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The General Duty Clause
The General Duty Clause was enacted by Congress in Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The purpose of the General Duty Clause is to make owners and operators of facilities with regulated and hazardous substances responsible for ensuring that their chemicals are managed safely. Even though Florida has received delegation to administer the Risk Management Plans Florida does not administer the General Duty Cause. The General Duty Clause is only administered by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
For more information please see the U. S. EPA's Fact Sheet on the General Duty Clause.
GENERAL DUTY CLAUSE
TITLE III-HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANTS
"SEC. 112. HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANTS.
...
"(r) Prevention of Accidental Releases.-
"(1) Purpose and general duty.-It shall be the objective of the
regulations and programs authorized under this subsection to
prevent the accidental release and to minimize the consequences
of any such release of any substance listed pursuant to paragraph
(3) or any other extremely hazardous substance. The owners and
operators of stationary sources producing, processing, handling
or storing such substances have a general duty in the same manner
and to the same extent as section 654, title 29 of the United
States Code, to identify hazards which may result from such
releases using appropriate hazard assessment tech-
niques, to design and maintain a safe facility taking such steps
as are necessary to prevent releases, and to minimize the
consequences of accidental releases which do occur. For purposes
of this paragraph, the provisions of section 304 shall not be
available to any person or otherwise be construed to be
applicable to this paragraph. Nothing in this section shall be
interpreted, construed, implied or applied to create any
liability or basis for suit for compensation for bodily injury or
any other injury or property damages to any person which may
result from accidental releases of such substances.