We are still months away from July 1, 2018, when reports covering 2017 (called the 2017 reporting year) required by Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)—commonly called the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)—must be submitted to the EPA. But, as the Agency is fond of pointing out, it is wise to start planning a report no later than the day after the close of the reporting year before information that must be reported starts to fade from memory.
Introduced to American industry and the American public in 1986, TRI is now in its 4th decade. Despite its longevity, TRI remains one of the more cryptic federal environmental programs. The EPA has produced stacks upon stacks of guidance on how to comply with the requirements, as well as a helpful electronic reporting program called TRI-MEweb that includes error checking and is enhanced annually.
But understanding the basics of TRI is still essential, and the sheer number of guidance documents can itself be intimidating. Even companies that have filed TRI reports for years face challenges if they undergo major changes in regulated activity—e.g., new chemicals manufactured, processed, or otherwise used or new waste management activities. And there can be significant administrative challenges to companies that are now wondering if they are, for the first time, subject to July 1 reporting. In all cases, there should be no second guessing about committing experienced professional staff and the all the necessary resources to TRI compliance.
Threshold Activities
One area of potential confusion we briefly review here concerns storage and repackaging of TRI chemicals. A listed TRI chemical is subject to reporting if it meets the threshold activity for that chemical, that is, if it is manufactured, processed, or otherwise used in its specific threshold quantity. Does storage of a TRI chemical count as a threshold activity? The simple answer is no, but there is more to it. The EPA provides the following explanation.
“Let’s say a facility stores 50,000 pounds of a [TRI] chemical onsite [sic]. The act of just storing that chemical is not a threshold activity. It’s not manufacturing. It’s not processing. It’s not otherwise use[d]. However the fact that they are storing the chemical on-site probably means that they are also using it in their process. At some point they will pull quantities out of storage and process or otherwise use it in production. At that point, they are processing the quantity of the chemical removed from storage, and that quantity gets counted towards their processing threshold. However, if the facility were to stop making a certain product line and continued to store the chemical for the reporting year and never used it, they would not need to consider it towards any threshold” (source).
No Reporting Exemption
Also, engaging activities that are not threshold activities (others beside storage include remediating chemicals, treating chemicals in waste generated on-site, recycling on-site for use on-site, and transfers sent off-site for further waste management not including recycling) is not the same as being exempt from TRI. If a TRI activity threshold is exceeded in some other manner at the facility, the reporting requirement has been triggered, and any release or waste management associated with the nonthreshold activities must be included in the reported quantities for release and waste management for the chemical.
Packaging and Repackaging
Here are several additional points about storage and repackaging under TRI:
- If a facility receives a bulk quantity of a TRI chemical that it then places in a storage container from which amounts are subsequently blended and placed in smaller containers that are sold, the facility has prepared for distribution in commerce the entire amount of the chemical, and therefore, the facility has processed the entire amount of the listed toxic chemical.
- Repackaging is processing that includes from container to tanker to truck and vice versa and via pipeline to/from a tank.
- If the TRI chemical is not removed or taken from the smallest unit the facility receives but is simply placed in a larger container while the contents remain in the smaller container, the chemicalis not considered repackaged. But if the chemical is taken out of the smallest unit container and is transferred to another container, it is considered repackaged.
- If, after the TRI chemical has been repackaged, it is not distributed in commerce (e.g., instead of being distributed in commerce, it is sent off-site for disposal or treatment), the activity is not a covered processing activity. It would only be considered processedif the chemical, after being repackaged, is sent off-site for recycling or for further use or reuse.
- Repackaging does not include sampling without repackaging and relabeling.
EPA’s TRI instructions for the 2017 reporting year are here.