EPA Proposes to Amend Risk Management Program Regulations
Several proposed amendments to EPA’s risk management program (RMP) regulations are outlined in a proposed rule published last week in the Federal Register. The new “Common Sense Approach to Chemical Accident Prevention” rule would make changes to the “Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention” rule, which was finalized in 2024. According to EPA, the proposed changes are intended to reduce regulatory burden, avoid duplicative requirements, realign RMP requirements with OSHA’s process safety management requirements, and bolster economic growth. The agency also states that the proposed amendments are meant to improve chemical process safety by “eliminating unnecessary burdens placed on facilities where there is not specific data available to show that the current RMP standards would reduce or have reduced the number of accidental releases.”
The 2024 updates included requirements for covered facilities to evaluate safer technologies and alternatives and implement reliable safeguards in industry sectors with high accident rates. Other previous changes addressed employee participation, training, and decision-making in accident prevention. Facilities that had reported prior accidents were required to obtain third-party compliance audits and root-cause analyses under the rule as updated in 2024. The amendments finalized that year also aimed to improve information sharing and transparency between facilities, emergency responders, and communities.
EPA’s latest proposed changes, published on Feb. 24, 2026, would remove requirements related to safer technology and alternatives analyses for existing facilities. The new proposal also seeks to either completely rescind the third-party audit requirements or modify them to focus only on facilities with two accidents in a five-year period, then potentially sunset the third-party audit program. Other provisions the proposed rule would rescind or modify include those on information availability, employee participation, community and emergency responder notification, stationary source siting, natural hazards, power loss, declined recommendations documentation, emergency response exercises, process safety information and recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices, deregistration form information collection, hot work permit retention, and the retail facility definition.
A virtual public hearing on EPA’s proposed changes to RMP regulations is scheduled for next week on March 10. Individuals who are interested in providing verbal input to the agency should pre-register to speak during the hearing by March 9. Registration is also open to those who wish to attend the live event.
EPA will accept written comments on the proposed rule until April 10. To read the text of the proposed rule or learn more about the public comment period, see the Federal Register notice. Additional information can be found on the agency’s webpages for the Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention rule and the proposed Common Sense Approach to Chemical Accident Prevention rule.