14 Days: De Minimis? Or not…
The regulations seem to indicate that constituents with a concentration less than 1% or .1% for carcinogens can be excluded from Tier2 threshold determination calculations
Photo credit Goose Creek Farm
The guidance I have heard in the past is that if a constituent is less than 1 percent, or less than .1 percent for carcinogens, it is “de minimis” and the amount can be excluded for purposes of SARA reporting.
Here’s what I was able to find in the Code of Federal Regulations CFR around this question, which is consistent with that interpretation.
This interpretation is not included in any of the EPA Tier2 FAQ’s that I could find, nor is it referenced in the instructions for filling out the Tier2 Form.
As always, check with your regulatory authority before removing anything from your Tier2 report based on an interpretation. Your state or regulatory authority may have a different interpretation. (This is not regulatory advice, I am not a lawyer, all the usual disclaimers).
And to be honest, I can’t remember an instance where I actually applied this criteria to remove a material from the Tier2 report, although I generally checked to see what impact it might have. My clients have generally been more interested in protecting firefighters and emergency responders than in having the fewest number of items on their Tier2 reports.
One indication of carcinogenicity might be the Health Hazard pictogram, but it covers a number of other health hazards as well
When you get to “what is a carcinogen”, we do have some guidance, from an EPA FAQ we saw on the Day 20 FAQ Friday post, in which we pointed out that one positive study indicating a health hazard made the material a Hazardous Substance and therefore requiring a Safety Data Sheet SDS .
We’ll go into how to determine whether a constituent is a carcinogen tomorrow
More tomorrow, here’s to March 2nd!
If you need help finishing up your Tier2 activities, feel free to reach out to me at manguardehs at gmail dot com
Community outreach: Have you removed constituents from consideration for Tier2 reporting based on De Minimis concentrations? Which ones?
#SARA312 #SARATierII #SARATier2 #EPCRA #EGLE #March1EPAReportDeadline #ThresholdDeterminations #ExtremelyHazardousSubstances #EHS #ThresholdPlanningQuanitity #TPQ #EPAFAQ #CERCLAFAQ #SARAFAQ #EHSThresholdDeterminations #SARATier2FAQ #HazardousSubstances #DeMinimis #1Percent #.1PercentCarcinogens #Carcinogens
EPA Resources: EPA FAQ website link and the EPCRA SARA Hotline
I’m leaving the 2 key sections around getting help on any FAQ posts, how to get into the Tier2 FAQ and the EPCRA SARA Hotline number.
Remember that to Filter for Tier II Reporting only:
you will first need to check Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know on the main page,
which will give you the option to check Tier II Reporting (EPCRA 311/312),
after which you will want to uncheck Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know
so that you see 146 FAQs instead of 303 (the balance of the 303 are unrelated to 311/312)
Another non-intuitive and annoying (to me) feature of the way the FAQ’s work is that if you search, the web page unfilters before searching, so you no longer see only Tier2 FAQs. When you go back, you are still unfiltered.
So be sure to include the term Tier II in your search if you don’t want to expand the search to other (unrelated for now) topics.
I’ve provided both a link to the main (filtered) Tier2 only FAQs, and have included the hyperlinks at the bottom of each FAQ that I highlighted. So you can click those and still be looking at the appropriately filtered FAQs in a separate window if you want.
The number of results may vary as more get added
Link to EPA FAQs filtered for Tier2 only
Below is one of the most useful, where to call for help. In my experience, while you may experience some “on hold” time, the information when you get to a person will be excellent and cross referenced to the particular citations or other resources clarifying the question.
Michigan Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy EGLE links from all three 2022 SARA 312 virtual training course webinars:
I’m reposting these links with my daily Tier2 post because they are so useful.
You can sign in and watch/listen even if you didn’t sign up for the webinar series.
RECORDING LINK FOR SESSION 2: Wed Jan 19, 2022.
Really good example on batteries. This is the “in the weeds” how to conduct your threshold determinations episode: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/4027906237723673347
I talked to Mike Young, one of the presenters, right after the first webinar. He said that it’s not unusual for them to take phone calls from people from other states (with the warning to confirm that your state doesn’t have differences in their requirements compared to Michigan).
RECORDING LINK FOR SESSION 1:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/7957790593170499843
Michigan uses Tier2 Manager for report submission, which is a Michigan-specific program. If your state uses different software, you will need to review its specific requirements.
RECORDING LINK FOR SESSION 3:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/recording/2763075340284995085
If your state uses a different software program there may be some differences, but this webinar will probably also cover how to determine the Hazard Ratings, how to enter Locations, and other details associated with report submission. I’ll post the replay when it becomes available.
PRESENTATION: (I wasn’t able to attach a copy of the presentation, email the link below and they will send it to you)
SARA TITLE III – TIER II REPORTING WEBSITE: http://www.michigan.gov/sara
MICHIGAN FACILITIES’ GUIDE TO SARA TITLE III: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/deq-oea-saraguidebook_509720_7.pdf
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Mike Young and Adam Pohl
517-284-7272
