July 1, 2014 marks the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting deadline for reporting year 2013. The report is required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for various facilities throughout the US.
The TRI tracks the usage of specific toxic chemicals that may pose a threat to human health and the environment. Facilities that use these chemicals must report all releases of the chemical on an annual basis. Releases include emitting a chemical to the air or water or through land disposal. The report also requires information on recycling, energy recovery and treatment of the toxic chemicals. Currently there are over 650 chemicals on the TRI reporting list. The reported information is then available to the public. According to the EPA, the TRI program “creates a strong incentive for companies to improve environmental performance”.
As of January 21, 2014, this reporting is required to be done electronically using the TRI-MEweb program, accessed through the EPA’s CDX Network. If a facility is new to TRI reporting, they must first create a user account on the CDX network. In order to fully submit a TRI report, a number of steps must be completed including the following:
Sign an Electronic Signature Agreement (ESA)
Add facility profile information
Add a chemical report for each toxic chemical released at a facility
Validate the reported information for each chemical
Transmit the validated forms to CDX and wait for certification
Once a submission is certified, an email will be sent to the user
The certifying official named by the facility must then log in and certify the submission
Finally, the final TRI forms are submitted
As the above list suggest, this process can be time consuming. If a facility has multiple chemicals to report, the process becomes even more cumbersome. EES can help facilities to achieve compliance with the TRI regulation as well as the new requirement for electronic reporting.