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TRI Resources for First Time Filers
First-time Filer Quick Links
- Reporting Forms and Instructions
- Guidance Documents
- TRI Assistance Library
- NAIC Codes
- TRI Chemical Lists
- Reporting form questions?
This purpose of the information on this page is to assist facilities in determining whether or not they need to report to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program. In addition, it contains access to the resources necessary for facilities to report to the TRI Program.
- What is TRI?
- Do I need to report to TRI?
- How do I report to TRI?
- What chemicals are reportable to TRI?
- What training do you offer?
- Do you provide guidance for specific sectors or chemicals?
- What if I discover that I should have been reporting to TRI in previous years?
- Can a first time filer participate in the State Data Exchange?
- How do I determine my NAICS code?
- More Frequent Questions
What is TRI?
Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986 was enacted to facilitate emergency planning, to minimize the effects of potential toxic chemical accidents, and to provide the public with information on releases of toxic chemicals in their communities. The Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) of 1990 mandates collection of data on toxic chemicals that are treated, recycled, and combusted for energy recovery. Together, these laws require facilities in certain industries, which manufacture, process, or use toxic chemicals above specified amounts, to report annually on disposal or other releases and other waste management activities related to these chemicals. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains this information in a national database called the Toxics Release Inventory, which is available to the public via the Internet at www.epa.gov/tri.
The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a database that contains detailed information on nearly 650 chemicals and chemical categories that over 23,000 industrial and other facilities manage through disposal or other releases, recycling, energy recovery, or treatment. The data are collected from industries including manufacturing, metal and coal mining, electric utilities, commercial hazardous waste treatment, and other industrial sectors to meet EPCRA section 313 requirements. The North American Industry Classification System or NAICS is used by business and government to classify and measure economic activity in Canada, Mexico and the United States. It has largely replaced the older Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system.
Do I need to report to TRI?
The TRI Threshold Determination Tool helps facilities determine if they meet the threshold requirements for reporting to TRI. This audio visual tool will take approximately 6 to 8 minutes. If you are experiencing technical difficulties, please contact TRI (tri.us@epa.gov). For "captions" of the audio of this tutorial or you are unable to view the multi-media tutorial with your assistive technology, please refer to the text-equivalent Threshold Determination tutorial, which provides the text of the tutorial.
How do I report to TRI?
You may use either TRI-MEweb or TRIME-desktop to submit your TRI Form R or Form A Certification Statements electronically over the Internet.
TRI-MEweb
TRI-MEweb is available to all reporting facilities starting in reporting year 2007 (RY07). TRI-MEweb is a Web-based version of the popular TRI-ME reporting software. Unlike the desktop version of the TRI-ME software (known as TRI ME desktop), TRI-MEweb requires no downloads or software installs. The preferred method to report to EPA is by the use of the TRI-Made Easy Web (TRI-MEweb) application.
For more information, see the TRI-MEweb fact sheet (PDF). (2pp, 120KB, About PDF)
TRI-MEdesktop
TRI-MEdesktop is an predecessor of TRI-MEweb that requires the download of an application to a computer. TRI-MEdesktop is an interactive, intelligent, user friendly software tool that guides facilities through the TRI reporting experience. By leading prospective reporters through a series of logically ordered questions, TRI-ME streamlines the analysis needed to determine if a user must complete a Form R Report or Form A Certification Statement for a particular chemical. For those facilities required to report, the software provides the user with guidance for each data element on the reporting forms. Additionally, this software has a one stop guidance feature, the TRI Assistance Library, that allows users to search the statute, regulations, and many EPCRA section 313 guidance documents by key word.
To learn more about this new solution to TRI reporting, please visit the TRI software Web page.
What chemicals are reportable to TRI?
The current TRI toxic chemical list contains 581 individually listed chemicals and 30 chemical categories (including 3 delimited categories containing 58 chemicals). If the members of the three delimited categories are counted as separate chemicals then the total number of chemicals and chemical categories is 666 (i.e., 581 + 27 + 58).
What training do you offer?
EPA hosts a number of in-person and Web -based training workshops for people involved with Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
Do you provide guidance for specific sectors or chemicals?
EPA provides extensive industry-specific, chemical-specific, and general TRI guidance for the public and the regulated community.
What if I discover that I should have been reporting to TRI in previous years?
If you discovered that your facility is or may have been in violation of Section 313 of EPCRA (TRI Reporting), please refer to EPA’s Policy entitled, “Incentives for Self-Policing: Discovery, Disclosure, Correction, and Prevention of Violations” (Audit Policy), 65 Federal Register 19618, April 11, 2000. You may qualify for having all gravity-based penalties waived if your facility meets all nine conditions of the EPA Audit Policy.
If you have 100 or fewer employees and discover that your facility is or may have been in violation of Section 313 of EPCRA (TRI Reporting), please refer to EPA’s Small Business Compliance Policy. EPA will eliminate or significantly reduce penalties for small businesses that meet the conditions of this policy, including voluntarily discovering violations and promptly disclosing and correcting them. This policy implements Section 223 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) of 1996.
Can a first time filer participate in the State Data Exchange?
The TRI Program has been working with states to increase their participation in the State/EPA Exchange Network. The Exchange Network 
allows facilities to submit TRI information to both EPA and the states simultaneously through the Central Data Exchange (CDX). The Exchange Network also helps EPA, states, tribes, and territories exchange environmental information more efficiently and will streamline the acceptance and processing of TRI data by both EPA and the states.
How do I determine my NAICS code?
On June 6, 2006, EPA published a final rule requiring facilities to use NAICS codes, instead of the previously used Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, to determine TRI reporting applicability and to identify their principal business activities for releases and other waste management activities during 2006, for reports due July 1, 2007 (71 Federal Register 32464; June 6, 2006). This final rule did not intend to add or delete any industry groups subject to TRI requirements; rather, EPA simply assigned NAICS codes to those SIC codes that were already subject to TRI reporting. A complete list of the 2002 NAICS codes for TRI facilities required to report for EPCRA §313 reporting is available.
A crosswalk between SIC codes and the corresponding 2002 NAICS codes (developed by the Census Bureau) is also available.