EJScreen Indicators Overview – Risk Management Program (RMP) Facility Proximity

What is the RMP facility proximity?

The “RMP facility proximity indicator” measures how close people might live to an active facility with a required Risk Management Plan (potential chemical accident management plan). EJScreen presents RMP facility proximity using percentile rank, ranging from 0 (lowest) to 100 (highest) with higher scores representing closer proximities.

Why is RMP facility proximity important?

• Chemical safety is a top priority of the EPA. The goal of the Risk Management Program (RMP) is to prevent accidental releases of substances that can cause serious harm to the public and to mitigate the severity of releases that do occur.
• Under the Clean Air Act (CAA), the EPA was required to issue a rule specifying the types of actions to be taken by facilities to prevent accidental releases of such hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere and reduce their potential impact on the public and the environment. The rule requires that covered facilities must develop and implement a risk management program and maintain documentation of the program at the site. The risk management program must include an analysis of the potential offsite consequences of a worst-case accidental release, a five-year accident history, a release prevention program, and emergency planning.
• A relatively small subset of all facilities that are regulated by the EPA are required to develop such risk management programs. Potential for “serious harm” is determined based on the types of chemicals and how much of the chemicals are being handled. Proximity to RMP facilities is included in EJScreen because of the potential public health and environmental hazard impacts these facilities can have on a community.

How does EJScreen create the RMP facility proximity indicator?

• The RMP facility proximity indicator is based on the total count of active facilities with required Risk Management Plans in each census block group within 5 km of the average resident in a block group (or the closest within 10 km), divided by distance, and calculated as the population-weighted average of blocks in each block group.
  • RMP facilities are pulled from the EPA Facility Registry Service (FRS) by selecting facilities included in the RMP National Program System.
• For technical details on the calculations and source data, visit the EJScreen Technical Documentation.

Moving Forward – What You Can Do

• Learn how the Risk Management Program (RMP) rule helps prevent chemical accidents and enhances emergency preparedness.
• Access Risk Management Plan information on facilities near you. Risk management plans (RMPs) provide valuable information to local fire, police, and emergency response personnel to prepare for and respond to chemical emergencies in their community. Making RMP information available to the public also fosters communication and awareness to improve accident prevention and emergency response practices at the local level. Learn several ways the public can access or request certain RMP information.