Title 40

SECTION 68.81

68.81 Incident investigation.

§ 68.81 Incident investigation.

(a) The owner or operator shall investigate each incident which resulted in, or could reasonably have resulted in a catastrophic release.

(b) An incident investigation shall be initiated as promptly as possible, but not later than 48 hours following the incident.

(c) An incident investigation team shall be established and consist of at least one person knowledgeable in the process involved, including a contract employee if the incident involved work of the contractor, and other persons with appropriate knowledge and experience to thoroughly investigate and analyze the incident.

(d) A report shall be prepared at the conclusion of the investigation which includes at a minimum:

(1) Date of incident;

(2) Date investigation began;

(3) A description of the incident;

(4) The factors that contributed to the incident; and,

(5) Any recommendations resulting from the investigation.

(e) The owner or operator shall establish a system to promptly address and resolve the incident report findings and recommendations. Resolutions and corrective actions shall be documented.

(f) The report shall be reviewed with all affected personnel whose job tasks are relevant to the incident findings including contract employees where applicable.

(g) Incident investigation reports shall be retained for five years.

[61 FR 31722, June 20, 1996, as amended at 82 FR 4701, Jan. 13, 2017; 84 FR 69914, Dec. 19, 2019]

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