RMP & PSM Regulations in New York | Blog No. 34

Most states do not have their own version of the RMP and PSM regulations. One notable exception is California, which has the California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) and California Process Safety Management regulations. These are enforced at the state and local level. While generalizations are sometimes incorrect, they are most often helpful. Here is a relevant observation: generally speaking, the bluer a state is (politically speaking), the stricter their regulatory environment will be. This means California and New York are likelier to have stricter policies and enforcement on issues of safety and the environment compared to states such as Wyoming and Alabama.

Recently, my Project Coordinator and I had a discussion with a PSM Manager about conducting their Compliance Audit and offering APSM's Catalyst Software. The conversation was unique because this gentleman's facility is located in the state of New York. Going into the discussion, I believed there to be a separate RMP or PSM regulation for the state of New York—though I did not have any firsthand experience with it.

A quick Google search yielded a result for a New York-specific Risk Management Plan: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/dep/downloads/pdf/about/community-right-to-know/risk-management-plan-requirements.pdf. These requirements are above and beyond the Federal EPA's Risk Management Program. For example, the regulation requires the involvement of a professional engineer (P.E.). At first, it seemed this regulation applied to whole state of New York. Since this was the first time I had seen such requirements, I reached out to the good folks at the Industrial Refrigeration Consortium associated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to see if they had any more context.

To my surprise, this regulation does not apply to the whole state, but only to five NYC counties: Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Statin Island (per Dr. Douglas Reindl). For those facilities in these counties, be sure to read up on your specific requirement. For facilities in New York counties not listed above—rejoice! This informational blog should help clarify the regulatory environment in the blue state of New York.