the November 2017 version of the database.
    While the various parties requesting an extension of the comment 
period asked that EPA extend the period 60 days, we are extending the 
comment period through August 23, 2018. EPA notes that the November 
2017 database was used for limited purposes in the preparation of the 
Reconsideration Proposal. Primarily, it was used to corroborate that 
the information from the prior RIA regarding the universe of stationary 
sources subject to the RMP rule did not change significantly by the 
time we prepared the RIA for the Reconsideration Proposal. Tables in 
the Reconsideration Proposal RIA presented the information extracted 
from the database, so the public could always comment on the 
information. The major impact was the inability to verify the 
information from its source. The updated database also was used to 
confirm that the 2004-2013 trend of declining accident rates over time 
continued. EPA included in the Reconsideration Proposal docket an Excel 
spreadsheet on accident data for RMP accidents occurring from 2014-2016 
that we derived from the November 2017 database.
    Because the November 2017 database was used mostly for 
corroboration, we do not believe there were fundamental data about 
sources subject to the RMP Rule that could not have been observed in 
the 2015 database that was already in the docket. We also note that we 
have docketed the November 2017 RMP database (non-OCA version) as of 
July 11, 2018 and on July 10, 2018, provided it to the first party to 
draw our attention to it not being in the docket. In the interest of 
expeditiously completing the reconsideration process and putting into 
effect provisions of the Amendments that we intend to retain or modify, 
we believe closing comments on August 23, 2018 strikes an appropriate 
balance.

    Dated: July 18, 2018.
Reggie Cheatham,
Director, Office of Emergency Management.
[FR Doc. 2018-15715 Filed 7-23-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P