Risk Management Plan Facilities

A risk management plan is the filing the federal chemical accident prevention rule requires of whoever owns or operates a stationary source where a process holds a regulated substance above its threshold quantity (40 CFR 68.10(a), 68.12(a)). The plan registers the source and carries a five-year history of accidental releases from covered processes (40 CFR 68.42(a), 68.155, 68.160, 68.168).

What puts a property on this record

The regulation does not say which sites are on the record. It says who must file.

Except as the applicability section provides otherwise, the owner or operator of such a source must comply by the latest of June 21, 1999 and the other dates the rule sets, among them the date a substance is first present above its threshold in a process (40 CFR 68.10(a)). One plan covers all covered processes, with one registration (40 CFR 68.12(a), 68.150(a)).

• Stationary source. The buildings, equipment and other installations of one industrial group, on one or more contiguous properties under common control, from which an accidental release may occur. Transportation, with storage incident to it, is not a stationary source, though transport containers used for storage unrelated to transportation, or connected for loading or unloading, are part of one; and "Properties shall not be considered contiguous solely because of a railroad or pipeline right-of-way" (40 CFR 68.3).
• Process and threshold. A process is any activity involving a regulated substance, including use, storage, handling or on-site movement; interconnected vessels, or separate vessels placed so that a substance in them could be involved in a release, are one process (40 CFR 68.3). The threshold is met when the total quantity in a process exceeds it (40 CFR 68.115(a)).
• What is left out. Some quantities need not be counted, among them a substance below one percent by weight of a mixture, regulated substances in gasoline held in distribution, or storage tied to it, as internal combustion engine fuel, and substances in articles (40 CFR 68.115(b)). A listed flammable substance is excluded "when the substance is used as a fuel or held for sale as a fuel at a retail facility" (40 CFR 68.126).

The plan is updated at least every five years and after the changes the rule lists. An accidental release after April 9, 2004 that meets the accident history criteria is added within six months or by the next update, whichever is earlier (40 CFR 68.190(b), 68.195(a)).

What a listing shows, and what it does not

The regulation does not say what a listing holds. The registration gives the source's name, street address and latitude and longitude; the owner or operator; an emergency contact; for each covered process, each regulated substance held above its threshold, its maximum quantity in pounds and the Program level; and the date of the last government safety inspection and who made it (40 CFR 68.160(b)).

The five-year accident history includes "all accidental releases from covered processes that resulted in deaths, injuries, or significant property damage on site, or known offsite deaths, injuries, evacuations, sheltering in place, property damage, or environmental damage" (40 CFR 68.42(a)). For each, it gives among other things the date and duration, the chemicals, the estimated quantity released, the type of event and its source, and the on-site and known offsite impacts (40 CFR 68.42(b)).

An accidental release is "an unanticipated emission of a regulated substance or other extremely hazardous substance into the ambient air from a stationary source" (40 CFR 68.3). The history counts only those from covered processes, only with one of the listed consequences, and only for five years (40 CFR 68.42(a)). Whether the source complied with part 68 is regulatory compliance, which the standard places outside its scope (E1527-21, 13.1.1, 13.1.2, 13.1.5.14).

In a Phase I ESA

These plans are not a standard source of Table 2, and Table 3 does not name them (E1527-21, 8.2.2, Table 2, Table 3). Additional records are checked when the environmental professional judges them reasonably ascertainable, useful, accurate and complete enough for the purpose of the records review, and generally obtained in local practice for the kind of transaction (E1527-21, 8.2.4).

The practice covers hazardous substances as the federal cleanup law defines them, and petroleum products (E1527-21, 1.1, 3.2.36, 3.2.61). Part 68's list is of regulated toxic and flammable substances under section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act (40 CFR 68.130(a)). The standard's definition of a hazardous substance takes in hazardous air pollutants that section 112 of that Act lists (E1527-21, 3.2.36); the sources here do not say which part 68 substances are among them. Check each registered substance against the standard's definitions.

For a source at the subject property, the answer turns on which substances were held, where and in what quantities, what the accident history records, and what the site visit and interviews show of the storage and handling areas. The site visit describes hazardous substances and petroleum products used on the property, and storage tanks (E1527-21, 9.4.11, 9.4.12). The owner, key site manager and user are asked about documents that include safety plans, preparedness and prevention plans, air permits and risk assessments (E1527-21, 10.8.1). Ask also for the plan, its accident history and the source's supporting records.

For a source near the subject property, the professional gives a judgment on the significance of each listing inside the search distance (E1527-21, 8.1.10). For a known release off the subject property, the factors in the standard's nonmandatory appendix include where the source lies and the topography, geology and hydrogeology (E1527-21, X4.1). See adjoining or nearby property and likely release and likely presence.

What the federal rule says

The inquiry rule does not name this record. Among what the inquiry must seek to identify:

Current and past uses of hazardous substances;

40 CFR 312.20(e)(1)(ii), edition revised as of July 1, 2025

The rule lets the procedures of E1527-21 be used to comply with its sections 312.23 through 312.31 (40 CFR 312.11(a)).

Where the record is kept

The plan is submitted "in the method and format to the central point specified by EPA as of the date of submission" (40 CFR 68.150(a)). Public access to it runs under 42 U.S.C. 7414(c) and 40 CFR part 1400 (40 CFR 68.210(a)). Records supporting the part's implementation are kept at the source for five years, unless subpart D provides otherwise (40 CFR 68.200). By May 10, 2027, an owner or operator must provide chemical hazard information, the five-year accident history among it, within 45 days to a member of the public who asks and lives or works within 6 miles of the fenceline, or spends significant time there (40 CFR 68.10(g)(7), 68.210(d), (g)).

This page is general reference for environmental professionals. It does not classify any property. ASTM E1527-21 is the standard and is not reproduced here; the judgment of the environmental professional on the facts governs.