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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 185 / Tuesday, September 28, 2021 / Proposed Rules
corresponding to Standard Industrial Classification SIC codes 20 through 39: 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 331, 332, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 339, 111998, 113310, 211130, 212324, 212325, 212393, 212399, 488390, 511110, 511120, 511130, 511140, 511191, 511199, 512230, 512250, 519130, 541713, 541715, or 811490. Exceptions and/or limitations exist for these NAICS codes.
Facilities included in the following NAICS codes corresponding to SIC
codes other than SIC codes 20 through 39: 212111, 212112, 212113
corresponds to SIC code 12, Coal Mining except 1241; or 212221, 212222, 212230, 212299 corresponds to SIC code 10, Metal Mining except 1011, 1081, and 1094; or 221111, 221112, 221113, 221118, 221121, 221122, 221330 all are limited to facilities that combust coal and/or oil for the purpose of generating power for distribution in commerce corresponds to SIC codes 4911, 4931, and 4939, Electric Utilities;
or 424690, 425110, 425120 limited to facilities previously classified in SIC
code 5169, Chemicals and Allied Products, Not Elsewhere Classified; or 424710 corresponds to SIC code 5171, Petroleum Bulk Terminals and Plants;
or 562112 limited to facilities primarily engaged in solvent recovery services on a contract or fee basis previously classified under SIC code 7389, Business Services, NEC; or 562211, 562212, 562213, 562219, 562920
limited to facilities regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, subtitle C, 42 U.S.C. 6921 et seq.
corresponds to SIC code 4953, Refuse Systems.
Federal facilities.
B. What is the Agencys authority for taking this action?
Covered facilities in specified SIC
codes that manufacture, process, or otherwise use listed toxic chemicals in amounts above specified threshold levels report certain facility specific information about such chemicals, including the annual releases and other waste management quantities. EPCRA
section 313g1 requires EPA to publish a uniform toxic chemical release form for these reporting purposes, and it also prescribes, in general terms, the types of information that must be submitted on the form.
Congress also granted EPA broad rulemaking authority to allow the Agency to fully implement the statute, to ensure the release forms are available to inform the public of toxic chemical releases and to assist governmental agencies, researchers, and other persons
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in the conduct of research and data gathering EPCRA section 313h.
EPCRA section 328 states that: The Administrator may prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to carry out this chapter 42 U.S.C. 11048.
C. What action is the Agency taking?
EPA is proposing to codify the definition of parent company for TRI
reporting purposes. Under this proposed action, EPA would clarify existing guidance and provide reporting clarity for facilities, including those owned by corporate subsidiaries, multiple owners, foreign entities, or that are publicly owned.
Currently, facilities required to report to TRI must also report their parent companies and identify whether any reportable off-site transfers of TRI
chemicals are sent to a facility also owned by that same parent company.
Reporting facilities rely on the TRI
Reporting Forms and Instructions RFI
to report this information and to address questions, including what constitutes a parent company for TRI reporting purposes. The RFI does not address all scenarios applicable to many TRI
facilities, including facilities owned by subsidiaries of larger companies;
facilities with multiple owners, none of whom are a majority owner; joint ventures that are not purely 50:50;
facilities directly owned by foreign entities; and publicly-owned facilities.
EPA is proposing to codify that the parent company for TRI reporting purposes is the highest-level company with the largest ownership interest in the TRI facility as of December 31 of the reporting year. This proposal addresses the following ownership scenarios:
A facility is owned by a single company, which is not owned by another company;
A facility is owned by a single company, which is owned by another company;
A facility is owned by multiple companies, including companies that are themselves owned by other entities;
A facility is owned by a joint venture or cooperative;
A facility is owned, at least in part, by a foreign company; and A facility is owned by the federal government, or a state, tribal, or municipal government.
EPA is also proposing to require facilities reporting to TRI to utilize standardized naming conventions for parent company reporting, as provided in the annual TRI RFI, available as a downloadable Excel file Standardized Parent Company Names at www.epa.gov/tri/rfi. These naming conventions address common
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formatting discrepancies, such as punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviations for example, Corp for Corporation.
D. Why is the Agency proposing this action?
The Agencys current guidance on reporting the parent company on a TRI
form has resulted in reporter confusion in situations such as a facility having multiple owners, or no single entity owning at least 50% of the facility.
Further, codifying the definition of parent company for the variety of ownership scenarios that exist for TRI
reporting facilities will provide regulatory certainty and reporting clarity for the facilities. In previous years, relying only on a broad definition of parent company in the RFI, the Agency has found that many facilities inaccurately report parent company information to TRI, resulting in efforts to contact individual facilities to verify their facilitys ownership structure after every annual reporting cycle. EPA has also worked to standardize parent company formatting for data quality purposes. As a result of the formatting standardization, TRI facilities are instructed to report parent companies using common abbreviations for example, reporting Inc for Incorporation and identical punctuation and capitalization styles, where appropriate Ref. 1. Thus, TRI
reports and EPA databases more accurately reflect which facilities are owned by the same parent company, rather than counting parent companies reported with variations in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or abbreviations as unique companies.
Without a straightforward definition and a standardized format, regularly having to complete data quality screenings on TRI reporting forms is a considerable burden for TRI reporting facilities. Each year, after receiving TRI
reporting forms, EPA conducts initial analyses on parent company data received and identifies potential errors on forms, such as unexplained changes in the parent company listed by a facility on its TRI reporting form e.g., change in name from what was reported for the previous year, misspellings, or discrepancies in formatting. After the initial analyses, EPA then reaches out to individual facilities both to verify whether a different parent company name should have been submitted on the reporting form and to confirm whether the updated and standardized naming format should be used going forward.
For example, for Reporting Year 2019, the Agency received TRI reporting forms
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