§11002 Substances and facilities covered and notification

Summary

The Administrator must publish a list of extremely hazardous substances within 30 days after October 17, 1986. That list must match the one in Appendix A of the November 1985 “Chemical Emergency Preparedness Program Interim Guidance.” At the same time, the Administrator must publish interim rules that set a threshold planning quantity (the amount that triggers planning rules) for each listed substance and start making final rules. The Administrator can set those amounts by chemical groups or types of facilities. If no interim amount is published within 30 days after October 17, 1986, the default amount is 2 pounds until a rule is issued. The Administrator can update the list and the amounts later. Updates must consider how toxic, reactive, volatile, dispersible, combustible, or flammable a substance is. “Toxicity” includes any short- or long-term health effect from a short exposure. A facility must follow these rules if a listed substance is present there above its threshold amount (except as noted in section 11004). A Governor or State emergency response commission may add more facilities after public notice and comment, and must tell each facility it designates. Owners or operators of covered facilities had to tell their State emergency response commission within seven months after October 17, 1986 that they were covered. Later, if a listed substance first appears at a facility above the threshold or the list is changed so the facility becomes covered, the owner or operator must notify the State emergency response commission and the local emergency planning committee within 60 days. The State emergency response commission must tell the Administrator about each facility notice it gets and each facility it designates.