The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released guidance on the agency’s “Accidental Release Reporting Rule,” which went into effect in March 2020.  The new guidance is provided so that facilities with chemical substances may better understand the rule and comply with the requirement to submit a report to the CSB within eight hours after an accidental release has occurred that results in a fatality, serious injury or substantial property damage.

The CSB’s guidance document clarifies key terms found in the reporting regulation, such as what constitutes regulated substances for the reporting requirement and the threshold amounts related to property damage for which reporting is required.  The guidance also addresses specific scenarios and emphasizes that if an owner or operator is unsure about whether to report a release to the CSB, they should do so, rather than risk violating the rule by failing to report.  The guidance makes clear that while there is no sanction for reporting an accidental release that, in retrospect, did not have to be reported, the failure to make a required report could result in an enforcement action.