4.4: HAZMAT

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Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER)

General

Unless the employer can demonstrate that the operation does not involve employee exposure or the reasonable possibility for employee exposure to safety or health hazards, the Hazwoper Standard covers:

Clean-up operations required by a governmental body, whether Federal, state, local, or other, involving hazardous substances that are conducted at uncontrolled hazardous waste sites (including, but not limited to, the EPA's National Priority Site List (NPL), state priority site lists, sites recommended for the EPA NPL, and initial
Investigations of government identified sites which are conducted before the presence or absence of hazardous substances has been ascertained);
Corrective actions involving clean-up operations at sites covered by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) as amended (42 U. C. 6901 et seq.
Voluntary clean-up operations at sites recognized by federal, state, local, or other governmental bodies as uncontrolled hazardous waste sites;
Operations involving hazardous wastes that are conducted at treatment, storage, and disposal (TSD) facilities regulated by 40 CFR parts 264 and 265 pursuant to RCRA; or by agencies under agreement with U.P.A. to implement RCRA regulations; and
Emergency response operations for releases of, or substantial threats of releases of, hazardous substances without regard to the location of the hazard.

Applicable requirements

All requirements of part 1910 and part 1926 of title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations apply pursuant to their terms to hazardous waste and emergency response operations whether covered by this section or not. If there is a conflict or overlap, the provision more protective of employee safety and health shall apply.

Safety and Health Program

Employers shall develop and implement a written safety and health program for their employees involved in hazardous waste operations. The program shall be designed to identify, evaluate, and control safety and health hazards, and provide for emergency response for hazardous waste operations.

Communications with employees

Any information concerning the chemical, physical, and toxicological properties of each substance known or expected to be present on site that is available to the employer and relevant to the duties an employee is expected to perform shall be made available to the affected employees prior to the commencement of their work activities. The employer may utilize information developed for the hazard communication standard for this purpose.

Communications with contractors and sub-contractors

An employer who retains contractor or sub-contractor services for work in hazardous waste operations shall inform those contractors sub-contractors, or their representatives of the site emergency response procedures and any potential fire, explosion, health, safety or other hazards of the hazardous waste operation that have been identified by the employer, including those identified in the employer's information program.

Availability of safety and health program

The written safety and health program shall be made available to any contractor or subcontractor or their representative who will be involved with the hazardous waste operation; to employees; to employee designated representatives; to OSHA personnel, and to personnel of other Federal state, or local agencies with regulatory authority over the site.

Training

All employees working on site (such as, but not limited to, equipment operators, general laborers and others) exposed to hazardous substances health hazards, or safety hazards and their supervisors and management responsible for the site shall receive training meeting the requirements of 1926.65 (e) before they are permitted to engage in hazardous waste operations that could expose them to hazardous substances, safety, or health hazards, and they shall receive review training as specified in this section.

Employees shall not be permitted to participate in or supervise field activities until they have been trained to a level required by their job function and responsibility.

General site workers (such as equipment operators, general laborers and supervisory personnel) engaged in hazardous substance removal or other activities which expose or potentially expose workers to hazardous substances and health hazards shall receive a minimum of 40 hours of instruction off the site, and a minimum of three days actual field experience under the direct supervision of a trained, experienced supervisor.

Workers on site only occasionally

Workers on site only occasionally for a specific limited task (such as, but not limited to, ground water monitoring, land surveying, or geo-physical surveying) and who are unlikely to be exposed over permissible exposure limits and published exposure limits shall receive a minimum of 24 hours of instruction off site, and the minimum of one day actual field experience under the direct supervision of a trained, experienced supervisor.

Workers regularly on site

Workers regularly on site who work in areas which have been monitored and fully characterized indicating that exposures are under permissible exposure limits and published exposure limits where respirators are not necessary, and the characterization indicates that there are no health hazards or the possibility of an emergency developing, shall receive a minimum of 24 hours of instruction off site and the minimum of one day actual field experience under the direct supervision of a trained experienced supervisor.

On-site management and supervisors

On-site management and supervisors directly responsible for, or who supervise employees engaged in, hazardous waste operations shall receive 40 hours initial training, and three days of supervised field experience (the training may be reduced to 24 hours and one day if the only area of their responsibility is employees covered by paragraphs (e)(3)(ii) and (e)(3)(iii)) and at least eight additional hours of specialized training at the time of job assignment on such topics as, but not limited to the employer's safety and health program and the associated employee training program, personal protective equipment program, spill containment program, and health hazard monitoring procedure and techniques.

Authorized workers

Work at any hazardous waste site is strictly monitored. Only employees who have received adequate training as detailed above are permitted to work on such sites. The Hazmat Standard is a multi-faceted complex standard and has only been covered briefly in this section. If you are working for an employer who performs work on these types of sites be sure that you receive the proper training before beginning work on the site.