HAZWOPER and Spills

Facilities Check List
Practical, step-by-step guides for the busy FM
January 2002

HAZWOPER and Spills

HAZWOPER, the definitive U.S. hazardous waste operations and emergency response standard, (29 CFR 1910.120) is designed to protect employees who are expected to respond to uncontrolled releases of hazardous substances.

Potential releases of hazardous substances in the workplace can be divided into three distinct types in terms of the planning provisions of the regulations. Understanding these distinctions is fundamental to proper compliance with the HAZWOPER standard.

These three distinctions of releases are:

• Releases that are clearly incidental, regardless of the circumstances
• Releases that may be incidental or may require an emergency response, depending on the circumstances
• Releases that clearly require an emergency response, regardless of the circumstances

Incidental Releases

The scope of the HAZWOPER standard does not cover the release of a hazardous substance that is limited in quantity and poses no emergency or significant threat to the safety and health of employees in the immediate vicinity. It does not have the potential to become an emergency within a short period of time. This type of release is referred to as an incidental release in OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.120(a)(3). An incidental release can be absorbed, neutra-lized, or otherwise controlled by employees in the immediate area. Incidental releases are limited in quantity, exposure potential, or toxicity; they present minor safety or health hazards.

Circumstantial Releases

The properties of hazardous substances &#151 such as toxicity, volatility, flammability, explosiveness, and corrosiveness &#151 as well as the particular circumstances of the release itself &#151 such as quantity, confined space considerations, and ventilation &#151 determine what employees can handle safely and what procedures should be followed. Additional factors that may mitigate the hazards associated with a release and its remediation include the knowledge of the employee in the immediate work area, the response and personal protective equipment at hand, and the pre-established standard operating procedures for responding to releases of hazardous substances. Some engineering control measures will also mitigate a release when employees activate them to help control and stop the release.

These considerations &#151 properties of the hazardous substance, the circumstances of the release, and the mitigation factors in the work area &#151 combine to define the distinction between incidental releases and releases that require an emergency response. The distinction is facility specific and is a function of the emergency response plan.

For example, a spill of the solvent toluene in a facility that manufactures toluene may not require an emergency response because of the advanced knowledge of personnel in the immediate vicinity and the equipment available to absorb and clean up the spill. The same spill inside a furniture refinishing shop, however, with personnel who have had only the basic hazard communication training on toluene, may require an emergency response by more highly trained personnel. In this case, the emergency response plan for the furniture refinishing shop would call for evacuation of personnel for all but the most minor spills, whereas evacuation and emergency response would be necessary only for much larger spills at the chemical manufacturing facility.

True Emergencies

By their very nature, some releases of hazardous substances pose a significant enough threat to health and safety to require an emergency response regardless of the circumstances surrounding the release or the mitigating factors. An employer must determine the potential for an emergency in a reasonably predictable worst-case scenario, referred to as an anticipated emergency, and plan response procedures accordingly.

An emergency response includes, but is not limited to, the following situations:

• The response comes from outside the immediate release area (the local fire department, for example).
• The release requires evacuation of employees in the area.
• The release poses, or has the potential to pose, conditions that are immediately dangerous to life and health.
• The release poses a serious threat of fire or explosion, meaning that it exceeds or has the potential to exceed the predetermined lower explosive limit (LEL) or lower flammable limit (LFL).
• The release requires immediate attention because of imminent danger.
• The release may cause high levels of exposure to toxic substances.
• The employee in the work area may be unable to handle the severity of the hazard with the personal protective equipment and emergency equipment provided, and the exposure limit could easily be exceeded.
• The situation is unclear, or data is lacking on important factors.

This installment of FM Check List is adapted from BOMI Institute’s Environmental Health and Safety Issues (www.bomi-edu.org/19092.html), course in BOMI Institute’s Real Property Administrator (RPA), Facilities Management Administrator (FMA) and Systems Maintenance Administrator (SMA) designation programs.