Emergency Planning; Development of External Emergency Plans

External emergency planning is an integral part of the regulations designed to prevent major accidents that could be caused by certain industrial activities and to limit the consequences of such accidents for human health and the environment. It supplements the federal regulations on in-house accident prevention and consequence mitigation for operators of certain facilities and installations by adding measures to be taken outside the facility in the event of an incident.

As part of preventive disaster control, the district administrative authorities must, based on relevant information provided by operators , develop, update, and test emergency response and deployment plans for certain facilities subject to the Major Accidents Ordinance (12th BImSchV).

External emergency plans are developed to

1. contain and bring incidents under control so that the consequences can be minimized and damage to people, natural resources, and property can be limited;
2. initiate measures to protect people and the natural environment from the consequences of major accidents;
3. disseminate necessary information to the public as well as to affected authorities or agencies in the relevant area;
4. initiate cleanup operations and measures to restore natural resources following a serious accident.

The external emergency plan must include information on:

1. The names or positions of the persons authorized to initiate emergency measures and to carry out and coordinate measures outside the plant premises;
2. arrangements for receiving early warnings, triggering alarms, and notifying emergency response teams;
3. Arrangements for coordinating the resources necessary to implement the external emergency plan;
4. Arrangements for supporting remedial actions on the company premises;
5. Arrangements for remedial measures outside the facility premises, including response measures for major accident scenarios as described in the safety report and consideration of possible domino effects, including those affecting the natural environment;
6. Provisions for informing the public and all neighboring establishments or sites not covered by Directive 2012/18/EU about the accident and the appropriate course of action;
7. Arrangements for notifying emergency response teams from other Member States of the European Communities in the event of a major accident with potential cross-border consequences.