On December 23, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a revised Interim Enforcement Policy stating that ag retailers with ammonia storage facilities that are newly covered by the Process Safety Management (PSM) Standard will now have until September 30, 2016 to comply.  Previously, the compliance date was July 22, 2016.  

 

This change comes as a direct result of language that was included in the 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Joint Explanatory Report that congress passed last month. The language directed OSHA not to implement the change in interpretation to the “retail exemption” until the Department of Commerce creates an agricultural retail NAICS code, and OSHA goes through a formal notice and comment rulemaking process. The appropriations bill is only effective through the end of the Federal fiscal year (September 30, 2016), and because of this OSHA is only prohibited from implementing the retail facility interpretation change until then.

 

Both TFI and ARA worked together to get the language in the explanatory report. While IFCA is disappointed that OSHA hasn’t committed to a full notice and comment rulemaking, we will advocate for inclusion of the prohibition in future spending bills so that the agency cannot enforce the retail facility interpretation change until they go through a formal notice and comment rulemaking.

 

IFCA is offering a special training session at the IFCA Convention on January 21, 2016 where we will go into detail on the new Illinois Anhydrous Ammonia Regulations which will be published in early 2016, as well as review the elements of PSM that you can begin working on to prepare for the September 2016 compliance date.  Brian Bothast from the OSHA office in Peoria will also be at the session to answer questions about the rule and their inspection and enforcement program.  Ag retailers with ammonia have a significant investment in time and equipment ahead of them, so we encourage you to register to attend this special session and get started on this important enhancements to your operations.  To register for the IFCA convention and the Anhydrous Ammonia Rules/PSM session on January 21, please click here.