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May 2008 — Vol. 86, No. 4

CAPITOL REPORTER

CBIA opposes creation of more regulations covering past spills

 

The Department of Environmental Protection’s Release Reporting Advisory Group has begun assembling its initial recommendations on regulations that would clarify what types of spills need to be reported to the DEP. 

For decades, the law has been unclear on this question. As a result, industry is uncertain of its compliance requirements, and DEP is using valuable resources processing thousands of reports each year on spills that present no environmental or public health concerns. 

The DEP assembled the Release Reporting Advisory Group — the third such effort in nearly 15 years — in response to a CBIA legislative initiative last year that urged the state to address this problem. 

Unfortunately, some people are trying to have the advisory group’s mission broadly expanded. They want the mission to include considering the creation of additional reporting requirements for the discovery of spills that occurred in the past. The state and DEP already have several programs that ensure that most significant historic releases will come to the department’s attention. These include the “imminent and substantial hazards” statute as well as DEP’s underground storage tank, transfer act, hazardous waste and PCB programs. 

CBIA is urging the DEP to limit the scope of the regulations to clarifying for industry when a spill is considered to have occurred, regardless of whether or not the spill needs to be reported to the DEP.

For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric Brown at 860-244-1926.