Newsletter
DRAFT AMENDMENTS TO TOXIC CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES MAN-AGEMENT ACT
The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced a draft of proposed amendments to the Toxic Chemical Substances Management Act. The main points are as follows:
Operations involving toxic chemicals will be categorized into those requiring a license, those requiring registration, and those requir-ing approval and the issuance of approval documents.
1.Entities intending to manufacture, import, or sell toxic chemicals in Classes I to III must apply to the environmental authorities for the issuance of a license, and must op-erate in accordance with the terms of the license.
2.Entities intending to use or store toxic chemicals in Classes I to III must apply to their local environmental authorities for registration, and must operate within the terms of the registration documents.
3.Entities intending to discard or export toxic chemicals of Classes I to III must apply to their local environmental authorities for registration on a batch-by-batch basis be-fore carrying out such operations.
4.If the quantity of toxic chemicals involved in operations under items (1) or (2) above is below the threshold for large-scale opera-tions as announced by the EPA, the entity concerned may apply to its local environ-mental authority for approval and may proceed with such operations after receiv-ing the approval documents; it does not need to apply for a license or for registra-tion.
Under new provisions, if an operator is or-dered to suspend all or part of its operations or business, or if on being set a compliance deadline by the environmental authority an operator itself announces suspension of its operations, before resuming operations or business the operator must report to the envi-ronmental authority for review and approval, submitting a statement of compliance and appending evidentiary documents, and may only resume its operations or business after receiving approval.
Before toxic chemicals are transported, the owner should submit a multipart toxic chemicals transportation form to the envi-ronmental authority of the special municipal-ity, county, or city in which the journey originates.
New punitive provisions are proposed under which entities that fail to present or fail to implement toxic chemical accident prevention and emergency response plans, fail to make their accident prevention and emergency re-sponse plans accessible to the public, fail to operate in accordance with the terms of their registration, fail to display or hold substance safety information as required, or fail to en-gage specialist technical management per-sonnel, and government agencies or academic institutions that violate the Act’s provisions will be subject to various sanctions, including administrative fines, being set deadlines for compliance, being ordered to suspend their operations or business, being ordered to ter-minate their business, and annulment or can-cellation of licenses.
Broader scope of incentives
In addition to operators and their responsible officers, incentives and awards will also be available to other persons, such as specialist personnel, academic specialists, and experts, who achieve outstanding results in efforts to improve toxic chemicals safety equipment or to reduce operating risk.