SARA Tier II Reporting: Who Files, Forms, and Penalties

SARA Tier II reporting is the annual hazardous chemical inventory disclosure required under Section 312 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. If your facility keeps a Safety Data Sheet for a hazardous chemical and stores that chemical above the applicable weight threshold at any point during the calendar year, you must file a Tier II form by March 1 of the following year with three recipients: your State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), your Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), and the fire department that covers your site.¹ The purpose is practical: emergency responders need to know what is stored at your facility, how much, and where, before they walk into a fire or a spill.

Who Has to File

Two conditions have to be met together. First, OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard at 29 CFR 1910.1200 must require your facility to maintain a Safety Data Sheet for the chemical.² Second, the quantity on site must reach the reporting threshold set by EPA at 40 CFR 370.10.³

The thresholds depend on the type of chemical:

For hazardous chemicals that are not Extremely Hazardous Substances, the threshold is 10,000 pounds present at the facility at any one time during the calendar year.³
For Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHS), the threshold is 500 pounds or the chemical’s Threshold Planning Quantity, whichever is lower. TPQs vary by substance and can be as low as 1 pound for chemicals like nickel carbonyl.⁴

Pay attention to the phrase “at any one time.” You are not averaging inventory over the year. A single delivery that pushes on-site quantity past the threshold for one day makes that chemical reportable for the whole year. Each chemical is evaluated on its own, so a facility might carry ten hazardous chemicals but only cross the threshold on two of them.

Exemptions and the Numbers That Trip People Up

Several categories of hazardous chemicals are exempt from Tier II reporting even when they exceed the weight thresholds:

Food, drugs, and cosmetics regulated by the FDA.
Solid articles where the hazardous substance is locked into a manufactured item and creates no exposure under normal use.
Consumer-form products used for personal or household purposes, or present in the same form and concentration as a product sold to the public.
Research laboratory chemicals under the direct supervision of a technically qualified individual.
Routine agricultural operations and fertilizers held for retail sale to end customers.⁵

Retail gas stations work off different numbers. Gasoline kept entirely underground in tanks that comply with all applicable underground storage tank rules has a threshold of 75,000 gallons; diesel kept the same way has a threshold of 100,000 gallons.³ Those higher numbers apply only when the fuel is sold principally to the public for motor vehicle use and the tanks stayed in full UST compliance throughout the year. Any gasoline or diesel in aboveground tanks at the same station falls back to the standard 10,000-pound threshold.⁶

Lead-acid batteries catch a lot of facilities off guard. Sulfuric acid is an Extremely Hazardous Substance, and you have to add up the sulfuric acid in every battery and every other source at the site. Once the total hits 500 pounds, it becomes reportable.⁷ A large forklift fleet or a room of backup batteries can push a facility across that line without anyone realizing it until an inspector shows up.

What the Form Asks For

Tier II requires a dense set of information for each reportable chemical, spelled out in 40 CFR 370.42.⁸ For each one you report, you need:

The chemical name as it appears on the Safety Data Sheet, plus the CAS registry number.
The maximum amount on site on any single day during the year, reported using range codes rather than exact pounds.
The average daily amount over the year, also in range codes.
The maximum number of days the chemical was present.
Storage type (aboveground tank, steel drum, plastic drum, cylinder, rail car, and so on).
Storage conditions (ambient, cryogenic, elevated pressure).
A description of where the chemical sits at the facility. You can attach a site plan with coordinates, a list of abbreviations tied to specific buildings, or a description of containment features such as dikes.⁸

Each chemical also has to be classified into one or more of 24 hazard categories drawn from the Globally Harmonized System, split between health hazards (carcinogenicity, acute toxicity, reproductive toxicity, and so on) and physical hazards (flammables, gases under pressure, explosives, oxidizers, and others).⁹ This information comes directly from the Safety Data Sheet, so no independent hazard testing should be required.

Mixtures

Mixtures cause the most trouble. You can either report the whole mixture by its product name or report the individual hazardous components. If you report components, you multiply each one’s weight percentage by the mixture’s total mass to get the component quantity, then aggregate that with the same component from every other mixture and pure-form source on site.¹⁰ Facilities that stock dozens of cleaning products or chemical blends often find mixture-level reporting simpler, unless a mixture contains an EHS component that has to be tracked on its own.

Components below 1% of the mixture’s total weight do not have to be reported. The cutoff drops to 0.1% for carcinogens.¹⁰

How to Submit

Most facilities prepare their forms using EPA’s free Tier2 Submit software, which produces the standardized .T2S electronic file that regulators expect.¹¹ EPA releases a new version each year, and you have to use the version matching your reporting year. The software walks through facility identification (including NAICS code and Dun & Bradstreet number), chemical-by-chemical inventory entry, and 24-hour contact information for a facility emergency coordinator.

Where the file goes depends on your state. Some states require submission through E-Plan, a web-based system that accepts .T2S uploads. Others use their own state-specific portals. A few still accept .T2S files by email or require a hard copy to the local fire department even when the SERC and LEPC filings are electronic.¹² EPA maintains a state-by-state directory of methods, required software, and contacts; check it every year, because states occasionally change procedures. Some states charge a per-facility filing fee, typically up to about $25.

The legal duty is the same regardless of the portal: the report has to reach your SERC, your LEPC, and your local fire department by March 1.¹ In many states the electronic portal distributes the report to all three, but not always. If the state portal only forwards to the SERC, you still have to get copies to the LEPC and fire department yourself. Keep confirmation timestamps or receipts for every submission as proof of compliance.

Trade Secret Claims

EPCRA Section 322 lets you withhold a chemical’s specific identity from public disclosure if you consider it a trade secret, but the process is not casual. You have to submit two versions of the form: an unsanitized version with the full chemical identity, sent to EPA with a trade secret substantiation form, and a sanitized version with the identity replaced by a generic class, sent to the SERC, LEPC, and fire department.¹³ The substantiation form requires you to demonstrate that the identity has not been publicly disclosed, that you have taken reasonable steps to protect it, that no other law requires its release, that disclosure would cause substantial competitive harm, and that the identity cannot be figured out through reverse engineering.¹⁴ Use the federal Tier II form (EPA Form 8700-30) when claiming a trade secret, because state-specific forms may not include the necessary substantiation fields.

EPCRA Section 324 is a separate protection that lets you ask your SERC and LEPC to withhold the specific storage location of a chemical from public disclosure. The chemical’s identity and quantity stay public.

Penalties for Missing or Botching the Filing

The statute at 42 USC 11045 sets the baseline civil penalty at up to $25,000 per violation, with each day of continued violation counted separately.¹⁵ EPA adjusts the number for inflation each year. As of the January 2025 adjustment, the maximum sits at $71,545 per violation per day.¹⁶ Miss the March 1 deadline by two months on a single chemical and the theoretical exposure runs past $4 million.

EPA enforcement typically starts with a notice of violation rather than an opening demand at the statutory maximum, and assessed amounts depend on facility size, severity, and compliance history. Leniency is not a plan, though. State agencies can bring their own penalties on top of federal ones, and residents near your facility have an independent right under EPCRA to sue if they believe you failed to report. The practical stake is the reason the paperwork exists: firefighters and hazmat teams walking into your facility during an emergency are the people who need what the form contains.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 11022 – Emergency and Hazardous Chemical Inventory Forms
2
eCFR. 29 CFR 1910.1200 – Hazard Communication
3
eCFR. 40 CFR 370.10 – Reporting Requirements
4
eCFR. Appendix A to Part 355 – The List of Extremely Hazardous Substances and Their Threshold Planning Quantities
5
eCFR. 40 CFR 370.13 – What Substances Are Excluded From Reporting
6
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Retail Gas Stations Are Not Exempt From Tier II Reporting
7
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Tier I/II Reporting – Lead Acid Batteries
8
eCFR. 40 CFR 370.42 – What Is Tier II Inventory Information
9
eCFR. 40 CFR 370.66 – Hazard Category
10
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. How Are Mixtures Handled for Sections 311 and 312 Reporting
11
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Tier2 Submit Software
12
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. State Tier II Reporting Requirements and Procedures
13
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Use Federal Tier II Form When Claiming Trade Secret
14
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPCRA Section 322 – Trade Secrets
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 11045 – Enforcement
16
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment