Environmental, Health and Safety Brief for July

OSHA plans on issuing two rules before the end of the year. They are preparing to finalize one of those rules in August of this year. That rule is in regard to "Walking Working Surfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems". This was mentioned in last months EHS Brief. The link to the proposed rule: 

https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-05-24/pdf/2010-10418.pdf#page=1

The second rule that is planned for release deals with an employer's obligation to make and maintain accurate records of each recordable injury and illness for five years. OSHA is also looking at developing future rules on combustible dust and preventing back-over injuries and fatalities. Additionally, they are looking at developing more rules on chemical management and permissible exposure limits (PELs). Add to that, Dr. Michaels (Head of OSHA) continues to beat the drum on tossing outdated PELs. Elimination of those outdated PELs would give the Agency the opportunity to use the General Duty Clause when employers are found to be violating exposure limits. Michaels states that employers would be forced to look at the latest research and what protection workers need. In essence this puts industry on the hook to determine the appropriate exposure limits to protect their workers.

A final reminder: Toxic Release Inventory Reporting (TRI) – Time to start collecting data for TRI reports to the TCEQ on or before July 1, 2016 for year 2015.  Refer to the March and May EHS Briefs issue from TXAPA.

Again...as noted in past issues of the EHS Brief... the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) will re-issue the Storm Water General Permit on August 14th. All current TXR05 permits will have to be renewed by mid-November 2016. The TCEQ is to release the final changes to the storm water rule the last week in June or first week in July.