The Illinois Department of Agriculture has finalized changes to the Illinois Anhydrous Ammonia rules, known as Part 215.  The rules were effective on July 1, 2016 but there are many provisions in the rules that have a later effective date of December 31, 2020 to allow time for our industry to implement upgrades and facility changes in order to fully comply.  To assist our members in understanding the major changes in these rules, IFCA has prepared a compliance guide that features various sections of the rules highlighted with photos and the corresponding compliance date pertaining to the different sections of the rule.  

 

A copy of the final rule as well as the IFCA NH3 Compliance Guide is available on our website at www.ifca.com, and located as the first item on our homepage.  Next week, we will be mailing the compliance guide to our ag retail and fertilizer and equipment distributor members along with the IFCA summer newsletter, so that you will have a nice color copy of the compliance guide to keep at your business as a reference document.  But in the meantime, you can also print the rules and the guide from our website.  

 

These rules will help ensure improved safety, technology and efficiency for ammonia storage facilities, containers and equipment, and also enable you to better comply with many of the OSHA Process Safety Management requirements in terms of equipment upgrades that are based on the most current national standards for ammonia storage.  In August, IFCA is organizing a meeting of ammonia contractors to go over the PSM rules and help prepare the contractors to assist our industry not only with equipment upgrades, but also with PSM documentation for work performed by contractors at your facilities.  OSHA just announced they are raising their penalties for violations effective August 1, 2016, going from $7,000 per violation up to $12,471.  As of today, compliance with PSM is still required by October 1, 2016. 

 

Please, if you have ANY questions about the new ammonia rules or PSM, contact the IFCA office at 309.827.2774.  We can assist you with all aspects of the regulations and are able to visit your location to offer advice and recommendations regarding compliance.