ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Phoenix, Arizona
FINAL
REVISED
(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 a nationally recognized fire code as prescribed by local fire codes. The information in this database would be made available electronically to fire departments and districts and public safety agencies around the state.
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee staff estimates that the first year costs for studying and developing the statewide database to be maintained by the State Fire Marshal at $535,000. The ongoing annual costs of developing and maintaining the database are estimated at $289,000 per year. H.B. 2431 appropriates $410,000 in FY 2001-2002 and $158,000 in FY 2002-2003 from the state general fund to the Department of Building and Fire Safety.
In her veto message the Governor stated that the bill was creating a new state program when there is not adequate funding to continue many of the State's existing commitments and that the dollars appropriated are insufficient for the Fire Marshal's office to perform its newly established functions. She further stated that the bill does not coordinate the management of the information between the Division of Emergency Management in the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs and the State Fire Marshal's office.
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 AZERC to provide alternative methods for the dissemination of reports to fire departments and fire districts that do not have electronic information exchange capabilities.
4. Requires information collected from emergency and hazardous chemical inventory forms submitted to be made available to the public, except for confidential information.
5. Eliminates references to the obsolete Tier I inventory form.
6. 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 a nationally recognized fire code, whether modified or unmodified, as prescribed by the local fire code.
7. 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.
8. Specifies that regulated entities are not required to separately report hazardous materials management plan and hazardous materials inventory statement information to the state.
9. Requires the State Fire Marshal, by rule, to provide alternative methods for reporting and disseminating hazardous chemical information by fire departments and fire districts that do not have electronic information exchange capabilities.
10. 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)
11. 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 rules are to specify the format and the contents of this report.
12. 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.
13. Establishes a civil penalty of up to $1000 per day for failure to comply with the reporting requirements for the statewide database, capped at $5,000 per violation. Prescribes criteria for the court to consider when determining the amount of the penalty. Requires the 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 local fire marshal may grant additional time extensions upon a showing of good cause. Penalties are to be deposited to the general fund.
14. Appropriates $410,000 in FY 2001-2002 and $158,000 in FY 2002-2003 from the state general fund to the Department of Building and Fire Safety for the purpose of complying with the requirements to research and develop the statewide database for hazardous material management plans and hazardous material inventory statements.
15. Specifies that these appropriations are exempt from lapsing, except monies remaining unexpended and unencumbered on June 30, 2003 revert to the state general fund.
16. Provides for a general effective date.
Amendments Adopted by the NRAE Committee
1.
Requires the AZERC and
the State Fire Marshal to provide alternative methods for reporting and
receiving hazardous chemical information by fire departments and fire districts
that do not have electronic information exchange capabilities.
2.
Makes several
necessary technical corrections.
Amendments Adopted by the APPROP Committee
1. Appropriates $535,000 in FY 2001-2002 and $283,000 in FY 2002-2003 from the state general fund to the Department of Building and Fire Safety for the purpose of complying with the requirements to research and develop the statewide database for hazardous material management plans and hazardous material inventory statements.
2. Specifies that these appropriations are exempt from lapsing, except monies remaining unexpended and unencumbered on June 30, 2003 revert to the state general fund.
Amendments Adopted by
Committee of the Whole
1.
Specifies
that the fire code to be used by the State Fire Safety Committee in
establishing the statewide database for hazardous materials management plans
and hazardous materials inventory statements is a nationally recognized fire
code, whether modified or unmodified, as prescribed by the local fire code.
2.
Specifies
that regulated entities are not required to separately report hazardous
materials management plan and hazardous materials inventory statement
information to the state.
3.
Reduces
the daily penalty for failure to report hazardous materials management plans
and hazardous materials inventory statements as required pursuant to the State
Fire Marshal’s statewide database program from $1,000 per day to $100 per day
and caps the maximum total fine for each reporting violation at $1,000.
4.
Requires,
rather than allows, the State Fire Marshall or local fire marshals to waive the
penalty for a first time violation if the entity complies with the reporting
requirements for the State Fire Marshal’s statewide database within 60 days of
receiving a notice of violation.
5.
Clarifies
that the penalties apply to persons who fail to report hazardous materials
management plans and hazardous materials inventory statements to the local fire
departments and not to the local fire departments for failure to report to the
State Fire Marshal.
6.
Reduces
the general fund appropriations to the Department of Building and Fire Safety
for the statewide database to $410,000 in FY 2001-2002 and $158,000 in FY
2002-2003.
7.
Makes
technical and conforming changes.
Amendments Adopted by the
Free Conference Committee
1.
Increases
the proposed maximum daily civil penalty for failure to comply with reporting
requirement for the statewide database from $100 per day to $1,000 per day and
caps the total civil penalty for any single violation at $5,000. A violation for failure to report accrues on
the first day after which the person was first obligated to report.
2.
Prescribes
criteria to be considered by the court when determining the appropriate civil
penalty.
3.
Specifies
that it is the local fire marshal that may grant additional extensions of time
for complying with the reporting requirements for the statewide database upon a
showing of good cause.
4.
Clarifies
that it is the local fire marshal that is to provide the data received from
entities on their hazardous materials management plans and hazardous materials
inventory statements to the State Fire Marshal for inclusion in the statewide
database.
Senate Action House Action
NRAE 3/29/01 DPA 7-0-1-0 EUT 3/1/01 W/D
APPROP 4/18/01 DPA 12-0-0-0 ENV 2/27/01 DPA/SE 10-0-0-0
3rd Read 4/30/01 26-3-1 3rd Read 3/12/01 53-0-7-0
Final Read 5/3/01 22-7-1 Final Read 5/2/01 46-0-5-0
Vetoed by Governor 5/9/01
Prepared by Senate Staff
May 29, 2001