This is part of a continuing series of blog posts discussing
President Obama’s executive order on “Improving
Chemical Facility Safety and Security” (EO 13650). The other posts in the
series are:
In my last post I looked at what progress had been made on
the 90-day and 135-day requirements set forth in the EO. Nothing in that post
from over a month ago has changed. We have also passed the next set of
deadlines set forth in the EO, those that were to be completed by 180-days.
180 Day Objectives
There were only three requirements listed that were supposed
to be completed by February 3rd ( or the 19th if you add
the time lost in the Federal Funding Fiasco). They were:
The Working Group shall produce a
proposal for a coordinated, flexible data-sharing process which can be utilized
to track data submitted to agencies for federally regulated chemical
facilities, including locations, chemicals, regulated entities, previous
infractions, and other relevant information.
The Working Group shall identify and
recommend possible changes to streamline and otherwise improve data collection
to meet the needs of the public and Federal, State, local, and tribal agencies
(including those charged with protecting workers and the public), consistent
with the Paperwork Reduction Act and other relevant authorities, including
opportunities to lessen the reporting burden on regulated industries.
The Working Group shall engage key
stakeholders to discuss the risk management improvement options identified by
the Working Group and other means to improve chemical risk management.
At this point I would have to say that there has been no
public movement on any of these three objectives. I can make some educated
guesses as to the non-public movement that we don’t see.
The Federal data sharing requirement has been worked on and
there has been some progress made. We know this from the testimony of ISCD
Director Wulf in the HR
4007 legislative hearing last week. It will be unlikely that we will ever
hear the full details of the inter-agency information sharing outlined in this
requirement. I understand that the information sharing between EPA (RMP) and
DHS (CFATS) is the most advanced and both agencies have used the other’s data
to identify facilities that were not registered in their own program. Those apparently
delinquent facilities have been contacted.
The second data sharing requirement is a little bit more
pro-active and maybe industry aiding. If the agencies can figure out a way to
make a single data submission work for multiple programs it would certainly
benefit small businesses. Unfortunately, the data requirements are so different
outside a narrow set of facility identification information, that I don’t think
that this will ever become an effective process. The President was really
stretching on this one.
The last one really should not have been included in the
original 180 day list. It comes from §6(a)(ii) and was
to be completed within 90 days of the §6(a)(i) programs
were identified. Sharp eyed readers will realize that this requirement is
actually the §6(a) RFI that I had discussed in an earlier set of posts. There
was a late start on getting the RFI published so there will be a delay in
getting the ‘engagement’ completed. The end date for comments on that RFI is
March 31st, 2014.
BTW: To date, 60 days into the 90 day comment period, there
have only been
three comments filed in response to the RFI. Okay, one of those comments
was a ‘Mass Comment Campaign’ that included duplicate comments signed by four
different people so it was actually six comments. None of those comments came
from the ‘key stakeholders’ that the President wanted engaged. Maybe those
comments will come later; towards the end of the comment period.
Final Objectives Yet
to Come
The real meat and potatoes of the EO are to be completed by
the 270 day point, May 4th, 2014 with no fudging for the FFF. Those
will all require some sort of public response. They are:
Chemical Facility Safety and
Security Working Group shall provide a
status report to the President through the Chair of the Council on
Environmental Quality and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security
and Counterterrorism.
The Working Group shall create
comprehensive and integrated standard operating procedures for a unified
Federal approach for identifying and responding to risks in chemical facilities
(including during pre-inspection, inspection execution, post-inspection, and
post-accident investigation activities), incident reporting and response
procedures, enforcement, and collection, storage, and use of facility
information.
The Working Group shall develop
a plan for implementing practical and effective improvements to chemical risk
management.
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