The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Management Plan rule (RMP) is an important safeguard to help unions prevent chemical disasters at our nation’s 12,000 chemical plants, oil refineries, paper mills, food storage facilities, and water and waste treatment operations. The rule requires management to evaluate process safety hazards and estimate potential “worst case scenario” risks to nearby communities. RMP also requires worker and union participation in rule implementation, including access to hazard information. And it allows employee reps to accompany EPA inspectors during their inspections.

Key topics:

• Key elements of RMP (and relation to OSHA’s Process Safety Management standard and New Jersey’s
  Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act);
• Worker right to know, training, and participation;
• Accessing and using off-site consequence information for your facility;
• Addressing bigger floods and extreme weather dangers; and
• Improving the RMP rule (EPA is working to revise it, with a proposal expected in 2022).

Workshop Speakers:

• Rick Engler, former Board Member, U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
• Dr. Darius Sivin, Industrial Hygienist, United Auto Workers
• Debra Coyle, Executive Director, NJ Work Environment Council

Paul Orum, Chemical Safety Consultant, will also be available to answer questions. 

Pre-registration is required.
Since seating is limited, please register early.

Note: This program is intended primarily for union representatives with members at industrial facilities covered by the RMP rule. This includes chemical plants, oil refineries, paper mills, food storage facilities, and water and waste treatment operations. There are about 12,000 such facilities nationwide, with about 90 of them in New Jersey.

To learn whether your facility is regulated under RMP, go to: https://rtk.rjifuture.org/rmp/ (This database was last updated in 2019 and only lists RMP facilities. If you are not sure if your facility is covered by RMP and/or TCPA, contact WEC at dcoyle@njwec.org.)

The program should also be of interest to:

• Firefighters and other responders, since RMP includes emergency response provisions
• Teachers and other school staff, since RMP can help you learn if your school is near a facility using extremely hazardous chemicals and its potential impact.
• Health care workers, since RMP can help you find out whether you are prepared to handle an incident’s multiple victims.