Community Right-to-Know (EPCRA)

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) Reporting Program of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) collects and shares information about the storage, use and release of hazardous and toxic chemicals. It sits in DNREC's Emergency Response and Strategic Services Section, and DNREC says it is responsible for the collection and dissemination of information reported under the federal and state Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Acts.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name chemical inventory reports among its standard record sources. An inventory report is a record of storage, not of a release. Release reports under EPCRA are on the DERNS page.

Four Delaware details shape how to read the program's records. They come from DNREC's Data and Information page, last modified September 14, 2022.

• Delaware's threshold is lower than the federal one. For hazardous chemicals, the threshold that triggers Tier II reporting is 55 gallons or 500 pounds; DNREC notes that the federal threshold is 10,000 pounds and that Delaware law established a lower one. For federal Extremely Hazardous Substances, the threshold is 55 gallons, 500 pounds or the threshold planning quantity, whichever is lower. A facility can appear in Delaware's records with quantities that would not reach the federal threshold.
• A Tier II report is detailed. Reports are due by March 1 each year for the previous calendar year. For each reportable chemical a report includes the name of the substance, its physical and health hazards, the maximum and average daily amounts, the type of storage container and the specific storage locations at the site.
• Not every chemical is on the list. DNREC says there are several exemptions to the reporting requirements, among them consumer products and substances regulated under other federal laws, such as hazardous waste, so a facility's list will not identify every hazardous chemical present at the site.
• Most reporting is lists, not sheets. DNREC says more than 2,300 facilities in Delaware have reported chemicals on site under the Safety Data Sheet requirement, mostly by submitting lists of chemicals rather than the sheets themselves, so the sheets are not immediately available for most chemicals at facilities. It also says only 70 to 80 facilities a year report to the Toxics Release Inventory.

Where to look a site up

• The EPCRA Public Portal, which DNREC says gives access to EPCRA data such as facility name and location, chemical name, and physical and health hazards.
• The EPCRA Reporting Program is at 155 Commerce Way, Suite B, Dover, DE 19904, at 302-739-9405.

Getting the file

DNREC says requests for information reported by facilities under the EPCRA program, such as inventory or release reports, should be made in writing through the DNREC FOIA Coordinator, and that a request for a facility's Safety Data Sheet goes to the FOIA Coordinator too. The route is on the DNREC FOIA Requests page.

Sources

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control pages, read October 13, 2026:

• Community Right-to-Know, last modified December 22, 2025.
• Data and Information, last modified September 14, 2022.
• Emergency Response and Strategic Services, last modified May 19, 2026.