A chemical company in Louisiana filed their Section 311/312 reports by hazardous components.  The Louisiana State Right-to-Know laws require companies to report on all unique substances present at the facility.  For example, if chemical A and chemical B are blended to make mixture C, than the facility would have to report on chemical A, chemical B and mixture C containing A and B.  

The facility has no problem reporting on the chemicals present on site because they stock a large number of chemicals and their competitors would never be able to figure out their mixture compositions from all these possible chemicals.  However, Louisiana requires the company to report on mixture C and the chemicals in it - i.e., chemicals A and B.  The facility does not want to reveal what chemicals are present in what mixtures.  How does this facility file a trade secret claim?

Federal requirements for Section 311/312 state that a facility may report on the mixture as a whole or may report on the hazardous components.  It does not require that a facility do both.  Therefore, since the mixture and components are not required to be reported, there is no reason for the facility to file a trade secret claim with the Federal EPA.  However, the State of Louisiana is requiring information above and beyond the Federal requirements.  Therefore, in order for the facility to protect its trade secret mixture formulation, the company must file trade secret claim in accordance with the Louisiana State trade secret provisions (53 FR 28795).