TIER TWO REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
The Tier Two Emergency and Hazardous Chemical Inventory, Tier II, or Tier Two Report, is something that the EPCRA law specifically mentions as being available to the public. This Tier II report must be filed by a facility with the fire department, LEPC, and SERC by March 1st of the following calendar year for the inventory of chemicals on-site. To say this another way, whatever chemicals a facility has on-site during the year must be reported by March 1st of the following calendar year. Tier Two Reports are always looking backwards in time to the previous calendar year. The facility does not have to file a Tier Two Report if there were never enough hazardous chemicals on-site to trigger the reporting requirement. The owner or operator of a facility must see to it that the Tier Two Report is filed with the appropriate entities. EPCRA makes them both responsible to avoid legal disputes about which is actually responsible for filing the Tier Two Report. (The owner of the property or facility may not be the operator of the property or facility.)
To determine if there were enough hazardous chemicals on-site to trigger Tier Two reporting requirements, the facility owner or operator has to consider the two separate classes of chemicals covered by EPCRA.
OSHA CHEMICALS AND THE TIER TWO REPORT
The first category is often called OSHA chemicals, which is over 600,000 chemicals. If OSHA requires a facility operator or owner to provide an Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) to the employees for a chemical or chemical mixture AND there are 10,000 pounds of that chemical or chemical mixture on-site at any one time during the previous calendar year, the facility owner or operator must file a Tier Two Report for that chemical or chemical mixture with the SERC. LEPC, and fire department. [LINK http://www.osha-slc.gov/OshStd_toc/OSHA_Std_toc_1910.html]
One example is a facility that has large tanks of liquid chemicals that are stored and later blended together to create plastics. If these tanks are 2,000 gallons or more, which very likely weighs more than 10,000 pounds, the facility has to file Tier Two Reports. Gasoline is another example of this. A 2,000 gallon tank of gasoline has more than 10,000 pounds of gasoline. Facilities may purchase large quantities of chemicals and mixtures that are delivered in large shipments, and it is easy to have more than 10,000 pounds on-site of one mixture. Twenty 55-gallon barrels of a chemical could arrive on just one shipment, and that can be enough to trigger Tier Two reporting requirements. A new shipment of chemicals may have enough of a chemical, when added to the weight of the chemical in use or process already at the facility, to put the facility over the reporting threshold for a chemical.
EHS CHEMICALS AND THE TIER TWO REPORT
The second category is the Extremely Hazardous Substance (EHS) category, and many of EPCRA's requirements hinge on these types of facilities.
| To obtain a list of EPA regulated chemicals and the laws that apply call 1-(800) 424-9346 and ask for a free copy of the "List of Lists." |
EPA has developed a list of chemicals designated as EHS chemicals. Chemicals are put on the EHS list if they have certain properties. These properties are: toxicity, reactivity, volatility, dispersability, combustibility, flammability.