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Tier II Chemical Inventory Reporting Under 40 CFR Part 370: What the Rule Requires and What EPA Actually Charges
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Tier II Chemical Inventory Reporting Under 40 CFR Part 370: What the Rule Requires and What EPA Actually Charges

Tier II inventory reporting under 40 CFR Part 370: the 500 lb and 10,000 lb thresholds, the March 1 deadline, EPCRA 311, and what EPA settlements really cost.

by iSi Environmental

The Ceiling Is $71,545 a Day. Four Missed Years Settled for $5,000.

Both numbers are current, and the gap between them is the most useful thing to know about Tier II chemical inventory reporting under 40 CFR Part 370. The statutory maximum civil penalty for an EPCRA section 312 violation is $71,545 per violation per day, set by 40 CFR 19.4 Table 1 and inflation adjusted effective January 8, 2025 (90 FR 1375). In July 2026, EPA Region 3 resolved four consecutive missed Tier II reporting years at a Pennsylvania fuel oil company for $5,000 total (Docket EPCRA-03-2026-0165).

That is not a loophole and it is not permission to file late. It is the distance between the statute’s ceiling and the policy EPA negotiates from. EPA’s operative guidance for EPCRA sections 311 and 312 is the Enforcement Response Policy issued September 30, 1999, whose section 312 matrix tops out at $27,500 per violation and assigns a flat $1,500 per past reporting year. Multiplying the ceiling by a day count describes nothing in EPA’s method.

What is Tier II reporting under 40 CFR 370?

Tier II is the annual hazardous chemical inventory report required by EPCRA section 312 and implemented at 40 CFR 370.40 through 370.45. Section 370.20 splits Part 370 into SDS reporting and inventory reporting. The inventory form is due on or before March 1 for the preceding calendar year, to the SERC, the LEPC and the local fire department with jurisdiction.

The form has no other legitimate name, and its data elements at 370.42 run well past chemical names and quantities: latitude and longitude, manned or unmanned status, maximum occupants at any one time, NAICS code, Dun and Bradstreet number, TRI and Risk Management Program identification numbers, and EPCRA section 302 and Clean Air Act section 112(r) status. Section 370.42(a) requires certification by the owner or operator or a designated representative. Keep that certification and the proof of submission: every expedited settlement reviewed here turned on the submission date, not the preparation date.

What is the difference between EPCRA section 311 and section 312?

Section 311, at 40 CFR 370.30 through 370.33, is a one time Safety Data Sheet or chemical list submission due within three months of first becoming subject to the part, updated within three months of significant new information. Section 312, at 370.40 through 370.45, is the annual inventory due March 1. Filing Tier II does not discharge the 311 obligation.

This is the gap most often found at a facility that considers itself fully compliant. Section 370.20 states it plainly: “The reporting requirements of this part consist of SDS reporting and inventory reporting.” Two duties, two clocks. The 311 duty is met by submitting either an SDS for each covered chemical or a list of those chemicals grouped by the hazards in section 2 of the SDS, to the LEPC, the SERC and the fire department, under 370.30 and 370.32. A facility that has filed Tier II faithfully every March 1 and never made a 311 submission is in violation of a separate duty with its own ceiling: $28,619 per violation per day under 40 CFR 19.4 Table 1, also dated January 8, 2025.

Does Tier II apply to my facility if I am not a chemical company?

Applicability turns on OSHA, not on industry. 40 CFR 370.10(a) covers any facility that OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard requires to prepare or have available an SDS, where that chemical is at or above threshold. EPA publishes no SIC or NAICS screen for Part 370 and estimates roughly 463,000 covered facilities (91 FR 37022).

There is no small business exemption in Part 370, no revenue test and no employee count test. An earlier version of this page said you must file if you store a chemical above its Threshold Planning Quantity and employ at least one worker. Neither half of that is in the rule. The trigger is the SDS, and the SDS comes from OSHA. A construction equipment dealer in Kent, Washington drew an enforcement action over diesel fuel No. 2 (EPCRA-10-2025-0111), and a dessert manufacturer in Aurora, Colorado drew one over ammonia refrigeration, sulfuric acid, lead compounds and compressed nitrogen (EPCRA-08-2024-0001).

What quantity of a chemical triggers Tier II reporting?

500 pounds or 10,000 pounds, depending on the chemical. An extremely hazardous substance listed in 40 CFR Part 355 triggers at 500 pounds or its Threshold Planning Quantity, whichever is lower (370.10(a)(1)). Every other hazardous chemical triggers at 10,000 pounds (370.10(a)(2)(i)). Retail gasoline in qualifying underground tanks triggers at 75,000 gallons and retail diesel at 100,000 gallons.

The sequence matters more than either number. Screen every chemical against 40 CFR Part 355 Appendix A and Appendix B first. Only after a chemical clears that screen does 10,000 pounds apply. Run it the other way and every extremely hazardous substance in the building disappears into a threshold 20 times too high.

The ammonia number that was wrong on this page

Anhydrous ammonia (CAS 7664-41-7) carries a 500 pound Threshold Planning Quantity and a 100 pound reportable quantity under 40 CFR Part 355 Appendix B, so its Tier II threshold is 500 pounds. An earlier version of this page said 20,000 pounds, twice. That is the Clean Air Act section 112(r) Risk Management Program threshold, a different program, and applying it to Part 370 puts a typical refrigeration charge 40 times over a threshold the reader believes they are under.

Hydrogen chloride, gas only (CAS 7647-01-0), carries a 500 pound TPQ and a 5,000 pound reportable quantity. The earlier version published the RQ as the threshold, a tenfold error in the permissive direction. Aqueous hydrochloric acid is not separately listed as an EHS and falls to 10,000 pounds. Ethylene oxide (CAS 75-21-8) shows why “whichever is lower” matters: its TPQ is 1,000 pounds, but 370.10(a)(1) takes the lower of 500 and the TPQ.

Retail fuel thresholds and the conditions that take them away

The 75,000 gallon gasoline and 100,000 gallon diesel thresholds at 370.10(a)(2)(ii) and (iii) are the closest thing to a sector carve out in Part 370, and they depend on three facts at once: the tanks are entirely underground, those tanks were in UST compliance during the whole preceding calendar year, and the facility sells principally to the public for motor vehicle use. One aboveground tank, or one UST deficiency during the year, drops the facility back to 10,000 pounds. It is the carve out most often claimed and most often forfeited by accident.

The threshold that is zero

Section 370.10(b) sets the threshold at zero for responding to a request. If the LEPC asks for an SDS you have not already submitted, or if the LEPC, the SERC or the fire department asks for Tier II information, quantity is irrelevant and the window is 30 days. Any threshold based compliance posture has this hole in it.

Which chemicals are exempt from Tier II reporting?

Section 370.13 exempts only the EPCRA 311(e) exclusions: FDA regulated food, food additives, color additives, drugs and cosmetics; solids in manufactured items with no exposure under normal use; consumer form products for personal, family or household use; substances used in a research laboratory, hospital or medical facility under the direct supervision of a technically qualified individual; and routine agricultural use or retail held fertilizer.

Section 370.13 also exempts anything OSHA does not require an SDS for. Read each exemption narrowly, because each carries a condition facilities drop. The consumer product exemption at 370.13(c)(1) turns on packaging and concentration, not on who bought the product, so a drum of something sold at retail in quart bottles is not in consumer form. The research laboratory exemption requires direct supervision by a technically qualified individual, not merely a room labeled laboratory. The agricultural exemption covers fertilizer held by a retailer for sale, not as process feedstock.

When is the Tier II deadline and what period does it cover?

Section 370.45 sets the deadline on or before March 1 of each year, covering the preceding calendar year. The next federal deadline is March 1, 2027, covering calendar year 2026. A separate 30 day clock applies when the SERC, the LEPC or the fire department requests Tier II information, and at that point the quantity threshold is zero under 370.10(b).

Build the inventory from the SDS file, not from purchasing records. The reportable figure is the maximum amount present at any one time during the preceding calendar year, per 370.10(a) and 370.42(s), so a production ramp in August governs the number even if the facility ran lean the rest of the year. Day tanks, totes staged for batch prep and backup drums all count. For aggregating the same chemical across different names, CAS mismatches and maximum versus average daily quantity, see Tier II inventory reconciliation and chemical naming failure modes.

What is the maximum penalty for a late or missing Tier II report?

$71,545 per violation per day is the current statutory ceiling for EPCRA 325(c)(1), which covers section 312, per 40 CFR 19.4 Table 1 as adjusted effective January 8, 2025 (90 FR 1375). Section 311 violations under 325(c)(2) cap at $28,619. No 2026 inflation adjustment exists, so both figures date to January 8, 2025.

That last sentence matters, because the annual escalation story is false this year. The most recent column in 40 CFR 19.4 Table 1 is still “assessed on or after January 8, 2025,” and EPA’s penalty inflation adjustment page lists no 2026 rule. The mechanism is documented at two other agencies. The Office of Natural Resources Revenue notice at 91 FR 46158 (July 22, 2026) quotes OMB Memorandum M-26-11 of April 17, 2026 as having “cancelled penalty inflation adjustments for 2026” “based on the lack of October 2025 CPI-U data due to the lapse in appropriations,” and the Railroad Retirement Board notice at 91 FR 29992 (May 21, 2026) says 2026 penalties hold at 2025 levels. Any Tier II penalty figure dated 2026 is either the January 8, 2025 number or an invention. One structural note: the Enforcement Response Policy treats failure to report to each point of compliance as a separate violation, and 370.44 names three recipients, so one missed filing is three violations before any day count is applied.

What penalties does EPA actually assess for Tier II violations?

Far below the ceiling. EPA Region 3 settled four consecutive missed years at Shaffer Oil Company for $5,000 (Docket EPCRA-03-2026-0165, Expedited Settlement Agreement dated July 20, 2026). Region 10 settled one late diesel filing at Modern Machinery for $5,000 (EPCRA-10-2025-0111). Region 8 assessed $50,000 against Steven-Roberts Originals for four years including omitted chemicals (EPCRA-08-2024-0001).

Read the three dockets side by side and the gradient is not about days late. Shaffer Oil, a Somerset, Pennsylvania fuel oil company, filed nothing for calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023, submitted all three on July 24, 2025, and filed calendar year 2024 on May 13, 2025. Modern Machinery, a Kent, Washington equipment dealer, filed calendar year 2023 on October 15, 2024 instead of March 1, 2024 for diesel fuel No. 2 above 10,000 pounds, cited under 370.20 with 370.45 and 370.10(a).

Steven-Roberts Originals, an Aurora, Colorado dessert manufacturer, is the outlier at ten times that: no Tier II for 2019 or 2020, an incomplete 2021 form that omitted nitrogen and lead compounds, and a 2022 form filed May 31, 2023, over anhydrous ammonia, sulfuric acid, lead compounds and compressed nitrogen, cited under 370.45(a) with 370.10(a)(1) and (a)(2)(i). Consent Agreement and Final Order signed September 10, 2024, $50,000. The aggravating facts are the two years with no filing at all, the extremely hazardous substances, and the chemicals omitted from a form otherwise submitted. A late filing draws an expedited settlement. An incomplete form draws a negotiated agreement an order of magnitude higher.

How does EPA calculate a Tier II penalty?

Through the Enforcement Response Policy for EPCRA 304, 311, 312 and CERCLA 103, issued September 30, 1999. Its section 312 gravity matrix runs $1,718 to $27,500 per violation by quantity level and days late, adds 1 percent of the base penalty for each day after March 1, and assigns a flat $1,500 per year for past reporting year violations. Each point of compliance missed is a separate violation.

Three things follow. The per day component is 1 percent of the base penalty, not the statutory maximum per day, so ceiling times days describes nothing in EPA’s method. The flat $1,500 per past reporting year is why four missed years at Shaffer Oil resolved at $5,000. And the worst cell in the matrix, a Level A quantity more than 30 days late, runs $20,626 to $27,500.

That $27,500 is a 1997 era statutory maximum the policy never updated, and EPA’s landing page for it was modified May 18, 2026 with no successor noted. EPA’s negotiating anchor and the statutory ceiling diverge by a factor of 2.6, in the facility’s favor.

Is there criminal liability for failing to file Tier II?

No. EPA’s criminal provisions page identifies one EPCRA criminal offense, at 42 U.S.C. 11045(b)(4): knowing and willful failure to give release notice under section 304, carrying up to 2 years for a first conviction and up to 5 years for a subsequent conviction. No criminal provision attaches to section 311 or section 312 reporting.

An earlier version of this page stated that knowing violations of EPCRA carry imprisonment up to 15 years. There is no 15 year term anywhere in EPCRA and no criminal exposure for a late or incomplete inventory form.

Civil exposure has a second limit. In Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 523 U.S. 83, decided March 4, 1998, the Supreme Court held a citizen plaintiff lacked standing where it alleged only past EPCRA infractions, because none of the relief sought would redress its injury. The forms at issue were the inventory forms under 42 U.S.C. 11022, section 312. The Court left the wholly past violation question open, so this is a standing defense for a cured filing, not a safe harbor.

What an enforcement year actually looked like

EPA’s FY2025 Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Annual Results reports $652.46 million in civil penalties assessed, down from $1.77 billion in FY2024, a 63 percent decline. Case conclusions rose to 2,127, the highest in nine years, while civil judicial conclusions fell from 60 to 49. One case, Hino Motors, accounted for 69 percent of the FY2025 total, which makes the remainder smaller still. EPA’s report gives that one case as $449 million in one place and $525 million in another, so treat it as unsettled.

The honest reading is neither escalation nor retreat. The distribution shifted: more cases concluded, smaller penalties, and the large ones driven by omitted chemicals rather than by days late. Region 3 was still filing Tier II expedited settlements in July 2026. Filing on time with three chemicals missing is the fact pattern that produced the $50,000 order.

Do states require their own Tier II system or accept the federal form?

Varies by state, and both can be true at once. Oklahoma requires a .t2s file from the latest Tier2 Submit version uploaded to the DEQ Online Filing System. Colorado requires a .T2S attached inside AccessGov by 5:00 p.m. MST March 1 and invalidates reports built in outdated software. Texas requires STEERS. Kansas requires direct online entry plus a mailed certification letter.

This page stays on divergence from the federal baseline. For portal by portal mechanics, logins, fees and who sends copies to the LEPC and the fire department, see Tier II reporting across Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska. One correction to the conventional framing: no state reviewed here runs an earlier calendar deadline than the federal March 1. Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas and Colorado all run to March 1. What Colorado adds is the 5:00 p.m. MST cutoff plus an invalidation rule. CDPHE states that failure to complete the report in the latest software version “will result in an invalidated report,” which makes EPA’s software release schedule a Colorado compliance dependency.

The real divergence is in the off cycle clocks. Texas gives 90 days for an initial report on a new reportable chemical or facility, but ammonium nitrate used in fertilizer, the ammonium salt of nitric acid containing more than 33 percent nitrogen and excluding urea, carries a 72 hour deadline tied to Texas Agriculture Code section 63.151. Missouri requires a new extremely hazardous substance at or above its TPQ reported to the Missouri Emergency Response Commission and the LEPC within 60 days under 11 CSR 40-4.040(1), and explosives or blasting agents over 100 pounds reported to the fire department within 24 hours of presence. That 100 pound trigger is the clearest state threshold stricter than federal found in this review. Confirm the current Tier2 Submit release before building the form, because Colorado and Oklahoma both require the latest version.

What is changing on the Tier II form for reporting year 2027?

EPA’s final rule at 91 FR 37022 (June 22, 2026, effective August 21, 2026) replaces the merged EPCRA hazard categories with OSHA’s own hazard classes and categories, splitting the former flammable category into twelve. The compliance date is January 1, 2028, so the change first appears on calendar year 2027 forms due March 1, 2028. The March 1, 2027 filing is unaffected.

Nothing in this update matters more for the next two filing cycles. The rule is Docket EPA-HQ-OLEM-2025-0299, RIN 2050-AH40, and it amends essentially the whole part, 370.1 through 370.66. The point is sequencing. Do not remap your hazard categories for the March 1, 2027 filing, and do not let a software vendor remap them a cycle early. A form carrying 2028 categories in 2027 does not match the rule in force.

EPA reached this result the hard way, which tells you how firm the date is. EPA published a direct final rule on November 17, 2025 at 90 FR 51187 with a parallel proposal, then withdrew the direct final rule on January 9, 2026 at 91 FR 918 “due to the receipt of adverse comment regarding the hazard categories.” Commenters argued the expansion goes beyond what harmonization requires, that OSHA’s categories create a false sense of accuracy, and that SERCs and software vendors needed more time. EPA conceded the software timing point and pushed the compliance date back thirteen months. The regulated community moved the date, not the substance.

The order of operations that catches the surprises

Running this out of order is how facilities conclude they are out of scope.

  1. Pull the SDS file. If OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard requires an SDS for it, the chemical is a candidate under 370.10(a). Purchasing records are not the source of truth.
  2. Determine the maximum amount present at any one time during the year, per 370.10(a) and 370.42(s), including day tanks, totes and backup drums.
  3. Screen against 40 CFR Part 355 Appendix A and Appendix B. For an extremely hazardous substance the threshold is 500 pounds or the TPQ, whichever is lower.
  4. Apply 10,000 pounds to everything that cleared the EHS screen, per 370.10(a)(2)(i).
  5. Test the retail fuel thresholds against all three conditions before claiming them.
  6. Apply the 370.13 exemptions narrowly, condition by condition.
  7. Confirm the EPCRA 311 SDS or list submission is on file and revised within three months of any significant new information, per 370.33.
  8. Populate every 370.42 data element, certify under 370.42(a), and keep proof of submission.
  9. File to all three recipients named in 370.44, and in each state’s system by that state’s clock.
  10. Treat any agency request as a 30 day obligation with no threshold, per 370.10(b).

If your facility runs this in a spreadsheet and the spreadsheet is starting to fail, when Tier II work has outgrown that approach is covered in when to leave spreadsheets for an EHS platform.

Where iSi Fits on Tier II Inventory Reporting

Most of the exposure in Part 370 is not the March 1 date. It is the extremely hazardous substance screen nobody ran, the 311 submission nobody made, the day tank nobody counted, and the hazard category remap arriving a cycle later than vendors will tell you. Those are inventory problems.

That walk is the work. We maintain the chemical inventory through the year, run the Part 355 screen against it, flag threshold crossings when they happen rather than at year end, confirm the EPCRA 311 record separately from the annual form, and file in the states we work in: Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri and Texas. For retainer clients it is built into the EHS COOP program.

If you are not sure whether your facility is covered, or you are covered and never made a 311 submission, that is one meeting with your SDS list in front of us. Contact iSi Environmental for a same day response, or see our EPCRA and chemical inventory compliance services. We Plug In. You Level Up.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the Tier II report due and who receives it?

On or before March 1 each year, covering the preceding calendar year, filed with the SERC, the LEPC, and the local fire department with jurisdiction under 40 CFR 370.40 through 370.45.

What quantity of ammonia triggers Tier II reporting?

500 pounds. Anhydrous ammonia is an extremely hazardous substance with a 500 pound Threshold Planning Quantity in 40 CFR part 355, and the Tier II trigger for an EHS is 500 pounds or the TPQ, whichever is lower. The 20,000 pound figure sometimes quoted is the Clean Air Act 112(r) Risk Management Program threshold, a different rule.

What is the maximum penalty for a late or missing Tier II report?

$71,545 per violation per day under 40 CFR 19.4, adjusted effective January 8, 2025. In practice EPA negotiates from its 1999 Enforcement Response Policy, whose section 312 matrix tops out at $27,500 per violation, and recent expedited settlements have run far lower.

Is the Tier II form changing?

Yes. The June 22, 2026 final rule at 91 FR 37022 rewrites the hazard categories on the form, applying beginning with reporting year 2027 forms. The March 1, 2027 filing is unaffected.

Sources

All URLs verified 2026-11-04.

Federal regulation and statute

Federal Register rules and notices

EPA guidance, policy and enforcement data

EPA settlement documents

Court

State agency

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