This year, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) changed the Asbestos Regulations to allow schools to publish asbestos management plan notifications using electronic media, as well as by mail.

This is huge – school systems have more options for notifying parents, teachers, and employees of the availability of their asbestos management plans. Why is this huge?
Now, school systems can publish the notification by text, email, or website posting, in addition to regular mail. Before schools really only had the option of hard copy notification. And someone working for the school system had to remember to publish the notification each year!
This is directly from the regulation (LAC 33:III:2723):

F. Copies of the management plan shall be made available, and notification of their availability shall be given as follows.

1. Upon submission of a management plan for review, a local education agency or state government shall keep a copy of the plan in its administrative office. The management plans shall be available, without cost or restriction, for inspection by representatives of EPA and the state, and the public, including parents, teachers, other school or public personnel, and their representatives. The local education agency or the state government may charge a reasonable cost to make copies of management plans.

2. Each local education agency or the state government shall maintain in its administrative office a complete, updated copy of a management plan for each school or state building under its administrative control or direction. The management plans shall be available, during normal business hours, without cost or restriction, for inspection by representatives of EPA and the state and the public, including teachers, other school personnel and their representatives, and parents. The local education agency or the state government may charge a reasonable cost to make copies of management plans.

3. Each school or state building shall maintain in its administrative office, or in a central location approved by the administrative authority, a complete, updated copy of the management plan for that school or state building. Management plans shall be available for inspection, without cost or restriction, to workers before work begins in any area of a school or state building. The school or state building shall make management plans available for inspection to representatives of EPA and the state and to the public, including parents, teachers, and other school or public personnel and their representatives within five working days after receiving a request for inspection. The school or state building may charge a reasonable cost to make copies of the management plan.

4. Upon submission of its management plan and at least once each year, the local education agency or the state government shall provide notice to parents, teachers, and employees of the availability of management plans by one or more of the following: letter, e-mail, text message, or website post. The management plan shall include a description of the steps taken to provide notice and a dated copy of the notification.
Obviously I’m emphasizing paragraph 4. above. I think this could save you a bunch of time and headache. Broadcast emails and texts can work too, but that may take quite a while to set up.
So if you’re working for a Louisiana school system, and one or more of your facilities has asbestos, and you’re maintaining an asbestos management plan, it may be worth changing the homepage for each affected school to include the notice – once the website is posted, the site remains available, and you won’t have to remember to publish each year because it’s already done!
Maybe not a huge time saver, but once IT does this, all you need to do is make sure the notice remains on the website. Instant and lasting compliance.
How do you deal with lighting issues at your facility? Please share your stories with me, and I’ll be glad to share with others (after changing names and places to protect privacy).
If you need help getting this done, I have example language you can use, and can help your IT department get this done. Please call or email me.
Stay tech savvy, my friends.
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