Industrial Compliance

The goal of Federal Oil Pollution Prevention regulation in 40 CFR Part 112 is to prevent oil discharges from reaching navigable waters of the United States or adjoining shorelines. As a cornerstone of EPA’s strategy to prevent oil spills from reaching our nation’s waters, the EPA requires that certain facilities develop and implement oil spill prevention, control, and countermeasure, or SPCC Plans. Unlike oil spill contingency plans that typically address spill cleanup measures after a spill has occurred, SPCC Plans ensure that facilities put in place containment and other countermeasures that would prevent an oil spill from reaching shorelines or navigable waters of the U.S. A spill contingency plan is required as part of the SPCC Plan if a facility is unable to provide secondary containment (e.g., berms surrounding the oil storage container).

Condor can assist you with the development, improvement, submittal and implementation of your Risk Management Plan (RMP), Process Safety Management (PSM), and/or California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) Programs. Whether you are new to the requirements of these regulatory compliance programs, are a seasoned professional and have been managing RMP/PSM or CalARP compliance at your facility, or somewhere in between, Condor can provide services to help you through this process. Condor can facilitate and document your Process Hazard Analysis (PHA), develop or revise your off site consequence analysis, develop prevention program elements, perform compliance audits, prepare your written program, and provide electronic submittal files. Local administering agencies (CUPAs) and California OSHA have conducted audits at several facilities with Condor-developed RMP/PSM/CalARP programs. As a result of sound program development by facility staff and Condor, and commitment by the facilities to comply with the regulatory requirements, few corrective action notices or citations have been issued.

If you are the owner or operator of an RMP-covered facility, EPA’s Chemical Accident Prevention regulations require that you fully update and resubmit your RMP at least once every 5 years. If certain process changes occur at your facility prior to the 5-year anniversary of your RMP, you must update and resubmit your RMP before those changes are made. The 5-year anniversary date is reset whenever you fully update and resubmit your RMP.

The CalARP Program is in many respects quite similar to the federal RMP/PSM programs. However the CalARP hazardous chemicals list and threshold quantities differ from the federal programs. For example the federal threshold quantity for anhydrous ammonia is 10,000 pounds; the California threshold is 500 pounds. Thus, many facilities that are not covered under the federal RMP/PSM program are covered under the CalARP program and are required to develop a risk management program.

Your RMP, PSM, or CalARP program contains many ongoing compliance activities. An advertised objective of the resubmittal requirement is to make sure a formal update of your plan is made. A subtler element of resubmittal is that of monitoring the commitment and follow-up of facilities regarding chemical risk management programs. Consider your status of the following:

• Follow-up/completion of PHA recommendations
• Re-validation of your PHA every 5 years
• Compliance audits (required every 3 years)
• Follow-up/completion of compliance audit recommendations
• Annual review and certification of operating procedures
• Employee training
• Updates related to system modifications, inventory changes, operational changes
• Off site consequence analysis
• EPA’s changes to RMP requirements