A bill included in the federal budget bill signed into law exempts fertilizer retailers from having to be subject to Process Safety Management for hazardous chemicals.
Ag Retailers Association President Daren Coppock says ag retailers had been exempt for 22 years when OSHA released a memo in July that bypassed the rule making process to include them.
"It does not make sense in a retail context," Coppock says. "All you’re doing is transferring that product from an inbound rail car or an inbound truck to a storage facility—and then moving that again to some other vehicle to transport out to the field and apply it to the farm.”
Coppock says the Occupational, Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said it was responding to the explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas that did not involve anhydrous ammonia but ammonium nitrate.
“It has been frustrating that we’ve had to go the legislative route," Coppock says. "We’ve had to go to court. We tried to meet with OSHA and explain to them what the impact is and how the solution doesn’t fit the problem and got nowhere. So, that’s why we had to pursue these other courses. But, unfortunately, it takes a lot of effort once an agency’s got its idea in mind.”
Coppock says the lawsuit filed by the Ag Retailers Association and The Fertilizer Institute against OSHA in federal appeals court will move forward. This legislation only applies through next September.
Source: www.brownfieldagnews.com