The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) on March 4 expressed deep concern with the release of the US EPA changes to its Risk Management Program (RMP), citing serious national security concerns with new public disclosure requirements.
“The reality is that many of the chemicals that form the foundation of our daily lives could potentially be misused by bad actors,” said TFI President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch. “The last thing the government should be requiring us to do is share that information with anyone who lives, works, or, as the EPA vaguely states in the new rule, ‘spends significant time’ within six miles of a regulated facility. We may as well paint giant bull’s eyes on them.”
Since the RMP was implemented in 1996, Rosenbusch said reportable incidents have decreased by more than 80%. He said this reduction is due to the current system working, with other voluntary industry efforts such as ResponsibleAg also having a positive effect.
“We support regulatory changes where they make sense, and this doesn’t make sense,” he said. “The changes EPA is making to RMP will not only notyield improved safety outcomes, they will make communities lesssafe through dangerous public disclosures of exactly what chemicals, in what amounts, are where.”