TRI (Toxics Release Inventory)
A TRI reporting form is the annual toxic chemical release report that 40 CFR part 372 requires under section 313 of Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (40 CFR 372.1, 372.85(c)). Title III is also called the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (E1527-21, 3.3.7). A covered facility's owner or operator reports each listed toxic chemical it knows it manufactured, processed or otherwise used above a threshold in a calendar year, with estimates of the chemical's releases and off-site transfers (40 CFR 372.30(a), 372.85(b)).
What puts a property on this record
The regulation does not say which sites are on the record. It says who must report.
A facility is covered for a calendar year if it has 10 or more full-time employees, is in an industry code the part lists, and manufactured (including imported), processed or otherwise used a toxic chemical above an applicable threshold; or if EPA has applied the reporting requirement to it and it exceeded a threshold (40 CFR 372.22). A full-time employee is 2,000 hours of work a year, contract employees counted, and a facility is everything stationary on one site, or on contiguous or adjacent sites, that one person, or its affiliates, owns or operates, and may hold more than one establishment (40 CFR 372.3).
- Industries. Manufacturing, SIC codes 20 through 39, and, within limits the part sets, certain mining, power generation, hazardous waste, chemical wholesale, petroleum terminal and solvent recovery facilities, among others (40 CFR 372.23).
- Thresholds. For 1989 and later years, 25,000 pounds a year manufactured or processed, and 10,000 pounds otherwise used (40 CFR 372.25(a), (b)). Chemicals of special concern have lower thresholds, among them 10 pounds for mercury and 100 pounds for the listed per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (40 CFR 372.28(a)).
- Alternate threshold. A facility whose annual reportable amount of a chemical is 500 pounds or less may apply a threshold of 1 million pounds and file a certification statement instead of a report, except for chemicals of special concern (40 CFR 372.27).
- Exemptions. On conditions the part sets, some quantities need not be counted, such as low concentrations in mixtures (below 1 percent, or 0.1 percent for a carcinogen, and never for the chemicals of special concern), chemicals in articles, certain uses and laboratory activities (40 CFR 372.28(b), 372.38(a) to (d)). An owner whose only interest in a covered facility is the land it operates on, with no other business interest in the operation, does not report (40 CFR 372.38(e)).
A report for a calendar year is due by July 1 of the following year; reports began with 1987, due July 1, 1988 (40 CFR 372.30(d)).
What a listing shows, and what it does not
The regulation does not say what a listing holds. The form asks for, among other things, the facility's name and address; the chemical's name and CAS number; its activities and uses at the facility; the maximum amount on site at any time in the year; estimates, with their basis, of fugitive and stack air emissions, discharges to water, underground injection on site and releases to land on site; and transfers in waste to treatment works and other off-site locations, each named with its address (40 CFR 372.85(b)).
Part 372's release takes in emitting, discharging, injecting and disposing into the environment as well as spills and leaks (40 CFR 372.3); the standard gives release the federal cleanup law's meaning (E1527-21, 3.2.75). The form gives estimated amounts by medium, not where on the site a release occurred or what remains in soil or groundwater (40 CFR 372.85(b)).
A facility below the employee count, outside the listed codes, under the thresholds, within an exemption, or certifying under the alternate threshold files no report for that chemical, so the absence of a report does not show that the chemical was not used (40 CFR 372.22, 372.27, 372.38).
In a Phase I ESA
These reports are not a standard source of Table 2 (E1527-21, 8.2.2, Table 2). Table 3 names records of emergency release reports under 42 U.S.C. 11004 (E1527-21, Table 3); part 372 reports are a different filing, the one 42 U.S.C. 11023 requires (40 CFR 372.1, 372.20(b), 372.22(d)). Additional records are checked when the environmental professional judges them reasonably ascertainable, useful, accurate and complete enough for the purpose of the records review, and generally obtained in initial site assessments for the type of transaction involved, under local good commercial and customary practice (E1527-21, 8.2.4).
Part 372 has its own list of toxic chemicals (40 CFR 372.3, 372.65). The practice covers hazardous substances as the federal cleanup law defines them, and petroleum products (E1527-21, 1.1, 3.2.36, 3.2.61). Check each reported chemical against the standard's definitions; for the listed per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, see PFAS in a Phase I.
For a report from the subject property, the answer turns on which chemicals were reported, for which years and in what amounts on site, the releases to land and the underground injection on site, the waste sent off site, and what the site visit and interviews show. The site visit looks for chemical containers, stained soil or pavement, and wells, injection wells included (E1527-21, 9.4.11, 9.4.15, 9.4.23, 9.4.27). The facility keeps each report and its supporting documents, receipts or manifests for off-site transfers among them, for 3 years at the facility (40 CFR 372.10(a), (c)); ask for them.
For a reporting facility near the subject property, the professional gives a judgment on the significance of each listing inside the search distance (E1527-21, 8.1.10). A report from another facility names each off-site location that received the chemical in waste, with its address; check whether the subject property is among them (40 CFR 372.85(b)(15)). See adjoining or nearby property.
What the federal rule says
The inquiry rule does not name these reports. Among what the inquiry must seek to identify:
Waste management and disposal activities that could have caused releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances;
40 CFR 312.20(e)(1)(iii), edition revised as of July 1, 2025
The rule lets the procedures of E1527-21 be used to comply with its sections 312.23 through 312.31 (40 CFR 312.11(a)).
Where the record is kept
Reports go to EPA and to the State where the facility is, or, in Indian country, to the official the Tribe designates (40 CFR 372.30(a)). Since January 21, 2014, reports that claim no trade secret are submitted to EPA electronically; those that claim one are submitted on paper (40 CFR 372.85(c)).
This page is general reference for environmental professionals. It does not classify any property. ASTM E1527-21 is the standard and is not reproduced here; the judgment of the environmental professional on the facts governs.
Classifying a finding
Situations in which this record type bears on the answer: