Monday, April 28, 2025
Members of the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Land and Emergency Management to reinstate the agency's Risk Management Program (RMP) Public Data Tool, which EPA introduced on March 1, 2024, but recently removed from its website. This resource presented essential information about chemical facilities regulated under the Clean Air Act’s RMP requirements because they use, manage, or store extremely hazardous substances.
"Restoring and maintaining online access to this information will save lives and is essential for effective hazard communication," reads the coalition letter, which was sent to OLEM Deputy Assistant Administrator Steven Cook. "These data points are neither proprietary nor security sensitive – as shown by the determinations of Congress and EPA that the data be made publicly available. The data points are reported by industry to demonstrate compliance with safety standards, and consist of very basic facility identification, safety, and RMP program registration numbers. Removing these elements from EPA’s website would do nothing to improve security."
