On February 21, 2020, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s Accidental Release Reporting Rule was published in the Federal Register. It becomes effective on March 23, 2020.
TAKEAWAYS
- Facilities must report accidental releases to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board within eight hours.
- National Response Center reports may satisfy the rule if the ID number is provided to CSB within 30 minutes.
- Facilities can submit revised and/or updated report information within 30 days.
Now that the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s (CSB) Accidental Release Reporting rule has been published in the Federal Register, the rule will take effect on March 23, 2020. A notable change from the proposed rule issued in December 2019 is an increase in the required reporting window from four hours to eight hours, to allow owners/operators of facilities more time to gather information required for the report. Owners/operators who submit a report to the National Response Center (NRC) may satisfy CSB’s reporting requirement by providing the NRC identification number within 30 minutes of submitting the NRC report. Finally, the rule provides owners/operators the option to submit revised and/or updated information within 30 days of the initial report. If a revision or update cannot be made within the first 30 days, CSB allows an additional 60 days, provided the owner/operator can explain why it could not submit the revision or update within the first 30 days.
[View Source]
