The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) is proposing to amend its Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations by making several proposed changes to the 2024 Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention (SCCAP) rule. The proposed revisions include changes to provisions relating to:
- safer technology and alternatives analyses,
- information availability,
- third-party audits,
- employee participation,
- community and emergency responder notification,
- stationary source siting,
- natural hazards, power loss,
- declined recommendations documentation,
- emergency response exercises,
- process safety information (PSI) and recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices (RAGAGEP),
- deregistration form information collection,
- hot work permit retention, and
- the retail facility definition
These proposed amendments seek to improve chemical process safety by avoiding duplicative requirements, realigning RMP requirements with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Process Safety Management (PSM) requirements, and eliminating unnecessary burdens placed on facilities where there is not specific data available to show that the current RMP standards would reduce or have reduced the number of accidental releases.
In this proposed action, the EPA is seeking to provide clarity, remove redundant or unnecessary regulatory requirements, and realign the Risk Management Program with OSHA’s PSM standard. If finalized, this proposed rule would ensure long-term information access to the public to promote community response planning and preparedness while balancing site security concerns. The proposed action would also refocus requirements for regulated facility owners and operators on addressing areas that pose the greatest risk to a process.
The EPA’s main objectives through this proposed rulemaking are to avoid duplicative. requirements, realign RMP requirements with OSHA PSM requirements, and eliminate unnecessary burdens placed on facilities where there are not specific data available to show that the current RMP standards would reduce or have reduced the number of accidental releases.
Source: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2026-02/prepublication_version_of_the_rmp_proposal.pdf