{"id":644,"date":"2020-02-10T17:53:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T22:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caloshadefensereport.com\/?p=644"},"modified":"2026-03-15T23:54:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:54:06","slug":"breaking-csb-issues-final-accidental-release-reporting-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/calosha-defense-report\/breaking-csb-issues-final-accidental-release-reporting-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING \u2013 CSB Issues Final Accidental Release Reporting Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Eric J. Conn<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Beeta Lashkari<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, on the day of a federal district court-mandated deadline \u2014 Wednesday, February 5, 2020 \u2014 the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (the CSB) announced its\u00a0Final Rule on Accidental Release Reporting<\/a>.\u00a0The CSB posted a\u00a0prepublication version<\/a>\u00a0of the Final Rule last week, on February 5th.\u00a0 The official version should be published in the Federal Register within the next few days.<\/p>\n

As we\u00a0previously reported<\/a>, on December 12, 2019, the CSB issued a\u00a0Notice of Proposed Rulemaking<\/a>\u00a0for its new reporting rule, which set out the circumstances when facility owners and operators are required to file reports with the CSB about certain accidental chemical releases and what must be communicated in the reports.\"Picture1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As stated in the NPRM, the purpose of the rule is \u201cto ensure that the CSB receives rapid, accurate reports of any accidental release that meets established statutory criteria.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The rule requires owners and operators of stationary sources to report accidental releases that result in a fatality, a serious injury, or substantial property damage to the CSB within eight hours.\u00a0 The specific information required to be provided in the accidental release report includes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A brief description of the accidental release;<\/li>\n
  2. Whether the release resulted in a fire, explosion, death, serious injury, or property damage;<\/li>\n
  3. The number of fatalities and\/or serious injuries, and the estimated property damage at or outside the stationary source;<\/li>\n
  4. The name of the material involved;<\/li>\n
  5. The amount of the release; and<\/li>\n
  6. Whether the accidental release resulted in an evacuation order impacting members of the general public and other details associated with the evacuation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Issuance of the CSB\u2019s reporting rule has been a long time coming.\u00a0 Although the CSB did not become operational until 1998, its enabling legislation \u2013 the Clean Air Act Amendments \u2013 was enacted in 1990.\u00a0 That statute, from nearly thirty years ago, expressly required the agency to issue a rule governing the reporting of accidental releases to the CSB.\u00a0 Although the CSB submitted an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Chemical Release Reporting in 2009, that effort died on the vine.\u00a0 Accordingly, the CSB has never had its own reporting rule, relying instead on other sources to receive incident information.\u00a0 In February 2019, however,\u00a0<\/span>in a case brought by environmental activists,\u00a0Air Alliance Houston, et al., v. U.S. Chemical and Safety Hazard Investigation Board<\/em>, 17-cv-02608 (D.D.C. 2019)<\/a>, a federal district court judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia lambasted the CSB for what he characterized as \u201can egregious abdication of a statutory obligation\u201d to promulgate reporting regulations under the Clean Air Act Amendments, and ultimately ordered the CSB to promulgate a final reporting rule within 12 months of the district court\u2019s ruling \u2014 i.e., by February 5, 2020.\u00a0 With the CSB\u2019s announcement last week, it just met the court-ordered deadline, and has finally fulfilled its statutory obligation under the Clean Air Act Amendments.<\/p>\n

    Conn Maciel Carey\u2019s\u00a0national OSHA \u2022 Workplace Safety Practice Group<\/a>\u00a0coordinated an ad hoc coalition of employers and trade associations to submit\u00a0a set of comments<\/a>\u00a0to the CSB, and submitted\u00a0the Coalition\u2019s comments<\/a>\u00a0on January 13, 2020.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\u00a0The good news is that the CSB heeded many of our comments, and improved the rule from how it was proposed.<\/p>\n

    So, what changes were made to the proposed rule, and what stayed the same?\u00a0 Here is a summary of the changes from the proposed rule:<\/p>\n