Environmental Services Information
Documents & Links
Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA)
This law required EPA to promulgate regulations (e.g., the Asbestos-Containing Materials in Schools Rule) requiring local educational agencies to inspect their school buildings for asbestos-containing building material, prepare asbestos management plans, and perform asbestos response actions to prevent or reduce asbestos hazards.
AHERA also tasked EPA with developing a model plan for states for accrediting persons conducting asbestos inspection and corrective-action activities at schools. The Toxic Substances Control Act defines asbestos as the asbestiform varieties of chrysotile (serpentine); crocidolite (riebeckite); amosite (cummingtonite/grunerite); anthophyllite; tremolite; and actinolite.
Hazardous Materials Business Plans (HMBP)
The goal of the Hazardous Materials Business Plan program is to protect human and environmental health from adverse effects due to the storage or potential release of hazardous materials to the environment. This is accomplished by documenting the amounts and locations of hazardous materials so that emergency responders can effectively protect the public. HMBPs are also required by Community Right-To-Know laws.
Storage of any hazardous materials at or above State-defined threshold quantities makes a facility subject to the HMBP program. The threshold quantities are 55 gallons of a liquid, 200 cubic feet of a gas, and 500 pounds of a solid.
Cal/EPA Hazardous Materials Business Plans
Hazardous Materials Business Plans - Sonoma County Safety & Health Unit
Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule (RRP)
EPA's Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting (RRP) Rule requires that firms performing renovation, repair, and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, childcare facilities, and pre-schools built before 1978 be certified by EPA (or an EPA-authorized state), use certified renovators who are trained by EPA-approved training providers and follow lead-safe work practices.