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All response actions that are conducted under the NCP are also required to be in compliance with the provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) HAZWOPER standard at 29 CFR 1910.120. This requirement is included in the NCP at 40 CFR 300.150 and applies in all cases, regardless of whether the cleanup is directed by the responsible party or by the government under the NCP.
Under the NCP, HAZWOPER provisions for marine oil spills are divided into two distinct phases:
1. Emergency response operations in HAZWOPER paragraph (q), and
2. Postemergency cleanup operations in HAZWOPER paragraph (q)(11).
Depending on the spill size, these two phases may be handled differently, and it should be noted that workers participating only in postemergency cleanup will have different training than those responding during the emergency phase.
“Emergency response” operations are defined in the standard at 1910.120(a)(3) as:
“Emergency response or responding to emergencies means a response effort by employees from outside the immediate release area or by other designated responders (i.e., mutual aid groups, local fire departments, etc.) to an occurrence which results, or is likely to result, in an uncontrolled release of a hazardous substance.”
You won’t find a more thorough and effective course related to hazardous waste operations to help meet the employee training requirements of OSHA’s HAZWOPER regulation than BLR’s HAZWOPER Training Program. Find out more.
For example, operations to address the danger of an oil leak from a grounded ship are considered an emergency response situation as are on-water containment, skimming operations, and underwater recovery operations, because the oil is still in danger of release to the environment.
On the other hand, “postemergency response” is defined in 1910.120(a)(3) as:
“Post emergency response means that portion of an emergency response performed after the immediate threat of a release has been stabilized or eliminated and clean-up of the site has begun.”
This definition also specifies that if postemergency response actions are performed by an employer’s own employees who were part of the initial emergency response, this is considered to be part of the initial emergency response, rather than postemergency response. When a group of an employer’s own employees that are separate from the initial emergency response group performs the cleanup operation, the separate group of employees would be considered to be performing postemergency response actions.
In situations such as large spills, both emergency and postemergency response activities may be undertaken at the same time; however, boundaries of the two separate operations must be clearly defined, and all workers must be notified of the boundaries.
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You won’t find a more thorough and effective course related to hazardous waste operations to help meet the employee training requirements of OSHA’s HAZWOPER regulation (29CFR 1910.120) than BLR’s HAZWOPER Training Program. Your training materials include a DVD, a 200+page HAZWOPER training manual with tests, handouts, and an electronic version on CD-ROM! Handy outline tells you exactly what to present and when to meet either the 8-, 24-, or 40-hour requirements.
To assess the training needs of each responder, the rule of thumb is to train them to the highest level of responsibility that they may need to assume, in this case as either an emergency or postemergency responder. For example, for emergency response workers, there are six titles corresponding to different responsibilities and different levels of training. For postemergency response workers, however, training needs are assessed based on four anticipated levels of exposure to oil or hazardous substances before anything else, such as job function, is considered.
There is one exception to the NCP HAZWOPER requirement and that is in the event of an “incidental release” that does not, within a short time, have the potential to become an emergency, as defined in 29 CFR 1910.1209(a)(3):
“… Responses to incidental releases of hazardous substances where the substance can be absorbed, neutralized, or otherwise controlled at the time of release by employees in the immediate release area, or by maintenance personnel are not considered to be emergency responses within the scope of this standard. Responses to releases of hazardous substances where there is no potential safety or health hazard (i.e., fire, explosion, or chemical exposure) are not considered to be emergency responses.”
In addition, under the NCP, “oil” is defined as “any kind of oil in any form, including petroleum, fuel oil, sludge, oil refuse, and oil mixed with waste, but not dredged spoil (dirt or rock).”