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Your facility meets the criteria for Form R reporting under EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory requirements, but no report has been filed. Now what?
If you determine that your facility meets all three of the criteria in 40 CFR 372.22 and is subject to the reporting requirements, but is not currently reporting and/or has not reported within the last five years, then:
- Develop the appropriate information to report your releases and your source reduction and recycling activities.
- Submit a Form R for each year that you manufacture, import, process, or otherwise use a listed toxic chemical over the threshold amounts.
- Maintain a record keeping system that will help you estimate releases for future years. Designate someone at your facility to be responsible for reporting under Section 313. That person should obtain reporting forms and instructions and should be aware of the reporting deadline (July 1 of each year).
What you must report
For each listed toxic chemical manufactured, imported, processed, or otherwise used over the yearly threshold amounts at your facility, you must report the following information:
- the name and location of your facility;
- the identity of the listed toxic chemical;
- whether you manufacture, import, process, or otherwise use the toxic chemical;
- the maximum quantity of the toxic chemical on-site at any time during the year;
- the total quantity of the toxic chemical released during the year, including both accidental spills and routine emissions (separate estimates must be provided for releases to air, water, land and injected underground);
- off-site locations to which you shipped wastes containing the toxic chemical and the quantities of that toxic chemical sent to those locations for recycling, energy recovery, treatment, or disposal;
- on-site recycling, energy recovery, treatment, or disposal methods used for wastes containing the toxic chemical and estimates of the treatment efficiency for each toxic chemical; and
- source reduction activities involving the toxic chemical.
How to report
The Form R, which reports toxic chemical use and releases during a calendar year, must be submitted by July 1 of the following year. For example, information on toxic chemical use and release for calendar year 1998 must be reported by July 1, 1999.
Use the Form R forms and instructions, which are updated and made available annually.
Voluntarily disclosing noncompliance to EPA
If you are not in compliance with the Toxics Release Inventory requirements, you may be subject to penalties. However, EPA has two policies which provide for the mitigation of penalties (up to 100 percent) to companies and individuals that take the initiative to identify and correct violations of federal environmental regulations. These are:
- thePolicy on Compliance Incentives for Small Businesses (“Small Business Policy”); and
- Incentives for Self-Policing: Discovery, Disclosure, Correction and Prevention of Violations (“Audit Policy”).
What is the penalty if EPA conducts an enforcement action against your facility?
The EPCRA Section 313 Enforcement Response Policy (ERP) provides guidance on assessing penalties for violations of the Toxics Release Inventory requirements. The document details the kinds of violations for which a facility can be penalized, how the penalty is calculated, and circumstances that may allow the penalty to be decreased.
Penalties may be assessed for the following violations:
- failure to report in a timely manner;
- data quality errors;
- failure to supply notification, or incomplete or inaccurate supplier notification (for chemical suppliers); and
- failure to maintain records.
The penalties for Form R reports submitted after the July 1 due date but before July 1 of the following year are assessed a per day penalty for every day they are late. This penalty is lower than the penalty for Form R reports that are submitted more than one year late. Therefore, if you discover that you are out of compliance, submit the Form R report for each toxic chemical as soon as possible.