Highlights from OSWER Accomplishments 2013 Report
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The OSWER’s job is a big one encompassing diverse industries, practices and waste streams, as well as state and local regulatory agencies, emergency response agencies and organizations, and the public. Overall, however, the goal is to protect the environment and the public from contamination, whether from a spill, leak or other man-made incident or the result of a natural disaster.
Right now, OSWER, in cooperation with the states, oversees and manages the following:
Permits for 20,000 hazardous waste units at 6,600 facilities,
Standard-setting for approximately 580,000 federally-regulated underground storage tanks,
Prevention, preparedness, compliance assistance, and enforcement activities for approximately 13,000 chemical facilities subject to Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations, and
Guidance to state and local response organizations to assist them with Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) management at more than 390,000 facilities.
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Key to preventing hazardous releases is safe management and the OSWER claims considerable accomplishments. For example, in 2013 the OSWER reported the following:
- The Solvent-Contaminated Wipe Rule—EPA estimates the rule will result in a net savings of $21.7 to $27.8 million per year and was effective on January 31, 2014.
- Modernized hazardous waste reporting processes—Successful deployment of the myRCRAid application providing a web-based alternative for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) site identification application for facilities with an existing EPA ID.
- Continued planning for the e-Manifest System—The EPA estimated e-Manifests will reduce the burden associated with preparing shipping manifests by between 300,000 and 700,000 hours and result in savings of more than $75 million for states and industry.
- Updated waste characterization methods—The EPA developed and revised 23 analytical procedures for inclusion in RCRA’s SW-846 guidance document for waste characterization ensuring accurate waste identification.
- Improving programs using evidence-based evaluation—EPA worked with a third-party evaluator to review regulatory requirements for generators and published findings including a desire to clarify and simplify some regulations and generator difficulties in making waste determinations.
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Preventing oil and petroleum releases is another area that OSWER says reached goals in 2013. Among the accomplishments OSWER points to are:
- Updated SPCC Guidance for Regional Inspectors—Available online to regulators and owners/operators, the Guidance clarifies policy and was presented in webinars, with more than 2,500 stakeholders receiving online or in-person training.
- Dispersant Use Guidance—EPA developed Environmental Monitoring for Atypical Dispersant Operations to assist responders with incident-specific decisions regarding atypical dispersant use based on lesson from the Deep-Water Horizon oil spill.
- Implementing Delivery Prohibitions—EPA’s UST program began implementing the delivery prohibition policy in FY13, which describes EPA’s process for prohibiting delivery of regulated substances to federally regulated USTs.
- Increasing State Operator Training—As required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, EPA and most states have implemented underground storage tank operator training and claim positive results in operational compliance statistics.
Similarly, reducing chemical risks and releases is another aspect of OSWER’s oversight for which the office also reported a significant accomplishment in 2013:
- Safeguarding communities from chemical accident and spills—In response to an Executive Order titled Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security, the EPA in conjunction with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) issued an advisory specifically addressing ammonium nitrate, recent and past accidents involving the chemical and particularly, safe handling and storage of high-density ammonium nitrate used in fertilizers.