Risk Management Program Guidance for Warehouses (40 Cfr Part 68)

If you handle, manufacture, use, or store any of the toxic and flammable substances listed in 40 CFR 68.130 above the specified threshold quantities in a process, you are required to develop and implement a risk management program rule issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This rule, "Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions" (part 68 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)), applies to a wide variety of facilities that handle, manufacture, store, or use toxic substances, including chlorine and ammonia and highly flammable substances such as propane. This document provides guidance on how to determine if you are subject to part 68 and how to comply with part 68. If you are subject to part 68, you must be in compliance no later than June 21, 1999, or the date on which you first have more than a threshold quantity of a regulated substance in a process, whichever is later. This guidance is intended for warehouses that handle or store chemicals; some of these warehouses may repackage chemicals, but most limit their activities to storing substances in containers designed to meet DOT transportation regulations. Information that is not applicable to warehouses has been omitted. If your warehouse is part of a larger facility that processes or uses chemicals or stores large quantities of chemicals for its own use, there will be information that is applicable to those other operations that is not presented in this document. For those operations, you should consult the General Guidance of Risk Management Programs or EPA's other industry-specific guidance documents, as appropriate. The goal of part 68 - the risk management program - is to prevent accidental releases of substances that can cause serious harm to the public and the environment from short-term exposures and to mitigate the severity of releases that do occur. The 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act (CAA) require EPA to issue a rule specifying the type of actions to be taken by facilities (referred to in the statute as stationary sources) to prevent accidental releases of such hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere and reduce their potential impact on the public and the environment. Part 68 is that rule.