EPCRA - Details 

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA), also known as the Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act (SARA) Title III, was enacted in response to growing concern about the effect of potential chemical releases on communities. The most significant requirements of EPCRA are:

• The development of emergency-preparedness organization and planning at the local level, based in part on information about hazardous chemicals provided by the relevant industry (SARA Section 301, 302, and 303)

• The immediate, oral reporting of any release of an extremely hazardous substance and/or of any release of a hazardous substance above its reportable quantity (SARA Section 304)

• Public disclosure by facilities of potential chemical hazards present in communities (SARA Section 311 and 312)

• Annual disclosure of environmental emissions of toxic chemicals (Section 313). Colleges and universities are exempt from this section of EPCRA.

A summary of each of these sections of EPCRA is provided later in this section.

EPCRA requirements affect those operations that use or store hazardous chemicals, depending on the quantity of the hazardous substance they store or use. As with many other environmental issues, the responsibility for EPCRA reporting often falls on the college or university's EH&S or Facilities Management offices; however, you should confirm this for your own school.

If an operation has in aggregate at any one time either hazardous substances in amounts greater than or equal to 10,000 pounds, or extremely hazardous substances (EHS) above 500 pounds or their threshold reporting quantity (whichever is lower), it must submit a Tier II form to the local fire department and local emergency planning committee (LEPC). Although there are some limited exemptions, in general any material that has a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) and is stored in quantities above its threshold reporting quantity must be reported under EPCRA.

EPCRA applies to operations where hazardous chemicals are present. For colleges and universities, the applicable federal requirements relate to a number of activities. Among these are reporting of accidental releases of certain hazardous chemicals, reporting new chemicals used, annual reports of chemicals stored, and submission of data on the amount, type and location of those stored chemicals. The table below summarizes the relevant regulatory requirements that may apply to your facility.

Local Emergency Planning Committees must organize collected chemical information and develop emergency response plans for the community. Each emergency response plan identifies participating facilities, transportation routes for hazardous chemicals, emergency coordinators, equipment and procedures, public notification procedures, evacuation plans and training programs. If a facility has extremely hazardous substances (i.e., listed in 40 CFR Part 355, Appendices A and B) in quantities above the threshold that requires emergency planning, it must designate an emergency coordinator who participates in this planning process.

State Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs) establish emergency-planning districts and appoint, supervise and coordinate LEPCs. LEPCs develop local emergency response plans and review them at least annually. Facilities must notify SERCs and LEPCs, on a first-time basis, within 60 days of obtaining extremely hazardous substances above "threshold planning quantities," and they also must participate in emergency planning. They are further obligated to inform the SERCs and LEPCs of any changes at the facility that are relevant to emergency planning.

Organizations must report to SERCs and LEPCs immediately any accidental releases of CERCLA hazardous substances (which are defined in 40 CFR 300.5, and are a subset of all hazardous substances regulated under EPCRA) or of extremely hazardous substances that occur into the environment and that are equal to or above reportable quantities. They then must provide written reports on actions taken and on medical effects. Reportable quantities for hazardous substances and extremely hazardous substances are, respectively, in 40 CFR 302 and 40 CFR Part 355, Appendices A and B.

Organizations that are required to prepare or make available a Material Safety Data Sheet for hazardous chemicals must submit detailed information to the SERC, LEPC and local fire department (LFD), as follows:

• Within 90 days of becoming subject to this Community Right-to-Know provision, facilities must submit to SERCs, LEPCs and LFDs Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), or lists of on-site hazardous chemicals, including extremely hazardous substances, above "threshold quantities." MSDSs are required on a first-time basis only.
• Facilities are obligated to submit a revised MSDS to the SERCs and LEPCs within 90 days of discovering significant new information about a hazardous chemical.
• Most SERCs, LEPCs and LFDs require facilities to submit emergency and hazardous chemical inventory forms (Tier II forms) reporting the amounts and locations of on-site chemicals instead of MSDSs or the list of chemicals. The reporting threshold for on-site storage of any chemical with an MSDS at any one time is 10,000 pounds. For extremely hazardous substances, storage in a quantity above 500 pounds or other reporting threshold triggers the need to submit a Tier II form.

OSHA requires that facilities have MSDSs available for employees and must give annual training to employees who work with these chemicals. The determination of which hazardous chemicals on the MSDSs must be reviewed for Community Right-to-Know (Sections 311-312) reporting is based on the quantity on site at any one time and applicable reporting standards.

In most cases, SARA Section 313 requirements for reporting toxic releases (40 CFR 372) are not applicable to college and university operations.

To summarize, the documents recommended for EPCRA record keeping compliance include:

• Hazardous Chemical Purchase/Usage Records
• Notification(s) to local agencies of EHS to be stored on-site
• Notification(s) to local agencies of accidental release of hazardous chemicals
• One-time submittal of MSDSs or listing of hazardous chemicals to local agencies (newly regulated facilities only)
• New chemical/MSDS updates
• Annual Tier II Chemical Inventory Reports
• Tier II Reporting Justifications/Calculations
• Spill reports

For the complete text of the regulations (40 CFR 302, 355, 370 and 372), click here: