Understanding EPCRA
On October 17, 1986, the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of
1986 (SARA) was signed into law. Title III of these new SARA provisions also is
known as the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986
(EPCRA). EPCRA requires states to:
This required the establishment of State Emergency Response Commissions
(SERCs) and Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs). Moreover, the
nation-wide regulated community of manufacturers and non-manufacturers of
hazardous chemicals must submit reports concerning their emergency chemical
releases, Materials Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs), facility hazardous chemical
inventories (Tier I and Tier II Reports), and their toxic chemical releases to
the air, land or water (Toxics Release Inventory/TRI).
The purpose behind EPCRA has been to create a cooperative relationship
among government, business and the public involving all of them in the effort
to prevent, to plan and prepare for, and to manage chemical emergencies.
Moreover, all three need to understand their important, unique and
interdependent responsibilities for making EPCRA
work.
EPCRA provides extremely useful information to government, to business
and to the public. This information, which is intended to be easily accessible,
already has proven to be invaluable. Not only has EPCRA been helpful to
government planners, regulators, and emergency responders, but the reporting
requirements have been helpful to businesses as well.
Because of this new regulatory activity, businesses have been forced to
reassess not only their chemical inventories, but also their manufacturing
processes. Because of this forward-thinking, regulatory activity, businesses
that never before considered their chemical inventories as "hazardous" or
"extremely hazardous," now are providing more safety training for their
employees. Because of EPCRA, more businesses are working cooperatively with
their local governments in order to plan for (and through planning to try to
prevent) an accidental chemical release from adversely affecting their
community. Because of this important regulatory activity, businesses are
pursuing waste minimization and pollution prevention programs very
aggressively, and realizing the benefits of federal, state and local
environmental compliance, community support and confidence, and in many cases,
actual dollar savings.
Pollution Prevention Act of 1990
One of the most far-reaching federal legislative actions taken in the
environmental area last year is the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990. This Act
requires all facilities that must report under SARA Title II/EPCRA, Section 313
to provide information on pollution prevention and recycling activities with
each Form R.
Of particular interest to citizens is the fact that the Act establishes pollution prevention as a national policy with these goals in this order:
Thus, the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, emphasizes the hierarchy of:
The Environmental Defense Fund and other environmental and public
interest groups placed additional pressure on the U.S. EPA to include the mandated Pollution
Prevention Act information (concerning pollution prevention and recycling) on
the Form R, not simply with the Form R so that this waste
minimization/pollution prevention information will be easily accessible on the
existing Section 313/TRI database.
Virginia Pollution Prevention Program
The Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality has an established
Pollution Prevention Program which
provides technical assistance and outreach to businesses and industry
throughout the Commonwealth. A quarterly newsletter, archive of hard copy and
electronic database and bulletin boards, consulting engineers for environmental
assessment opportunity, and many other resources are available from:
Virginia Pollution Prevention Program
c/o Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality
629 E. Main Street, 5th Floor
Richmond, VA 23219
CONTACT: Sharon K. Baxter
(804) 762-4344
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