US Senate mulls prior approval for plant ops

10 July 2007 18:12  [Source: ICIS news]

By Joe Kamalick

 

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--The top US chemical safety official urged Congress on Tuesday to consider much broader regulation of the process industry, perhaps to include mandatory prior authorisation by government agencies for plant operations.

 

Carolyn Merritt, chairwoman of the Chemical Safety Board (CSB), told a Senate panel that current US regulation of safety and security at chemical plants, refineries and other process industry sites is inadequate and often not enforced.

 

Merritt was critical of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), charging that both federal agencies have failed to conduct sufficient facility inspections and audits.

 

She said rigorous regulatory attention by EPA and OSHA might have prevented the March 2005 explosion and fire at the BP Texas City, Texas, refinery that killed 15 workers and injured 180 others.

 

“Both the EPA and OSHA process safety regulatory programmes are limited in various ways, an issue which I believe ultimately will fall to Congress to address,” Merritt said.

 

She warned that under current law, both agencies’ enforcement programmes “focus on specific, relatively narrow lists of covered hazardous chemicals, each with a threshold quantity”.

 

“Certainly a high fraction of the accidents we investigate occur among those facilities that are not covered under either programme - even though those facilities still have serious chemical hazards,” she said.

 

She cited an alternative safety and security approach used by unnamed other countries, called the “safety case”.  Under that regulatory approach, Merritt said, “chemical facilities must receive permission to operate in advance, based on a demonstration of safety competence to government authorities”.

 

“While such systems may require more effort to implement, they have the advantage of being preventive in nature and less tied to specific quantity thresholds and chemical lists,” she said.

 

Merritt testified before the Senate subcommittee on transportation safety, infrastructure security and water quality, part of the Senate Environment Committee.  The panel is considering legislation to increase the safety board’s authority and funding.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

< previous article(ICIS Podcast: Chemical News Central 2 November 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly