Community Right to Know Survey or DEQ-094 - Required by Worker and Community Right to Know Regulations (N.J.A.C. 7:1G)

The Community Right to Know Survey is an annual inventory of environmental hazardous substances which are stored, produced or used at a place where business is conducted (facility) in the State of New Jersey. This annual report is required by state and federal laws. The information collected is available to the public and to emergency responders such as police and fire departments. It is also used to supplement other regulatory programs within the state and to facilitate proper planning for a response to an emergency at a facility which may threaten the surrounding community or environment.

The state and federal Community Right to Know (CRTK) laws have similar requirements. They include the reporting of chemical inventories and releases of hazardous substances to the environment. New Jersey employers who are engaged in certain types of business activities specified by the New Jersey Worker and Community Right to Know Act are required to complete and return a survey for each of their facility locations. These employers are identified by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code assigned to them by the New Jersey Department of Labor (DOL). If an employer receives a survey reporting package in the mail, it is likely that the employer has been assigned one of the covered SIC codes and, therefore, must report. This can be readily verified by comparing the four digit number on the top of the mailing label against those listed in section B of the Attachment (SIC codes of covered New Jersey employers).

The CRTK Survey consists of two parts. Part I is for facility information and must be completed even if a facility does not store, produce or use environmental hazardous substances. Part II of the survey is a chemical inventory form for listing environmental hazardous substances stored, produced or used at a facility. The requirement to report a hazardous substance on this form is based on whether that substance meets or exceeds a minimum quantity. There are two categories of hazardous substances that must be reported on the CRTK Survey for facilities regulated under the state law:

Environmental Hazardous Substances if they are present at the facility during the reporting year at or above the thresholds.

Products or substances for which a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is required in accordance with the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard may be reportable, if they were present at the facility for the reporting year at 10,000 pounds or more at any one time and have not been reported under the above category.

Even if your facility's SIC code is not covered by the NJ Worker and Community Right to Know Act, you may still be required to complete this form under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA). New Jersey businesses whose SIC codes do not appear in section B of the Attachment may be required to complete the survey under Section 312 of the federal EPCRA if the facility owner/operator is required to maintain Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) for hazardous substances in accordance with the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard, where quantities of these substances at the facility were at or above 10,000 pounds at any one time in 1997. Also under EPCRA, any substance listed in Table A of the CRTK survey instructions with an asterisk (Extremely Hazardous Substances) that was present at 500 pounds or the Threshold Planning Quantity shown in Table A, whichever is less, must be reported. In these cases, the completion of the CRTK survey replaces the federal forms (Tier I or II) required by Section 312 of EPCRA.