EPCRA

The 1986 federal law requiring facilities to report the hazardous chemicals they store so communities and responders know what is there.

EPCRA is the federal law that makes a facility's chemical holdings visible to the people who would have to respond to an incident there. It was passed in 1986 following the Bhopal disaster, on the principle that a community has a right to know what is stored in its midst.

The Act is usually encountered through four reporting obligations, each commonly referred to by its section number: Section 302 (emergency planning notification), Section 304 (release reporting), Sections 311 and 312 (hazardous chemical inventory, the Tier II report), and Section 313 (the Toxics Release Inventory).

EPCRA is sometimes called SARA Title III, because it was enacted as the third title of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act. The two names refer to the same law.

Related terms

• Tier II reportThe annual inventory of hazardous chemicals a facility held during the previous calendar year, filed under EPCRA Section 312.
• EPCRA Section 302Requires a facility to notify state and local planners when it holds an Extremely Hazardous Substance at or above its Threshold Planning Quantity.
• EPCRA Section 311Requires a facility to submit safety data sheets, or a list of the chemicals they cover, to state and local authorities.
• EPCRA Section 312The annual hazardous chemical inventory requirement, the section the Tier II report is filed under.
• SARA Title IIIAnother name for EPCRA: the title of the 1986 act under which it was enacted.

A plain-English explanation, not legal advice. Figures are the federal baseline; your state may differ, so see the state-by-state requirements.