Document ID: EPA-HQ-TRI-2005-0073-0003
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2005-09-20T04:00Z

ES­
1
September
19,
2005,
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
The
Emergency
Planning
and
Community
Right­
to­
Know
Act
(
EPCRA),
also
known
as
Title
III
of
the
Superfund
Amendments
and
Reauthorization
Act
of
1986
(
SARA),
created
a
broad
range
of
emergency
response
planning
and
reporting
requirements
for
manufacturers,
processors,
and
users
of
toxic
chemicals
in
the
United
States.
Under
section
313
of
EPCRA,
certain
facilities
are
required
to
submit
annual
reports
to
the
United
States
Environmental
Protection
Agency
(
EPA)
and
to
States
on
their
release(
s),
transfer(
s),
and
waste
management
activities
for
certain
toxic
chemicals
if
they
are
manufactured,
processed,
or
otherwise
used
above
thresholds
amounts.
In
addition,
the
Pollution
Prevention
Act
(
PPA)
of
1990
requires
these
same
facilities
to
report
prevention,
recycling,
and
other
waste
management
information
for
these
same
chemicals.
EPA
maintains
the
data
collected
under
EPCRA
section
313
and
the
PPA
in
a
database
known
as
the
Toxics
Release
Inventory
(
TRI).
1
Since
the
inception
of
the
TRI
Program,
EPA
has
implemented
measures
to
reduce
the
reporting
burden
on
the
regulated
universe
of
facilities,
and
make
TRI
reporting
as
user
friendly
as
possible.
These
measures
include
compliance
assistance
activities,
such
as
industry­
specific
guidance
and
annual
training
workshops.
EPA
also
reduced
the
time
spent
completing
the
required
TRI
forms
by
developing
the
Toxics
Release
Inventory
 
Made
Easy
(
TRI­
ME)
software
and
adding
the
Form
A
certification.
In
July
2005,
EPA
finalized
the
TRI
Reporting
Forms
Modification
Rule
(
70
FR
3991,
July
12,
2005)
that
included
general
options
for
reducing
the
time,
cost,
and
complexity
of
the
reporting
requirements
imposed
on
facilities.
(
EPA
refers
to
this
rulemaking
as
the
"
Phase
1"
burden
reduction
rulemaking.)

EPA
is
proposing
additional
options
for
streamlining
TRI
reporting.
The
purpose
of
this
proposed
rule
is
to
provide
additional
burden
reduction
options
without
compromising
the
quality
of
toxic
chemical
release
data
and
of
other
waste
management
information.
This
additional
set
of
burden
reduction
options
will
be
referred
to
hereafter
as
the
"
Phase
2"
burden
reduction
rulemaking.

ES.
1
CHANGES
TO
THE
TRI
REPORTING
REQUIREMENTS
As
described
above,
EPA
has
implemented
a
number
of
burden
reduction
measures.
To
build
upon
these
efforts,
EPA
conducted
a
TRI
Stakeholder
Dialogue
between
Fall
2002
and
early
2004.
During
this
dialogue,
improvements
to
the
TRI
reporting
process
were
identified
and
a
number
of
burden
reduction
options
associated
with
TRI
reporting
were
explored.
After
reviewing
these
improvements
and
reporting
options,
EPA
has
decided
to
proceed
with
burden
1
The
term
EPCRA
section
313
properly
refers
to
only
the
statutory
requirements,
while
the
term
TRI
properly
refers
to
the
database
where
the
information
collected
under
section
313
and
under
section
6607
of
the
PPA
is
stored.
However,
the
terms
have
often
been
used
interchangeably
by
the
public
to
refer
to
the
statute,
the
regulatory
requirements,
the
reporting
form,
the
database,
and
EPA's
program
to
manage
the
data.
In
deference
to
common
usage,
the
terms
EPCRA
section
313
and
TRI
are
sometimes
used
interchangeably
in
this
report
where
doing
so
will
make
the
report
simpler
and
easier
to
read.
ES­
2
September
19,
2005,
reduction
rulemakings
in
three
phases:
Phase
1)
relatively
simple,
modifications
to
the
reporting
forms
and
Phase
2)
new
and
expanded
eligibility
for
Form
A
and
Phase
3)
alternate
year
reporting
for
all
or
some
reporters.
This
economic
analysis
reflects
the
costs
and
impacts
of
the
Phase
2
burden
reduction
rulemaking.
EPA
is
proposing
the
following
two
options
that
it
believes
may
reduce
reporting
burden
for
TRI
facilities:

°
New
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
PBT
Chemicals
­­
allows
a
facility
reporting
on
PBT
chemicals,
except
dioxin
and
dioxin­
like
compounds,
with
zero
disposal
or
other
releases
to
use
Form
A,
provided
they
meet
the
1,000,000
pound
alternate
reporting
threshold
and
have
500
pounds
or
less
of
total
other
waste
management
quantities.
1
(
sections
8.2
 
8.8)
°
Expanded
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
Non­
PBT
Chemicals
­­
allows
a
facility
reporting
on
Non­
PBT
chemicals
with
an
annual
reportable
amount
(
sections
8.1
 
8.7)
of
5,000
lbs
or
less
to
use
Form
A,
provided
they
meet
the
1,000,000
pound
alternate
reporting
threshold.
EPA
is
also
taking
comment
on
two
alternate
annual
reportable
amounts
(
1,000
lbs
and
2,000
lbs)
for
this
option.

ES.
2
ESTIMATED
REPORTING
ACTIVITY
The
proposed
rule
will
affect
only
those
forms
(
and
the
facilities
that
file
them)
that
meet
the
criteria
associated
with
each
option.
EPA
is
proposing
a
combination
of
the
two
options.
These
options
do
not
overlap
as
one
applies
only
to
Non­
PBT
chemicals
while
the
other
applies
only
to
PBT
chemicals.
Note
that
there
may
be
new
facilities
filing
to
TRI
for
the
first
time
that
may
experience
burden
reduction
due
to
the
proposed
rule.
Without
information
on
their
reportable
chemicals
and
amounts,
however,
it
is
not
possible
to
determine
the
option
for
which
they
would
qualify
and
they
are
thus
not
accounted
for
in
this
analysis.
Table
ES­
1
summarizes
the
number
of
affected
facilities
and
forms
when
the
options
are
combined.

TABLE
ES­
1
UNIVERSE
OF
AFFECTED
FACILITIES
AND
FORMS
BY
OPTION
New
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
PBT
Chemicals
Option
Expanded
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
Non­
PBT
Chemicals
Optiona
Combined
Options
Total
Number
of
Affected
Facilities
2,064
6,461
7,958
Total
Number
of
Affected
Forms
2,703
12,201
14,904
a
The
number
of
affected
non­
PBT
forms
in
this
analysis
does
not
include
the
non­
PBT
Form
Rs
that
are
currently
likely
eligible
for
Form
A
based
on
an
ARA
of
less
than
or
equal
to
500
pounds.

Note:
In
this
analysis,
all
TRI
data
are
summed
at
the
facility­
chemical
level.

Source:
Frozen
RY2002
TRI
data.

1
Non­
PBTs
are
already
qualified
to
certify
on
a
Form
A
in
lieu
of
completing
a
Form
R
if
they
meet
applicable
criteria.
ES­
3
September
19,
2005,
ES.
3
BURDEN
AND
COST
SAVINGS
POTENTIALLY
ASSOCIATED
WITH
THE
PROPOSED
RULE
As
shown
in
Table
ES­
2
the
total
potential
national
burden
savings
estimated
for
the
combined
options
is
164,432
hours
for
TRI
reporters
submitting
first
and
subsequent
year
reports.
First
year
TRI
reporters
have
greater
form
calculation
and
completion
burden
than
subsequent
year
TRI
reporters
because
of
a
variety
of
factors
including
the
absence
of
prior
year
calculations
and
lack
of
familiarity
with
chemical
use
and
management
at
the
reporting
facility.
Approximately
98
percent
of
all
TRI
reports
are
subsequent
year
reports.
Table
ES­
2
also
shows
an
estimated
total
national
cost
savings
of
$
7,381,022
in
the
first
and
subsequent
years
when
the
options
are
combined.
EPA
notes
that
approximately
50
percent
of
non­
PBT
chemical
reports
that
currently
appear
to
qualify
for
Form
A
under
the
500
lb
threshold
are
still
reported
on
Form
R.
These
may
be
facilities
that
exceed
the
1,000,000
alternate
production,
processing
or
otherwise
use
threshold,
or
they
may
choose
to
report
on
Form
R
for
some
other
reason
(
eg,
minimal
burden
reduction
from
use
of
Form
A,
desire
to
be
seen
as
"
good
environmental
stewards").
EPA
assumes
that,
similarly,
not
all
newly
eligible
facilities
under
today's
proposed
rule
will
choose
to
use
Form
A,
and
that
the
actual
burden
reduction
and
impacts
of
the
rule
will
thus
be
less
than
the
potential
estimates
presented
below.

TABLE
ES­
2
ANNUAL
BURDEN
AND
COST
SAVINGS
New
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
PBT
Chemicals
Option
Expanded
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
Non­
PBT
Chemicals
Optiona
Combined
Options
Number
of
Affected
Facilities
2,064
6,461
7,958
Number
of
Affected
Forms
2,703
12,201
14,904
Average
Annual
Burden
Savings
in
the
First
and
Subsequent
Years
of
the
Proposed
Rule
(
Hours)

Form
Completion
­
non­
PBT
chemicals
N/
A
92,728
92,728
Form
Completion
­
PBT
chemicals
41,897
N/
A
41,897
Recordkeeping/
Mailing
5,406
24,402
29,808
Total
47,303
117,130
164,432
Average
Annual
Cost
Savings
in
the
First
and
Subsequent
Years
of
the
Proposed
Rule
Form
Completion
­
non­
PBT
chemicals
N/
A
$
4,254,983
$
4,254,983
Form
Completion
­
PBT
chemicals
$
1,917,146
N/
A
$
1,917,146
Recordkeeping/
Mailing
$
219,246
$
989,648
$
1,208,893
Total
$
2,136,392
$
5,244,630
$
7,381,022
a
The
number
of
affected
non­
PBT
forms
in
this
analysis
does
not
include
the
non­
PBT
Form
Rs
that
are
currently
likely
eligible
for
Form
A
based
on
an
ARA
of
less
than
or
equal
to
500
pounds.

The
number
of
facilities
cannot
be
summed
across
form
types
because
some
facilities
filed
both
PBT
and
non­
PBT
forms.

Source:
Frozen
RY2002
TRI
data
and
Wage
Rates
from
the
U.
S.
Department
of
Labor
(
see
Chapter
2).
ES­
4
September
19,
2005,
The
estimate
of
total
burden
savings
due
to
the
proposed
rule
is
developed
by
combining
the
estimated
unit
burden
savings
under
each
option
with
the
number
of
potentially
affected
forms
under
each
option.
Unit
burden
savings
are
calculated
by
subtracting
the
unit
reporting
burden
associated
with
filling
out
a
Form
A
from
the
unit
reporting
burden
associated
with
filing
a
Form
R.
In
the
analysis
associated
with
the
New
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
PBT
Chemicals
Option,
Form
A
calculations
and
report
completion
burden
is
assumed
to
be
17.6
hours
for
non­
PBT
chemicals
and
31.6
hours
for
PBT
chemicals.
The
17.6
hours
is
based
on
the
current
OMB
approved
burden
estimate.
Since
there
is
no
approved
estimate
for
using
Form
A
for
PBT
chemicals,
the
17.6
hours
was
adjusted
proportionately
to
the
difference
between
the
OMB
approved
burden
estimates
for
Form
R
calculations
and
report
completion
for
non­
PBT
chemical
and
PBT
chemicals
(
i.
e.,
25.2
hours
and
47.1
hours
respectively).
This
resulted
in
a
64%
adjustment
of
the
current
17.6
hours
for
Form
A
for
non­
PBT
chemicals
to
31.6
hours
for
Form
A
for
PBT
chemicals.
Using
this
adjustment,
the
total
national
burden
savings
for
this
option
would
be
47,303
hours
in
the
first
and
subsequent
years
as
opposed
to
85,145
hours
in
the
first
and
subsequent
years.
The
total
national
cost
savings
for
this
option
would
be
$
2.1
million
in
the
first
and
subsequent
years
as
opposed
to
$
3.9
million
in
the
first
and
subsequent
years.

ES.
4
BENEFITS
OF
THE
PROPOSED
RULE
EPA
believes
that
the
changes
addressed
in
this
rulemaking
will
reduce
reporting
burden
and
save
resources
for
regulated
entities
without
compromising
the
usefulness
of
TRI
information
to
the
public..
Estimated
savings
are
reported
above.
In
addition,
the
rule
will
provide
incentives
to
reduce
or
eliminate
releases
(
especially
for
PBT
chemicals)
and
encourage
source
reduction.
While
EPA
believes
this
benefit
could
be
significant,
EPA
is
not
able
to
estimate
quantitatively
how
much
releases
would
be
eliminated,
or
other
waste
management
activities
replaced
by
source
reduction,
due
to
lack
of
data.

ES.
5
IMPACTS
OF
THE
PROPOSED
RULE
ON
REPORTING
Under
the
New
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
PBT
Chemicals
Option,
only
reports
with
zero
pounds
disposed
or
otherwise
released
would
be
eligible
for
Form
A
reporting
.
Therefore,
no
data
will
be
not
be
reported
on
disposal
or
other
releases.
Information
would
not
be
reported
,
however,
regarding
the
use(
s)
of
the
chemical
(
i.
e.
was
the
chemical
manufactured,
processed,
or
otherwise
used),
the
maximum
amount
of
the
chemical
on
site
at
any
time
during
the
calendar
year,
and
the
production
ratio.
Additional
information
that
would
not
be
reported
on
Form
R
includes
information
on
recycling
small
amounts
of
lead
and
lead
compounds
and
mercury
and
mercury
compounds
and
information
on
recycling,
energy
recovery,
or
treatment
of
PACs,
including
benzo(
g,
h,
i)
perylene,
and
other
organic
chemicals.
For
this
information,
however,
the
Form
A
serves
as
a
range
report
of
zero
to
500
lbs.
In
total,
less
than
2
percent
of
Total
Production
Related
Waste
(
Table
ES­
3)
would
no
longer
be
reported
on
Form
R
as
a
result
of
this
option,
even
if
all
eligible
facilities
used
Form
A.
Since
it
is
unlikely
that
this
will
happen,
the
actual
impacts
will
likely
be
even
smaller.
ES­
5
September
19,
2005,
TABLE
ES­
3
PERCENTAGE
OF
TOTAL
RELEASE
AND
TOTAL
PRODUCTION
RELATED
WASTE
POUNDS
NOT
REPORTED
DUE
TO
NEW
AND
EXPANDED
FORM
A
ELIGIBILITY
Total
Release
Lbs
Not
Reported
Percentage
of
All
Total
Release
Lbs
Total
Production
Related
Waste
Lbs
Not
Reported
Percentage
of
Total
Production
Related
Waste
New
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
PBT
Chemicals
Option
0
0%
<
1,350,000
<
0.1%

Expanded
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
Non­
PBT
Chemicals
Option
14,164,380
0.32%
25,369,199
0.10%

The
Expanded
Eligibility
for
Form
A:
Non­
PBT
chemicals
option
extends
the
existing
alternate
reporting
threshold
from
500
pounds
to
5,000
pounds.
For
forms
qualifying
under
this
option,
specific
release
and
other
waste
management
information
will
no
longer
be
reported
on
Form
R
as
well
as
information
regarding
the
use(
s)
of
the
chemical
(
i.
e.
was
the
chemical
manufactured,
processed,
or
otherwise
used),
the
maximum
amount
of
the
chemical
on
site
at
any
time
during
the
calendar
year,
and
the
production
ratio.
To
evaluate
the
extent
of
data
that
may
no
longer
be
reported
on
Form
R
,
EPA
examined
the
volume
of
total
releases
and
total
production
related
waste
that
are
currently
reported
on
Form
Rs
that
would
qualify
for
this
option.
In
total,
less
than
0.5%
of
total
releases
and
less
than
0.2%
of
total
production
related
waste
may
no
longer
be
reported
on
Form
R
(
Table
ES­
3).
At
the
chemical­
specific
level,
Table
ES­
4
shows
that
for
the
majority
of
chemicals
(
79%),
less
than
10%
of
their
total
releases
may
no
longer
be
reported
on
Form
R.
For
7%
of
chemicals,
between
50%
and
99%
of
their
releases
pounds
may
no
longer
be
reported
on
Form
R
and
for
6%
of
chemicals,
100%
of
their
release
pounds
may
no
longer
be
reported
on
Form
R.
Table
ES­
4
shows
similar
results
for
total
production
related
waste.
Specifically,
for
93%
of
chemicals,
less
than
10%
of
their
total
production
related
waste
may
no
longer
be
reported
on
Form
R.
For
6%
of
chemicals,
100%
of
their
total
production
related
waste
pounds
may
no
longer
be
reported
on
Form
R.
As
can
be
seen
from
the
table,
those
chemicals
for
which
a
large
share
of
releases
and/
or
production
related
waste
may
not
be
reported
on
Form
R
are
those
with
relatively
few
Form
Rs
and/
or
relatively
small
quantities
per
form.
EPA
again
emphasizes
that
Form
A
serves
as
a
range
report
of
0
to
5,000
lbs
for
the
release
and
production
related
waste
information
no
longer
reported
on
Form
R.
This
is
a
wider
range
than
for
PBT
chemicals
because
of
the
broader
eligibility
requirements.

Extending
the
alternate
reporting
threshold
will
also
affect
the
distribution
of
TRI
reporting
at
the
community
level.
EPA
evaluated
the
impact
of
this
option
on
local
communities
using
a
postal
zip
code
analysis.
As
shown
in
Table
ES­
5,
if
the
alternate
reporting
threshold
is
extended
to
5,000
lbs,
45%
of
all
zip
codes
with
Form
R
reports
would
have
at
least
one
Form
R
eligible
for
Form
A
reporting
and
7%
of
zip
codes
would
have
all
current
Form
Rs
eligible
for
Form
A
reporting.
As
can
also
be
seen
from
the
table,
those
zip
codes
where
all
Form
Rs
would
be
eligible
tend
to
have
only
a
small
number
of
Form
Rs
to
start.
ES­
6
September
19,
2005,
TABLE
ES­
4
PERCENT
OF
CHEMICALS
WITHIN
VARIOUS
RANGES
OF
RELEASES
AND
PRODUCTION
RELATED
WASTE
THAT
WOULD
BE
ELIGIBLE
FOR
FORM
A
REPORTING
Percent
of
Pounds
Eligible
for
Form
A
Reporting
Total
Releases
(
Section
8.1)
Total
Production
Related
Waste
(
Sections
8.1­
8.7)

100%
of
pounds
6%
6%

99
­
50%
of
pounds
7%
0%

49
­
10%
of
pounds
9%
4%

9
­
>
0%
of
pounds
44%
58%

0%
of
pounds
35%
31%

TABLE
ES­
5
ZIP
CODES
ELIGIBLE
FOR
FORM
A
REPORTING
Number
of
Zip
Codes
Percent
of
Total
Zip
Codes
Containing
Form
Rs
Average
Number
of
Form
Rs
per
Zip
Code
Zip
codes
with
at
least
one
Form
R
newly
eligible
for
Form
A
4,063
45%
9.1
Zip
codes
with
all
form
R's
newly
eligible
for
Form
A
665
7%

Note:
Based
on
the
RY2002
Frozen
TRI
data,
there
are
8,960
five­
digit
zip
codes
with
TRI
Form
R
data.

Source:
Frozen
RY2002
TRI
data.