Permit-required Confined Space Program WAC 296-809-300

For printing

Your Responsibility:

To develop your permit-required confined space program and practices

IMPORTANT:

This section applies if employees will enter a permit-required confined space.

You must

WAC 296-809-30002
Develop a written permit-required confined space program

IMPORTANT:

Identify and evaluate the hazards of permit-required confined spaces and the work performed, to assist you in developing your entry program.

You must

• Develop a written program, before employees enter, that describes the means, procedures, and practices you use for the safe entry of permit-required confined spaces as required by this chapter. Include the following when applicable to your confined space entry program:

- Documentation of permit entry procedures

- Documentation used for alternate entry procedures

- How to reclassify permit-required confined spaces to non-permit spaces

- Designation of employee roles, such as entrants, attendants, entry supervisors, rescuers, or those who test or monitor the atmosphere in a permit-required space

- Identification of designated employee duties

- Training employees on their designated roles

- How to identify and evaluate hazards

- Use and maintenance of equipment

- How to prevent unauthorized entry

- How to coordinate entry with another employer

- How to rescue entrants

Note: For alternate entry, your written program only needs to meet the requirements of WAC 296-809-400, Employee Training, and WAC 296-809-600, Alternate Entry Procedures, of this chapter.

You must

• Consult with affected employees and their authorized representatives when developing and implementing all aspects of your permit-required confined space program

• Make the written program available to employees and their authorized representatives

• Update your written program as necessary.

Link: You can find a sample permit-required confined space entry program in the Resources section of this chapter, or by visiting the Labor and Industries website at http://www.lni.wa.gov/wisha/publications/App.

WAC 296-809-30004
Meet these additional requirements if your employees enter another employer’s confined space

You must

• Obtain any available information about permit-required confined space hazards and entry operations from the host employer

• Coordinate entry operations with any other employers whose employees will be working in or near the permit-required confined space

• Inform the host employer, either through a debriefing or during entry operations, about:

- The entry program you will follow

and

- Any hazards you confronted or created in the space during entry operations.

 

Helpful Tool: Example Confined Spaces Entry Program You can find examples of permit space programs in the Resources section of this rule.