This website origins date from the EPA’s Common Sense Initiative of the late 1990s. One of the subcommittees of the Common Sense Initiative, when investigating issues related to emergency response, emergency planning, redundancy in reporting requirements and the burden on industry, recommended the creation of a software program named the Basic On-Line Disaster Emergency Reporting (B.O.L.D.E.R.) Project. The B.O.L.D.E.R. software was designed to allow facilities with chemical inventories to go beyond the data provided fire departments by EPCRA Tier Two reports, providing roof plans, floor plans, shut off valves, precise locations of tanks of chemicals, etc., and report this data electronically. This software would also allow real-time updating of facility when changes in chemical inventories, locations, floor plans, etc. occurred at a facility. The software, after the facility had entered in the data about the chemicals at the facility, would also generate Tier Two reports, facility emergency plans, Hazardous Materials Management Plans, and other required reports.

As a companion piece to the software, a tutorial website for all stakeholders was created that would provide the basics about EPCRA and other basic issues and information related to chemicals and emergency response. The site was built with the oversight and direction of the Special Operations Unit of the Phoenix Fire Department, which, along with representatives of the Arizona Emergency Response Commission, the Maricopa County LEPC, Don’t Waste Arizona, Inc. (a non-profit environmental organization based in Phoenix that conducted significant citizen-suit enforcement of EPCRA and is very involved with issues related to emergency response), and other stakeholders.

After the funding for the tutorial site expired, Don’t Waste Arizona, Inc. continued sponsorship of the site. When more funding is secured, the site will be updated.