Welcome to 2023 and Reporting Year 2022 SARA Tier 2!

And holy cow it’s almost Feb 1 already! 31 days and counting down for those of you watching the calendar.

Michigan EGLE still has one in-person training class you can attend, and has lots of resources on their website, links in the post.

And in case you missed it, I did 60 days of blog post a day about Tier 2 reporting.

I’ll condense that material into a 31 day program over the course of the next month.

If you would like a printed version of the blog posts, either with or without electronic versions of the spreadsheets, the links are at the bottom of the post.

March 1 Plus 12 Just one more one more thing….Section 311 updating requirements

Your Tier2 report counted as your Section 311 update notification.

Within 90 days of changes that impact the Hazardous Substances (have a Safety Data Sheet) you need to notify your LEPC, SERC and local Fire Department (and make any changes needed to your Emergency Response Plan).

March 1 Plus 1: Just one more thing….if you remember Colombo, the TV show

Your Tier2 report counted as your Section 302 notification.

Within 60 days of changes that impact the Extremely Hazardous Substances EHSs at your facility, for EPCRA SARA Section 302 you need to notify your LEPC (and make any changes needed to your Emergency Response Plan).

In this post we’ll go through these requirements a little bit more

0 days: Are you done yet?

1 day to go: Hot off the presses! Michigan Tier2 Manager is down

Just a lot of traffic or something cyber?

Good luck! (Hope your report is already submitted)

2 days: Last Sunday FAQ Friday for RY2021 Reporting Season

Back to serious topics:

• Supplier notification, it’s not like TRI

• Can LEPC request SDS for exempt chemicals?

• Can the public?

3 days: Last Saturday FAQ Friday for RY2021 Reporting Season

A selection of interesting ag related FAQs for today:

• Farm cooperatives are not exempt

• Animal refuges are not exempt

• Fish farming is a routine agricultural activity and so exempt

4 days: Last FAQ Friday for RY2021 Reporting Season

Just a few fun FAQs for today:

• Bricks may be exempt as a manufactured item

• Calculating dust and fumes for bricks

• Marinas and airports are not retail gas stations

5 days: Documentation around Hazards, Locations, Temperatures, Pressures.

And what is not on your Tier2 report and why

This one covers some database design thoughts and experience, because how you document what went on the report with respect to these items is pretty straightforward

6 days: Documentation

Down to the wire!

Hopefully you’re meeting with your signer today or tomorrow, or maybe your Tier2 report is already submitted.

Here’s a list of the documentatioin that I consider a “complete” notebook with respect to Threshold Determinations. By that I mean tha someone can follow your activities every step of the way

Tomorrow we’ll cover documentation for Hazards, Locations, Temperatures and Pressures

7 days: Significant digits

After a “blast to the past” reflection on the evolution of technology, we get into the science of significant digits

There are no EPA FAQs on this, but in questioning instructors during “in person” training “back in the day”, we got an admission that adhering to the science of significant digits was valid for environmental reporting

If you’re not familiar with significant digits, they are designed to represent only as many numerical digits as you are confident of, based on how accurate your input data is. (lots of tuturials on this if you need more detail)

10 days: Carcinogens

My media suggestions for today will be polarizing no matter which side of the topic you are one, but both resources are well worth being familiar with.

Carcinogens for Tier2 are only relevant if

• you don’t have a Safety Data Sheet and you need one because the material contains a carcinogen, or

• if you are taking De Minimis constituent concentrations to reduce your threshold amounts and the mixture contains a carcinogen

We’ll go through the relevant carcinogen lists and provide links

11 days: Another Sunday FAQ Friday-Research and Medical Part 2 of 2

My book suggestion for today is Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. It is a good followup to yesterday’s recommendation Managing the Unexpected, which highlights what High Reliability Organizations HRO’s, of which medical entities are a part, do differently from non-HROs .

And this book selection is consistent with our medical theme because many of the examples are around using checklists at medical facilities, highlighting some dramatically improved results as a result of checklist use.

And now on to the FAQ’s. This will be part 2 of 2 for Medical and Research Facility FAQs.

12 days: Another Saturday FAQ Friday-Research and Medical

My book for today is Managing the Unexpected, about what High Reliability Organizations HRO’s (which includes medical facilities and emergency responders) do differently from the rest of us and how we can learn from their processes

And now on to the FAQ’s. This will be part 1 of 2 for Medical and Research Facility FAQs since there are quite a few of them.

13 days: Another FAQ Friday

As we get close to the end of this year’s Tier2 Reporting time (and I start to run out of topics) I’ll be starting to “wax philosophical” about how you could improve your experience next year.

A More Beautiful Question is one of my favorite resources (it reframed my thinking). The author’s suggestion to “Questionstorm” instead of brainstorm was a really interesting discussion in the book.

And now on to the FAQ’s:

• Hydrofluoric acid, another example of a mixture that contains only an Extremely Hazardous Substance EHS and water

• Chemicals purchased not received

• Electronic reporting? Link to state requirements

• Facility closed during the reporting year

• e-Cigarettes

14 days: De Minimis? Or not…

Guidance in the past has been that contributions from constituents less than 1 percent, or less than .1 percent for carcinogenic constituents, can be excluded from Tier2 Threshold Determination calculations.

We have to go to the regulations at 40CFR370.14 to find this interpretation (check with your regulatory authority).

This question is not specifically addressed in EPA SARA 312 FAQ’s nor is it addressed in the instruction book for the Tier2 report.

15 days: Rock Salt? Really?

Anything you need a Safety Data Sheet SDS for, which is defined as anything with a physical or health hazard, falls into the Tier2 universe.

Since nearly everything is shown as at least being an Irritant, even what you think of as “non-hzardous” probably fall into this bucket.

We’ll share a couple of examples.

16 days: Non-reactive solids

What do Atomic Accidents have to do with non-reactive solids? A quote from the author

You are hopefully finished with threshold determinations, but just in case (and to fill out your portfolio of knowledge), here are the FAQ’s around Non-Reactive Solids

17 days: Happy Valentine’s Day! Let’s talk about reactive solids

A rabbit hole I didn’t know existed.

There are 12 chemicals whose CAS Numbers are Reactive Solids by definition. “Reactive Solids” have a single Threshold Planning Quantity TPQ, not a Lower and an Upper TPQ.

Aand they are not eligible to use lower amounts for their contribution to EHS thresholds

It was surprisingly difficult to find the list of the 12 reactive solids, I built the list directly from the regulations.

The good news is that if you just treated them like any other Extremely Hazardous Substance EHS and calculated against their listed Threshold Planning Quantity TPQ, you would get the correct result.

18 days: Sunday edition of FAQ Friday

A few more FAQs:

• Multiple entities on a single piece of geography

• Contractors, who is responsible?

• Can I Lease away my requirements

• Your carbonated beverage