Section 313 Toxic Chemical Release

Submission of EPA Form R. the Toxic Chemical Release Inventory Reporting Form, Is required by section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community RIght-to-Know Act (Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthoiizatlon Act of 1986), Public Law 99-499. The Information contained in Form R constitutes a report, and the submission of a report to the appropriate authorities constitutes reporting. ... 

The submissions of section 313 reports in magnetic media and computer-generated facsimile formats has been approved by EPA. Magnetic media submissions to EPA must follow basic specifications set forth by EPA in the document. Magnetic Media Submissions Instructions fEPA 560/4-90-008) which is also included in EPA s Toxic Chemical Release Inventory Reporting Package for 1989 (EPA 560/4-90-001). To order these documents, see the document request form in Appendix I. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency TOXIC CHEMICAL RELEASE INVENTORY REPORTING FORM Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986. also known as Title III of the Suoerfuhd Amehdments ahd Reauthorization Act ... 

The following Is a hypothetical example of how one manufacturer might complete the toxic chemical release inventory reporting Form R. The facility information is purely fictitious and does not represent any known manufacturing facility. The example begins with descriptions of the facility (a lead-acid storage battery manufacturer) and of the production process at the faciiity. The completion of each section of Form R is explained and a copy of Form R, as it would be completed by this facility, follows. 

Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (EPCRA Section 313)... 

Under EPCRA, the ERA established an inventory of routine toxic chemicals that require emissions reporting. Eacilities subject to Section 313 are required to submit a toxic chemical release inventory form or Eorm R for specified chemicals, which is completed on an annual basis and is submitted by July 1 of every year. Eorm R notifies public and governmental agencies about routine releases (releases that occur as a result of daily production use). Eorm R applies to facilities of ten or more employees in businesses (with standard industrial classification (SIC) codes 20 through 39) that manufacture or use certain toxic chemicals in excess of certain amounts. 

USEPA publishes toxic chemicals release (i.e., emissions inventory) form [Section 302(c)]... 

Facilities to submit initial toxic chemical release forms to USEPA and designated stale officials [Section 313(a)]... 

Although this section does not present historical information regarding TRI chemical releases over time, note that, in general, toxic chemical releases have been declining.13 Although onsite releases have decreased, the total amount of reported toxic waste has not declined because the amount of toxic chemicals transferred offsite has increased. Better management practices have led to increases in offsite transfers of toxic chemicals for recycling. More detailed information can be obtained from U.S. EPA s annual Toxics Release Inventory Public Data Release book, or directly from the Toxic Release Inventory System database. 

Table 4-1 lists the facilities that produced, imported, processed, or used nickel and its compounds in 1993 according to reports made to the EPA under the requirements of Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986, which were subsequently published in the Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (TRI) (TRI93 1995). Companies were required to report if they produced, imported, or processed 75,000 pounds of nickel and its compounds or used >10,000 pounds. Also included in Table 4-1 is the maximum amount of nickel and its compounds that these facilities had on site and whether nickel was produced, processed, or used by the facility. 

Section H Toxic Chemical Release Inventory Report.19... 

Toxic Chemical Release Reporting Community Ri t-to-Know Final Rule Title HI, Section 313, Fed Reg., 53, 4500, 1986. 

Section 313 of EPCRA authorizes the USEPA s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), a publicly available database that contains information on toxic chemical release and waste management activities reported annually by certain industries as well as federal facilities. The USEFA issues a list of industries that must report releases for the database. To date, the USEPA has not included oil and gas extraction as an industry that must report under the TRI. This is not an exemption in the law rather, it is a decision by the USEPA that this industry is not a high priority for reporting under the TRI. Part of the rationale for this decision is based on the fact that most of the information required under the TRI is already reported by producers to state agencies that make... 

EPCRA toxic chemical release inventory (TRI) (Section 313). 11... 

One of EPCRA s primary purposes is to inform citizens of toxic chemical releases in their areas. EPCRA Section 313 requires EPA and the states to collect data annually on releases and transfers of certain toxic chemicals from industrial facilities and make the data available to the public through the TRI program. 

Form A is based on the alternate threshold for facilities with small quantities of an EPCRA section 313 chemical released or otherwise managed as waste. Form A serves to certify that a facility is not subject to Form R reporting for a specific toxic chemical. Like the Form R described above. Form A consists of two parts, but only consists of a total of two pages. 

EPCRA section 313 requires certain covered facilities that have ten or more employees and that manufacture, process, or use specified chemicals in amounts greater than threshold quantities, to submit an annual toxic chemical release report. This report, commonly known as the TRI Form R, covers releases and transfers of toxic chemicals to various facilities and environmental media. EPA maintains the data reported in a publically accessible database known as the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Note that oil and gas extraction facilities are currently exempted from TRI reporting. 

Section 313 mandates development of the TRI, a computerized EPA database of toxic chemical releases to the environment by manufacturing facilities. It requires facilities that manufacture, use, or process toxic chemicals to report annually to EPA on the amounts of each chemical released to each environmental medium (air, land, or water) or transferred off-site. EPA makes TRI data available in raw or summarized form to the public. The public may obtain specific information (e.g., about a particular manufacturing facility) by submitting a request in writing to EPA. EPA distributes written and electronic, nationwide, and state-by-state summaries of annual data. 

All the PMBs are Hsted on the U.S. EPA s Toxic Substances Control Act NonConfidential Chemical Substances Inventory (Table 8). In the early to mid-1980s, pseudocumene, mesitylene, hemimellitene, and trimethylbenzene were coveted by TSCA Section 8(a) Preliminary Assessment Information Rule (PAIR) reporting requirements (22) and by TSCA Section 8(d) for health and safety data (23). Mesitylene is the subject of a test rule subacute oral toxicity and subchtonic oral toxicity in tats were underway in 1994 (24). The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) allows monitoring for pseudocumene and mesitylene at the discretion of the State (25). Of the PMBs, only pseudocumene is subject to SARA Tide III section 313 annual release reporting (26). 

Reporting is required to provide the public with information on the release of toxic chemicals from a facility. Facilities must report the quantities of both routine and accidental releases of listed chemicals, as well as the maximum amount of the listed chemical on-site during the calendar year and the amount contained in wastes transferred off-site. This section provides ... 

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