ILTA held its annual spring Environment, Health & Safety and Security Committee virtually on March 29-April 1, featuring four days of fantastic discussion on significant matters affecting the tank terminals industry.
Nearly 120 members attended the full committee meeting on day one, where they learned about the national and state efforts to ban or limit the use of PFAS chemicals and discuss how the industry should position itself to deal with the potential loss of PFAS-based firefighting foams. The full committee also received a preview of ILTA's new communications toolkit, designed for use by ILTA membership to educate the community and policymakers on the importance of bulk liquid storage.
Over the next three days, individual committee meetings covered a wide variety of issues. For example, the Environment Subcommittee meeting centered on ILTA’s growing environment, social and governance initiative, as the industry moves toward greater environmental consciousness and works to provide ESG information increasingly demanded by shareholders.
Megan Berge of Baker Botts LLP presented on the Biden administration’s environmental priorities and how his administration is looking to reshape the regulatory landscape in Washington. She expects Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice to emphasize environmental justice while taking a hard look at NAAQS and PFAS regulations.
Day three’s Health & Safety Subcommittee meeting featured experts from Conn Maciel Carey LLP on COVID-19 workplace regulatory changes and the legal implications thereof. They claim that the Biden administration is determined to roll out vaccines as quickly as possible to control the spread of COVID, while strengthening employee protections in the workplace. They also discussed a company’s role in encouraging workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and stressed a robust discussion of the pros and cons – including legal implications – before requiring employees to take the vaccine to return to the workplace.
The Security Subcommittee met the last day, and it received an update on ILTA’s continuing engagement with the U.S. Coast Guard and RAND Corporation on the upcoming TWIC Reader Rule regulations. In the months since the last EHSS meeting, ILTA connected frequently with both parties for clarification on the physical security changes mandated by the rule, which is set to take effect in 2023. As it stands, USCG continues to develop a letter of clarification while RAND is looking to survey members of the terminals industry to determine the impact of TWIC rules on terminal facilities.
In total, over 170 people registered for the multi-day event, making it one of ILTA's most successful EHSS Committee meetings to date. Because ILTA’s conference and trade show is moving to October this year, the next EHSS meeting, usually held in September, will likely shift to the summer or late fall.
Presentations and recordings from the spring meetings are available on ILTA's website after logging into your membership account: https://www.ilta.org/Events-Training/EHS-S-Committee-March-Meetings