Process Safety Management (PSM); Stakeholder Meeting

• Citation: 87 FR 57520
• Published date: 20 September 2022
• FR Document: 2022-20261
• Pages: 57520-57522
• Section: Notices
• Issuer: Labor Department

Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 181 (Tuesday, September 20, 2022)

[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 181 (Tuesday, September 20, 2022)]
                [Notices]
                [Pages 57520-57522]
                From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
                [FR Doc No: 2022-20261]
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                DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
                [Docket No. OSHA-2013-0020]
                Process Safety Management (PSM); Stakeholder Meeting
                AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA),
                Department of Labor.
                ACTION: Notice of stakeholder meeting; updated date after postponement.
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                SUMMARY: On August 30, 2022, OSHA announced an informal stakeholder
                meeting regarding the rulemaking project for the Process Safety
                Management (PSM) standard, to be held on September 28, 2022. With this
                notice, OSHA is postponing the informal stakeholder meeting until
                October 12, 2022. OSHA is also reissuing the invitation to interested
                parties to participate in the informal stakeholder meeting.
                Additionally,
                [[Page 57521]]
                OSHA invites participants to provide public comments related to
                potential changes to the standard that OSHA is considering and is
                extending the deadline for submitting comments.
                DATES: The stakeholder meeting will be held virtually from 10 a.m. to 4
                p.m. ET, on Wednesday, October 12, 2022. Registration to participate in
                or observe the stakeholder meeting will be open until all spots are
                full. Written comments must be submitted by November 14, 2022.
                ADDRESSES: The stakeholder meeting will be held virtually on Webex. If
                you wish to attend the meeting or provide public comment, please
                register online as soon as possible at https://www.osha.gov/process-safety-management/background/2022stakeholdermtg. If you are interested
                in providing public comments at the meeting, you must indicate that
                while registering. In order to accommodate many speakers, public
                commenters will be allowed approximately three minutes to speak.
                Although OSHA welcomes all comments and seeks to accommodate as many
                speakers as possible, it may not be possible to accommodate all
                stakeholder requests to speak at the meeting. Stakeholders who register
                to speak in advance of the meeting will receive confirmation and a
                schedule of speakers via email prior to the event. Those who cannot
                attend the meeting and those who are unable or choose not to make
                verbal comments during the meeting are invited to submit their comments
                in writing (see instructions in Section III below).
                FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
                 Press inquiries: Mr. Frank Meilinger, Director, OSHA Office of
                Communications, Room N-3647, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution
                Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210; telephone: (202) 693-1999; email:
                [email protected].
                 General and technical information: Ms. Lisa Long, Director, Office
                of Engineering Safety, OSHA Directorate of Standards and Guidance, Room
                N-3621, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW,
                Washington, DC 20210; telephone: (202) 693-2294, email:
                [email protected].
                SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
                I. Background
                 OSHA published the PSM standard, 29 CFR 1910.119,\1\ in 1992 in
                response to several catastrophic chemical-release incidents that
                occurred worldwide. The PSM standard requires employers to implement
                safety programs that identify, evaluate, and control highly hazardous
                chemicals. Unlike some of OSHA's standards, which prescribe precisely
                what employers must do to comply, the PSM standard is ``performance-
                based,'' and outlines 14 management system elements for controlling
                highly hazardous chemicals. Under the standard, employers have the
                flexibility to tailor their PSM programs to the unique conditions at
                their facilities. For more information on the PSM standard, please
                visit https://osha.gov/process-safety-management/background.
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                 \1\ Section 1910.119 is made applicable to construction work
                through 29 CFR 1926.64.
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                 Since its publication in 1992, the PSM standard has not been
                updated. The 2013 ammonium nitrate explosion at a fertilizer storage
                facility in West, Texas renewed interest in PSM. In response to this
                incident, on August 1, 2013, Executive Order (E.O.) 13650, Improving
                Chemical Facility Safety and Security, was signed. The E.O. directed
                OSHA and several other federal agencies to, among other things,
                modernize policies, regulations, and standards to enhance safety and
                security in chemical facilities by completing certain tasks, including:
                coordinating with stakeholders to develop a plan for implementing
                improvements to chemical risk managements practices, developing
                proposals to improve the safe and secure storage handling and sale of
                ammonium nitrate, and reviewing the PSM and Risk Management Plan (RMP)
                rules to determine if their covered hazardous chemical lists should be
                expanded. For more specifics on the Executive Order and OSHA's
                collaboration with other government agencies and stakeholders, please
                visit https://www.osha.gov/chemical-executive-order.
                 Additionally, the E.O. directed that within 90 days, OSHA should
                publish a Request for Information (RFI) to identify issues related to
                modernization of its PSM standard and related standards necessary to
                meet the goal of preventing major chemical accidents. OSHA published
                the RFI in December 2013, and subsequently initiated and completed a
                Small Business Advocacy Review Panel (SBAR) in June 2016. Following the
                SBAR panel, PSM was moved to the Long-Term Actions list on the Unified
                Agenda. OSHA has continued to work on the PSM standard rulemaking and
                PSM was placed back on the Unified Agenda in the spring of 2021. OSHA
                is holding this stakeholder meeting to reengage stakeholders and
                solicit comments on the modernization topics mentioned in the RFI and
                SBAR panel report, as well as any additional PSM-related issues
                stakeholders would like to raise. The list of modernization topics is
                listed below in Section II.
                 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a separate, pending
                proposal addressing RMP requirements. In the Clean Air Act Amendments
                of 1990, Congress required OSHA to adopt the PSM standard to protect
                workers and required EPA to protect the community and environment by
                issuing the RMP rule. The PSM and RMP rules were written to complement
                each other in accomplishing these Congressional goals. Since the E.O.
                13650, EPA has published amendments to the RMP rule in 2017 and 2019.
                Any comments on the EPA's RMP proposal should be submitted in writing
                to the docket for that rulemaking and will not be discussed during
                OSHA's stakeholder meeting. More information regarding the RMP rule is
                available at https://www.epa.gov/rmp. OSHA and EPA will continue to
                coordinate as both agencies consider revisions to their respective
                rules.
                II. Stakeholder Meeting
                 The meeting will feature a brief presentation from OSHA on the
                background of the PSM standard and some of the issues outlined in this
                notice. After the presentation, there will be time for registered
                commenters to provide verbal comments. PSM rulemaking topics are
                outlined in the lists below, but commenters may provide feedback on
                additional PSM-related issues. More information on most of the topics
                in the lists below can be found in the Small Entity Representative
                (SER) Background Document (docket no. OSHA-2013-0020-0107) and SER
                Issues Document (docket no. OSHA-2013-0020-0108) located on the PSM
                SBAR web page, https://www.osha.gov/process-safety-management/sbrefa.
                The purpose of the meeting is to gather information from stakeholders,
                and OSHA will not be responding to the comments during the meeting. The
                public may also submit written comments to the rulemaking docket (see
                Section III for instructions). More information on registration is
                provided above. The meeting will be recorded.
                 The potential changes to the scope of the current PSM standard that
                OSHA is considering include:
                 1. Clarifying the exemption for atmospheric storage tanks;
                 2. Expanding the scope to include oil- and gas-well drilling and
                servicing;
                 3. Resuming enforcement for oil and gas production facilities;
                [[Page 57522]]
                 4. Expanding PSM coverage and requirements for reactive chemical
                hazards;
                 5. Updating and expanding the list of highly hazardous chemicals in
                Appendix A;
                 6. Amending paragraph (k) of the Explosives and Blasting Agents
                Standard (Sec. 1910.109) to extend PSM requirements to cover
                dismantling and disposal of explosives and pyrotechnics;
                 7. Clarifying the scope of the retail facilities exemption; and
                 8. Defining the limits of a PSM-covered process.
                 The potential changes to particular provisions of the current PSM
                standard that OSHA is considering include:
                 1. Amending paragraph (b) to include a definition of RAGAGEP;
                 2. Amending paragraph (b) to include a definition of critical
                equipment;
                 3. Expanding paragraph (c) to strengthen employee participation and
                include stop work authority;
                 4. Amending paragraph (d) to require evaluation of updates to
                applicable recognized and generally accepted as good engineering
                practices (RAGAGEP);
                 5. Amending paragraph (d) to require continuous updating of
                collected information;
                 6. Amending paragraph (e) to require formal resolution of Process
                Hazard Analysis team recommendations that are not utilized;
                 7. Expanding paragraph (e) by requiring safer technology and
                alternatives analysis;
                 8. Clarifying paragraph (e) to require consideration of natural
                disasters and extreme temperatures in their PSM programs, in response
                to E.O. 13990;
                 9. Expanding paragraph (j) to cover the mechanical integrity of any
                critical equipment;
                 10. Clarifying paragraph (j) to better explain ``equipment
                deficiencies;''
                 11. Clarifying that paragraph (l) covers organizational changes;
                 12. Amending paragraph (m) to require root cause analysis;
                 13. Revising paragraph (n) to require coordination of emergency
                planning with local emergency-response authorities;
                 14. Amending paragraph (o) to require third-party compliance
                audits;
                 15. Including requirements for employers to develop a system for
                periodic review of and necessary revisions to their PSM management
                systems (previously referred to as ``Evaluation and Corrective
                Action''); and
                 16. Requiring the development of written procedures for all
                elements specified in the standard, and to identify records required by
                the standard along with a records retention policy (previously referred
                to as ``Written PSM Management Systems'').
                III. Submitting and Accessing Comments
                 Regardless of attendance at the stakeholder meeting, interested
                persons may submit written comments electronically at https://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal eRulemaking Portal. All
                comments, attachments, and other material must identify the agency's
                name and the docket number for this stakeholder meeting (OSHA-2013-
                0020). You may supplement electronic submissions by uploading document
                files electronically. All comments and additional materials must be
                submitted by November 14, 2022. All comments, including any personal
                information, are placed in the public docket without change and may be
                made available online at https://www.regulations.gov. Therefore, OSHA
                cautions commenters about submitting personal information such as
                Social Security Numbers and dates of birth.
                 To read or download comments or other material in the docket, go to
                https://www.regulations.gov, and search for docket no. OSHA-2013-0020.
                All documents in the docket are listed in the https://www.regulations.gov index; however, some information (e.g., copyrighted
                material) is not publicly available to read or download from this
                website. All submissions, including copyrighted material, are available
                for inspection and copying at the OSHA Docket Office. Contact the OSHA
                Docket Office at (202) 693-2350 (TTY (877) 889-5627) for assistance in
                locating docket submissions.
                 Information on using the https://www.regulations.gov website to
                submit comments and access the docket is available at https://www.regulations.gov/faq.
                Authority and Signature
                 James S. Frederick, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for
                Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Labor, 200
                Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210, authorized the
                preparation of document under the authority of sections 4, 6, and 8 of
                the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 653, 655,
                657); Secretary of Labor's Order No. 08-2020 (85 FR 58393); and 29 CFR
                part 1911.
                 Signed at Washington, DC, September 8, 2022.
                James S. Frederick,
                Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
                [FR Doc. 2022-20261 Filed 9-19-22; 8:45 am]
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