Terminals face new emergency rules in March
- ed.
Environmental disasters, followed by public outcry, have boosted the cost of handling and manufacturing petroleum products. The federal government has made even small accident remediation a great effort. While the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun to appreciate industry views, new EPA rules implementing the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act (CAAA) will ensure rising costs of doing business for petroleum terminals and refinery operators. To be finalized in March 1996, the new rules have already stimulated the development of costly prevention and response plans for baseline federal compliance at these facilities. The current rulemaking is typical of regulations resulting from public response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill and several other accidents. Affecting 140,000 facilities nationwide, the rules contain comprehensive accident prevention and emergency response program implicating all levels of corporate operations. Petroleum terminals felt the impact of the CAAA on Nov. 12, 1993, when the EPA named marine vessel loading and unloading operations a major source of hazardous air pollutants. On Nov. 15, 1990 subsection (r) was added to the CAAA. This formed the framework for a system to assess, prevent, detect and respond to accidental releases of hazardous substances. While previous legislation mandated program development for hazard release identification and response, section (r) marked the first requirement for facilities to establish accident prevention programs.
- OSTI ID:
- 458706
- Journal Information:
- Fuel Technology amp Management, Vol. 6, Issue 1; Other Information: PBD: Jan-Feb 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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