§ 7703 — Purpose, goal and scope

(a) The purpose of this chapter is to protect the lives and health of citizens of the State living and working in the vicinity of facilities with extremely hazardous substances.

(b) This chapter is concerned with the prevention of sudden releases of EHS and the generation of pressure waves and thermal exposures beyond the property boundaries of the facility where they occur and the catastrophic health consequences caused by short-term exposures to such accidental releases. This chapter has the goal of prevention of such catastrophic events by requiring responsible person or persons having extremely hazardous substances on-site to take all feasible actions needed to minimize the probability of catastrophic events. It is the intent of this chapter to complement and be enforced in conjunction with other laws. The Department may, by regulation, exempt or establish a greater threshold quantity for an agriculture nutrient when exclusively used as an agricultural nutrient and held by a farmer. The Department shall, by regulation, determine whether other laws provide equal or more stringent protection according to the purpose of this chapter. In such instances, the Department may exempt a process containing an EHS from all or part of the elements of the risk management program developed under § 7709 of this title.

(c) Responsible person(s) from a regulated facility may select cost-effective methods of achieving the purpose of this chapter where a risk management program appropriate to the risk is in effect. EHS already under the jurisdiction of other laws may continue to be used subject to this chapter. Individual containers of EHS for retail sale only are not regulated by this chapter.

Legislative History

66 Del. Laws, c. 417, § 1 ; 71 Del. Laws, c. 308, § 1