Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and EPA regulation 40 CFR 372 set up the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The TRI program tracks the management of certain toxic chemicals that pose a cancer or other chronic human health effects, significant adverse acute human health effects, or significant adverse environmental effects.
Facilities in certain industry sectors must annually report how much of each chemical they managed through recycling, energy recovery, treatment, and environmental releases. TRI reporting forms must be submitted to EPA and the appropriate state or tribe by July 1 of each year. These forms cover environmental releases and other management of toxic chemicals that occurred during the previous calendar year.
The information submitted by facilities is compiled in the TRI and made freely available online to the public. The goal of TRI is to empower citizens, through information, to hold companies and local governments accountable in terms of how toxic chemicals are managed. The data often spurs facilities to focus on their chemical management practices. The same data also serve as a rough indicator of environmental progress over time.
If a facility meets all four of the criteria below, it must report for each chemical for which the reporting requirement is triggered (unless the facility is otherwise exempted under 372.38):
* All federal facilities, regardless of industry code, must report if they meet the employee, chemical, and activity thresholds.