EPA Announces the Risk Management Program (RMP) Reconsideration Rule Proposal

On May 17th, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt signed the proposal for the Risk Management Program (RMP) Reconsideration Rule. EPA revised the RMP Rule on January 13, 2017 in response to the explosion that occurred at the West Fertilizer facility in West, Texas, on April 17, 2013 that killed 15 people. Based on the regulatory requirements in the 1996 RMP rule, many water systems were required to develop RMPs due to storage of chlorine gas or other listed chemicals, and other water systems switched to hypochlorite to avoid these regulatory requirements.

The proposed RMP Reconsideration Rule will have a 60-day comment period, after publication in the Federal Register. For those that want start thinking about potentially commenting on this proposal, EPA has posted a pre-publication version of the proposal on its website.