Compliance Auditing of Pressure Relief Systems

Pressure relief systems are a critical area for evaluation in compliance audits. This article provides guidance for developing an audit protocol, gathering required documentation, and documenting and presenting audit findings.

Pressure relief systems are considered a part of compliance audits for processes covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Process Safety Management (PSM) standard (1) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Risk Management Plan (RMP) (2). The proper device design documentation of pressure relief valve systems is an explicit requirement of the process safety information (PSI) element of these standards, while proper inspection and testing of these systems is an explicit requirement of the mechanical integrity (MI) element of these standards. Additionally, several other elements of these standards have implicit requirements related to pressure relief systems.

This article evaluates the specific language of these standards to provide guidance regarding their application to pressure relief systems, and discusses techniques for evaluating pressure relief systems within the context of a compliance audit. Additionally, this article provides examples of audit findings.