Environmental Compliance Tier II Reporting Tips – Deadline this March 1st

As part of a new series, Bay West’s environmental compliance expert, Wendy Tindall, offers readers insights on highly relevant environmental compliance topics. Ms. Tindall has over 17 years of experience working on environmental compliance services, including extensive regulatory expertise in air, waste, water, and tank regulations, permitting, and reporting.

Title III of the federal Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) is referred to as the Emergency Planning and Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). EPCRA established requirements for federal, state, and local governments, American Indian Tribes, and industry regarding emergency planning and reporting on hazardous and toxic chemicals. There are four main provisions of the EPCRA program:

• Emergency Planning (Section 302)
• Emergency Release Notification (Section 304)
• Hazardous Chemical Storage Reporting Requirements (Section 311/312) – TIER II Reports
• Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (TRI) (Section 313)

Under Section 312 of SARA Title III, facilities are required to submit an annual Tier II report by March 1 for the previous reporting calendar year if they:

• Store Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHS’s) at 500 pounds or the Threshold Planning Quantity (TPQ), whichever is less.
• Store 10,000 pounds or more of any hazardous chemical that requires a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) under the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard

The Minnesota EPCRA Program is responsible for the collection and maintenance of Tier II data reported by Minnesota facilities. Tier II reports provide state and local officials with specific information on hazardous chemicals present at your facility for use in emergency preparedness planning. Please visit this step-by-step training video on how to use the Minnesota Online Tier II Manager software to submit your 2018 Tier II Report.

Requirements to other upper Midwest State Tier II Reporting Contacts are shown here.

For more information on the list of EHSs and their TPQs review the SARA Title III Information Packet.