EPCRA for Engineers: Tier II and TRI in Practice (2025 Update)

In EPCRA for Engineers: Tier II and TRI in Practice (2025 Update), you'll learn ...

• How to identify EPCRA applicability
• How to calculate inventory and release thresholds
• How to prepare accurate Tier II and TRI reports
• How to communicate effectively with emergency planners and regulators and coordinate with SPCC, RCRA, and air permitting programs

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 2 PDH

Length: 40 pages

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) requires facilities that handle hazardous chemicals to plan for emergencies and disclose chemical inventories and releases. While one person or a small group of people are responsible for the official reporting, many engineers in various positions play key roles in identifying new or changing chemicals, changes in storage location, or other changes that might trigger reporting requirements.

This course translates the EPCRA regulatory requirements into practical engineering procedures, providing hands-on tools to help engineers comply with Sections 302–312 (Tier II) and Section 313 (Toxic Release Inventory) reporting. Topics include chemical inventory tracking, mixture threshold calculations, facility notification and planning coordination, and electronic submittals using ePlan and TRI-MEweb.

The course also explores how EPCRA intersects with SPCC, RCRA, and air permitting programs to form a cohesive compliance framework. It will also cover how EPCRA intersects with change management systems and sustainability initiatives.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Describe the purpose and history of EPCRA, including how chemical disasters such as Bhopal led to federal emergency planning and community right-to-know legislation.
• Explain the structure of EPCRA, including Subtitles A, B, and C, and the regulatory sections that define emergency planning, reporting, and general provisions.
• Identify the roles and responsibilities of the EPA, SERCs, LEPCs, and local fire departments in chemical emergency planning and community right-to-know programs.
• Determine when EPCRA Section 302 applies, including requirements involving Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHS), Threshold Planning Quantities (TPQs), and 60-day notifications.
• Summarize the requirements for Section 304 emergency release notifications, including Reportable Quantities (RQs), exemptions, and follow-up reporting obligations.
• Explain Tier II reporting obligations under Sections 311–312, including SDS submissions, initial versus annual chemical inventory reporting, thresholds, mixture rules, and state and local variations.
• Apply mixture and special-case calculations, such as those for solids in solution, molten solids, and component concentration thresholds, to determine Tier II reporting quantities.
• Interpret and apply TRI Section 313 requirements, including threshold determinations for “manufacture,” “process,” and “otherwise use,” and the criteria for Form R versus Form A.
• Describe how EPCRA integrates with other environmental programs, such as SPCC, RCRA, OSHA HazCom, and the Risk Management Program (RMP), and how overlapping inventories affect compliance.
• Analyze real-world scenarios and case studies to determine Tier II and TRI applicability, identify common violations, and apply best practices for compliance, documentation, and emergency planning.

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 10 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.