US EPA Emergency Planning & Community Right to Know Act for Petroleum Storage Facilities

Tim Laughlin, P.E.

Course Outline

As authorized under Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA), which was enacted as Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986 (Pub.L. 99-499), (SARA).

The US EPA relies on EPCRA section 328 for general rulemaking authority.  Title III of SARA (EPCRA) establishes authorities for emergency planning and preparedness, emergency release notification reporting, community right-to-know reporting, and toxic chemical release reporting. It is intended to encourage State and local planning and preparedness for releases of extremely hazardous substances and to provide the public, local governments, fire departments and other emergency officials with information concerning chemical releases and the potential chemical risks in their communities.

The implementing regulations for emergency planning, emergency release notification and the chemicals subject to these regulations (Extremely Hazardous Substances) are codified in 40 CFR part 355. The implementing regulations for community right-to-know reporting (or hazardous chemical reporting) are codified in 40 CFR part 370.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

• Be familiar with US EPA EPCRA regulations;
• What is “Community Right to Know”;
• Understand difference between Tier I and Tier II forms;
• Decide “Who Must Submit Tier II Form?”;
• Be able to prepare a Tier II Forms Petroleum Storage Facilities;
• Understand EPCRA Chemicals and Reporting Thresholds;
• Provide Typical Petroelum MSDS data points;
• Know the current Penatilies for Violation of this regulation;
• Know the petroleum stoage exclusions for Tier II reporting;
• Review changes to Wholesale Petroleum SIC codes to NAICS codes; and
• Understand Primary SIC/NAICS Code Determination for Petroleum Facilities.
  

Intended Audience

This course is intended for agricultural, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical, and petroleum engineers.

Benefit to Attendees

Attendee of this course will be able to understand the basics to provide for clean water stormwater discharges by regulated facilities.

Course Content

In this lesson, you are required to download and study the following course content in PDF format:

US EPA Emergency Planning & Community Right to Know Act for Petroleum Storage Facilities

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.

Course Summary

The US EPA and Homeland Security require Hazardous Chemical storage facilities to report to the states and other local agencies about the types, locations and quantity of said hazardous chemicals.  The community/public has a “right to know” the proximity of said chemicals in their local environs.

Each submitted Tier I or II report along with the community emergency response plan, shall be made available to the public at a designated location during normal working hours. Each local emergency planning committee (LEPC) must publish annually a notice in local newspapers that the above forms have been submitted and are open to public viewing at the designated location.

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

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DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.

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