• Various terms are critical to the understanding of the basics of the EPCRA program.

The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), and 40 CFR 350 to 372 define terms that are critical to understanding the basics of the EPCRA program. It should be noted that definitions for the same terms “may” differ under each set of EPCRA requirements, so it is important to check the set of definitions under each regulation (specifically, 40 CFR 350.1, 355.61, 370.66, and 372.3) when making applicability determinations and efforts to comply.

Article

Article means a manufactured item:

• Which is formed to a specific shape or design during manufacture;
• Which has end use functions dependent in whole or in part upon its shape or design during end use; and
• Which does not release a toxic chemical under normal conditions of processing or use of that item at the facility or establishments.

CERCLA hazardous substance

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) hazardous substance means a substance defined in section 101(14) of CERCLA and listed in Table 302.4 of 40 CFR 302.4.

Extremely hazardous substance (EHS)

EHS means a substance listed in Appendices A and B of 40 CFR 355.

Facility

Facility means all buildings, equipment, structures, and other stationary items that are located on a single site or on contiguous or adjacent sites and that are owned or operated by the same person (or by any person that controls, is controlled by, or under common control with, such person). Facility includes manmade structures, as well as all-natural structures in which chemicals are purposefully placed or removed through human means such that it functions as a containment structure for human use. For purposes of emergency release notification, the term includes motor vehicles, rolling stock, and aircraft.

Full-time employee

Full-time employee means 2,000 hours per year of full-time equivalent employment. A facility would calculate the number of full-time employees by totaling the hours worked during the calendar year by all employees, including contract employees, and dividing that total by 2,000 hours.

Hazard category

Hazard category is divided into two categories—health and physical hazards:

• Health hazard means a chemical which poses one of the following hazardous effects: Carcinogenicity; acute toxicity (any route of exposure); aspiration hazard; reproductive toxicity; germ cell mutagenicity; skin corrosion or irritation; respiratory or skin sensitization; serious eye damage or eye irritation; specific target organ toxicity (single or repeated exposure); simple asphyxiant; and hazard not otherwise classified (HNOC).
• Physical hazard means a chemical which poses one of the following hazardous effects: Flammable (gases, aerosols, liquids or solids); gas under pressure; explosive; self-heating; pyrophoric (liquid or solid); pyrophoric gas; oxidizer (liquid, solid or gas); organic peroxide; self-reactive; in contact with water emits flammable gas; combustible dust; corrosive to metal; and hazard not otherwise classified (HNOC).

Hazardous chemical

Hazardous chemical means any hazardous chemical as defined under 29 CFR 1910.1200(c), except that this term does not include:

• Any food, food additive, color additive, drug, or cosmetic regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
• Any substance present as a solid in any manufactured item to the extent exposure to the substance does not occur under normal conditions of use.
• Any substance to the extent it is used:
  • For personal, family, or household purposes, or is present in the same form and concentration as a product packaged for distribution and use by the general public. Present in the same form and concentration as a product packaged for distribution and use by the general public means a substance packaged in a similar manner and present in the same concentration as the substance when packaged for use by the general public, whether or not it is intended for distribution to the general public or used for the same purpose as when it is packaged for use by the general public;
  • In a research laboratory or hospital or other medical facility under the direct supervision of a technically qualified individual; or
  • In routine agricultural operations or is a fertilizer held for sale by a retailer to the ultimate customer.

Import

Import means to cause a chemical to be imported into the customs territory of the United States. For purposes of this definition, to cause means to intend that the chemical be imported and to control the identity of the imported chemical and the amount to be imported.

List of Lists

The List of Lists is a publication issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which offers a consolidated chemical list of chemicals subject to reporting requirements under several environmental laws. The publication was prepared to help facilities handling chemicals determine whether they need to submit reports under the laws covered by the list, and for a specific chemical, what reports may need to be submitted. Caution should be used, however. The List of Lists is not a regulation and should be used only as a reference tool, not as a definitive source of compliance information.

The chemicals on the consolidated list are in order both alphabetically and by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) registry number. The chemical names on the consolidated lists generally are those names used in the regulatory programs developed under EPCRA, CERCLA, and Clean Air Act (CAA) 112(r), but each chemical may have other synonyms that do not appear on these lists. More than one chemical name may be listed for one CAS number because the same chemical may appear on different lists under different names.

Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) or Tribal Emergency Planning Committee (TEPC)

LEPC or TEPC means a committee appointed by the State Emergency Response Commission or Tribal Emergency Response Commission, respectively.

Manufacture

Manufacture means to produce, prepare, import, or compound a toxic chemical. Manufacture also applies to a toxic chemical that is produced coincidentally during the manufacture, processing, use, or disposal of another chemical or mixture of chemicals, including a toxic chemical that is separated from that other chemical or mixture of chemicals as a byproduct, and a toxic chemical that remains in that other chemical or mixture of chemicals as an impurity.

Mixture

Mixture means:

• For the purposes of 40 CFR 355, a heterogeneous association of substances where the various individual substances retain their identities and can usually be separated by mechanical means. This definition includes solutions but does not include alloys or amalgams.
• For the purposes of 40 CFR 370, mixture as defined under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Hazard Communication Standard in 29 CFR 1910.1200(c).
• For the purposes of 40 CFR 372, any combination of two or more chemicals, if the combination is not, in whole or in part, the result of a chemical reaction. However, if the combination was produced by a chemical reaction but could have been produced without a chemical reaction, it is also treated as a mixture. A mixture also includes any combination which consists of a chemical and associated impurities.

Otherwise use

Otherwise use means any use of a toxic chemical, including a toxic chemical contained in a mixture or other trade name product or waste, that is not covered by the terms “manufacture” or “process.” Otherwise use of a toxic chemical does not include disposal, stabilization (without subsequent distribution in commerce), or treatment for destruction unless:

• The toxic chemical that was disposed, stabilized, or treated for destruction was received from off-site for the purposes of further waste management; or
• The toxic chemical that was disposed, stabilized, or treated for destruction was manufactured as a result of waste management activities on materials received from off-site for the purposes of further waste management activities.

Relabeling or redistributing of the toxic chemical where no repackaging of the toxic chemical occurs does not constitute otherwise use or processing of the toxic chemical.

Person

Person means any individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, or interstate body.

Process

Process means the preparation of a toxic chemical, after its manufacture, for distribution in commerce:

• In the same form or physical state as, or in a different form or physical state from, that in which it was received by the person so preparing such substance, or
• As part of an article containing the toxic chemical.

Process also applies to the processing of a toxic chemical contained in a mixture or trade name product.

Release

Release means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles) of any hazardous chemical, EHS, or CERCLA hazardous substance.

Reportable quantity (RQ)

Reportable quantity means:

• For any CERCLA hazardous substance, the quantity established in Table 302.4 of 40 CFR 302.4, for such substance.
• For any EHS, reportable quantity means the quantity established in Appendices A and B of this part for such substance.

Unless and until superseded by regulations establishing a reportable quantity for newly listed EHSs or CERCLA hazardous substances, a weight of 1 pound shall be the RQ.

Safety data sheet (SDS) or material safety data sheet (MSDS)

Safety data sheet or SDS means the sheet required to be developed under 29 CFR 1910.1200(g). The term material safety data sheet or MSDS means the same thing.

State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) or Tribal Emergency Response Commission (TERC)

SERC means the State Emergency Response Commission for the state in which the facility is located except where the facility is in Indian country, in which case, SERC means the Tribal Emergency Response Commission (TERC) for the tribe under whose jurisdiction the facility is located. In the absence of a SERC for a state or Indian tribe, the governor or the chief executive officer of the tribe, respectively, shall be the SERC. Where there is a cooperative agreement between a state and a tribe, the SERC shall be the entity identified in the agreement.

Threshold planning quantity (TPQ)

Threshold planning quantity means, for a substance listed in Appendices A and B of 40 CFR 355, the quantity listed in the column “threshold planning quantity” for that substance.

Toxic chemical

Toxic chemical means a chemical or chemical category listed in 40 CFR 372.65.

Trade secret

Trade secret means any confidential formula, pattern, process, device, information, or compilation of information that is used in a submitter’s business, and that gives the submitter an opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors who do not know or use it. EPA intends to be guided by the Restatement of Torts, Section 757, Comment b.