The U. S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has initiated
enforcement actions against
hundreds of facilities that reported
late to the Toxics Release
Inventory (TRI). Late reporters
and others who violate the
Emergency Planning and Commu-
nity Right-to-Know Act
(EPCRA) could face penalties up
to $27,500 per violation, per day.
Under EPCRA section 313
covered facilities that manufac-
ture, process, or otherwise use
specified toxic chemicals must
submit annual reports to EPA and
a state-designated agency each
year by July 1 st, for the previous
year's activity. Failing to meet
the July 1st deadline is a
violation of law and often
deprives communities of their
right to know timely information
about local toxic chemical
releases.
EPCRA was enacted following
a deadly release of methyl
isocyanate in December, 1984, in
Bhopal, India, and a serious
release of the same chemical
shortly thereafter by a sister
chemical plant in West Virginia.
These incidents demonstrated the
necessity for emergency planning
for catastrophic chemical
releases and public scrutiny of
local releases of toxic chemicals.
Against this background, the
community Right-to-Know
provision of EPCRA section 313
was enacted in 1986 to inform
the public, governments, and
industry about the presence and
quantities of toxic chemicals in
their communities. EPCRA
section 313 requires certain
industrial facilities to annually
report data to EPA and the states
on its releases and other waste
management activities for certain
toxic chemicals and for EPA to
make the data available to the
public in a database-the Toxics
Release Inventory.
The TRI covers over 650 toxic
chemicals and chemical catego-
ries from most industrial and
chemical-using business sectors.
TRI reports document chemical
releases into the local environ-
ment, including how much of each
chemical was released into the
air, water and land, other waste
management activities, and
whether chemicals were trans-
ported from the reporting facility
for disposal, treatment, recycling
or energy recovery. This annual
accounting of the nation's
management of industrial toxic
chemicals is a valuable source of
information for concerned
individuals and communities.
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After the July 1 reporting
deadline, EPA compiles the data
into an annual report called the
Public Data Release (PDR) and
makes this information available
to the public. In order to
provide this information to the
public, EPA takes a snapshot of
the data each year. The Agency
has determined that every year
millions of pounds of toxic
chemical releases are not
included in the PDR Report and
State Fact Sheets and released
late on the Internet due to the
growing number of late submis-
sions. Failing to meet the
deadline therefore, may defeat
the very purpose of the Act.
Governments, communities,
and industry use TRI data as one
tool to make decisions about the
human health and environmental
impacts of local toxic chemical
releases. For example, the TRI
empowers communities to begin
dialogues with local facilities in
order to encourage emission
reductions, pollution prevention
plans, and improved safety
measures. Public interest
groups, governments, academi-
cians, and others use TRI data to
educate the public about toxic
chemical releases and potential
risks. Federal, state and local
governments use TRI data to set
priorities and allocate environ-
mental protection resources to the
most pressing problems. Finally,
industry uses TRI data to identify
pollution prevention opportuni-
ties, set goals for toxic chemical
release reductions, and reduce or
eliminate emissions.
TRI Reports must be submitted
by July 1st each year. Because
late reporting deprives citizens of
complete and accurate informa-
tion about toxic chemical releases
and waste management activities
in their communities, EPA takes
seriously the failure of facilities
to report in a timely manner. EPA
data indicate that over 600
facilities, collectively, accounted
for the late reporting of more than
a billion pounds of toxic
chemicals in reporting years 2000
and 2001. Due to this untimely
EPA data indicate that over 600 facilities,
collectively, accounted for the late
reporting of more than a billion pounds of
toxic chemicals in reporting years 2000
and 2001. Due to this untimely reporting,
EPA could not include these releases in the
Public Data Releases for those years.
reporting, EPA could not include
these releases in the Public Data
Releases for those years.
Therefore, facilities that fail to
report in a timely manner risk
enforcement actions and penalties
of up to $27,5 00 per day.
Who
Report to the TRI?
A facility must report to the TRI if
it meets three basic criteria:
1. The facility is in a
manufacturing sector (SIC Codes
20-39) or, beginning in the 1998
reporting year, is one of the
following industry categories:
metal mining, coal mining,
electrical utilities, chemical
wholesale distributors, petroleum
terminals and bulk storage
facilities, Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA)
subtitle C facilities regulated
under the solvent recovery
services. Also, federal facilities
must report to TRI regardless of
their industrial classification.
2. The facility must have the
equivalent often (10) or more full
time employees (20,000
employment hours per year, to
include contract and part-time
personnel).
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3. The facility manufactures
(includes imports), processes, or
otherwise uses any listed toxic
chemical above the applicable
activity threshold quantity.
Threshold quantities vary depending
upon the chemical and activity. You
can contact the EPCRA Call
Center for more information (800-
424-9346) or refer to 40 C.RR.
§§ 372.25, 372.27, and 372.28 at
.
Facilities that satisfy all the above
criteria must submit an annual TRI
report for each regulated toxic
chemical regardless of whether or
not there are any releases. Federal
facilities are required to comply
with the provisions of EPCRA as
set forth in Executive Order
13148 (65 Fed.Reg. 24595, April
26, 2000).
TRI?
You have a choice of submitting
your forms to EPA through the
Central Data Exchange (CDX), or
on magnetic media or paper.
However, the CDX enables
revisions in the most efficient
manner.
EPA encourages you to use TRI-
MEto electronically submit your
TRI submission(s) via the Internet.
TRI-ME allows you to submit
electronically to EPA without the
need for mailing any paper
(electronic submission is not
available for trade secret forms). If
you choose to submit via the
February 2004 ^^^^^—^-^^^^
Internet, do not send duplicate
paper or diskette copies of the
reports to EPA. However, please
be aware that submitting via the
Internet to the U. S. EPA does not
satisfy your state reporting
requirements for your facility. You
must report to your state separately
and in the format specified by your
state (i.e., diskette, paper, etc.).
In fiscal years 2002 through
2003, EPA Region 2 settled
over 60 late reporter cases for
penalties totaling more than
$500,000. Recent settlements
include: TheRussel Stanley
Corporation of Woodbridge, NJ
for $62,786; The Rimtec
Corporation of Burlington, NJ,
for $47,254; and Steuben
Foods, Inc, of Elmira, NY, for
$39,558.
EPA has adopted policies
designed to encourage greater
compliance with environmental
laws and regulations. Two such
policies, "Incentives for Self
Policing, Discovery, Disclosure,
Correction and Prevention of
Violations" (Audit Policy), and
"Policy on Compliance Incentives
for Small Businesses" (Small
Business Policy), provide
incentives to conduct environ-
mental audits by substantially
reducing or eliminating penalties
for entities that voluntarily
discover, disclose, and expedi-
tiously correct violations of
environmental law. For more
information visit EPAs Audit and
Small Business Web Pages at:
, and
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United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Regulatory Enforcement
(2.2.Q\ A)
Washington, D.C. 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
Useful Compliance Assistance Resources
For further information on how TRI data are used,
download the brochure, "Factors to Consider When Using
TRI Data," at
If you have any questions about the electronic submission
process, call 888 890-1995 between the hours of 8:00
am - 6:00 pm eastern time. For additional information
about CDX, please see: < www. epa. gov/cdx/>. If you
need general reporting information, please see:
EPCRA Call Center: 1-800-424-9346.
To ask anonymous questions about EPCRA reporting and
to order guidance documents Monday through Friday
between the hours of 9am and 5pm eastern time.
Office of Regulatory Enforcement: To learn more about
EPCRA enforcement visit:
EPA's TRI Homepage & Reporting Forms and Instruc-
tions: To download guidance documents, reporting forms
and instructions, and view TRI data visit:
* Recycled/Recyclable. Printed with Soy/Canola Ink on paper that contains at least 30% recycled fiber
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