ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Phoenix, Arizona
(environment; chemicals; electronic
reporting)
(NOW: environment;
electronic reporting; chemicals)
Requires the Arizona Emergency Response Commission to allow reporting of certain hazardous chemicals reports required under the current state Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know law to be done electronically to the Commission's internet site. Requires the State Fire Marshal to establish standards under the state fire code for a statewide database that includes hazardous material management plans and hazardous material inventory statements.
The federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), also known as Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), provides specific plans for preparing for, preventing, and responding to the release of hazardous chemicals. (SARA is the 1986 reauthorization of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act).
Arizona has adopted its own EPCRA which implements the Title III requirements of SARA. The state EPCRA requires persons who own or operate facilities that store hazardous chemicals to submit Tier II inventory forms to the Arizona Emergency Response Commission (AZERC), the appropriate Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) and fire department with jurisdiction over the facility. This form must be submitted annually for each hazardous chemical stored at the facility in quantities equal to or greater than federally established reporting thresholds.
Hazardous chemicals are defined to include those chemicals for which federal OSHA standards require a material safety data sheet (MSDS) to be maintained. MSDS’s include information such as physical data (boiling point, flash point, etc), toxicity, health effects, first aid, reactivity, storage, disposal, protective equipment and spill/leak procedures. MSDSs are used primarily by employees who handle the chemicals and emergency responders (fire fighters, hazardous materials crews, EMTs and emergency room personnel).
Several chemical fires in recent years at facilities located in south Phoenix have raised concerns over compliance with these reporting requirements and enforcement by state and local jurisdictions. In August 1992, a fire at the Quality Printed Circuits building at 16th Street and Roeser Road burned chemicals stored at the facility. There are ongoing concerns about the health effects of the chemicals burned in that fire. On August 2, 2000 a fire at a warehouse at 38th Street and Broadway Road, which housed materials for a garden and pet supply business and a pharmaceutical distribution company, burned to the ground. Similar concerns are being expressed regarding the health impacts associated with that fire.
H.B. 2431 requires AZERC to allow persons required to submit hazardous chemical reports (Tier II inventory forms) to do so electronically to the AZERC internet site. Additionally the bill requires the State Fire Marshal to establish standards for a statewide database that includes hazardous material management plans and hazardous material inventory statements as required by the International Fire Code. The information in this database would be made available electronically to fire departments and districts and public safety agencies around the state.
The fiscal impact of H.B. 2431 is unknown at this time, however, resources will be necessary for the State Fire Marshal to establish the reporting requirements and develop the statewide database.
Reporting of Hazardous Chemicals under the State Emergency
Planning and Community Right-to Know Act
1. Allows persons required to submit an emergency and hazardous chemical inventory form (Tier II inventory form), to AZERC, an LEPC and the fire department with jurisdiction over the facility, to submit that information to AZERC electronically through an internet website maintained by the Commission. Such electronic submissions are deemed to be in compliance with the reporting requirements of Title III of SARA, the Commission, the participating LEPCs and fire departments and districts with jurisdiction for the facility.
2. Requires AZERC to enter into written agreements with LEPCs, fire departments and fire districts for electronic filing and sharing of reports.
3. Requires information collected from emergency and hazardous chemical inventory forms submitted to be made available to the public, except for confidential information.
4. Eliminates references to the obsolete Tier I inventory form.
5. Requires that after research and review, the state fire safety committee shall adopt by rule, state fire code standards for a statewide database that includes data from the hazardous material management plans and the hazardous materials inventory statements requirements of the International Fire Code, as prescribed by the local fire code.
6. Requires local fire departments and districts to supply the information for the database to the State Fire Marshal and requires the database to be developed in consultation with AZERC to avoid duplication of data and reporting requirements.
7. Requires the State Fire Marshal to make the information in the database available electronically to local fire departments and districts and other appropriate public safety agencies including the agencies represented on AZERC and the advisory committee to AZERC (e.g. The Departments of Environmental Quality, Health Services and Transportation)
8. Requires the standards adopted by the state fire safety committee to include a requirement that local fire protection jurisdictions report annually to the State Fire Marshal on the number and type of fires that occurred in the jurisdiction in the preceding year. The State Fire Marshal is to prescribe the format and the contents of this report.
9. Specifies that the adoption and enforcement of the statewide database and the annual reporting requirement on number and type of fires in the state in the state fire code are matters of statewide concern.
10. Establishes a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per day for failure to comply with the reporting requirements for the statewide database. Allows the state or local fire marshal to waive the penalty for a first violation if the person complies with the reporting requirement within 60 days of the receiving the notice of violation. The state or local fire marshal may grant additional time extensions. Penalties are to be deposited to the general fund.
11. Provides for a general effective date.
House Action
EUT 3/1/01 W/D
ENV 2/27/91 DPA/SE 10-0-0-0
3rd Read 3/12/01 53-0-7-0
Prepared by Senate Staff
March 20, 2001