Frequently Asked Questions

	What happens when USEPA adds new hazardous substances to the TRI list under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA)? If I manufacture, process or otherwise use these substances, do I have to include those hazardous substances in my Pollution Prevention Plan?
	What is required of a facility when USEPA lowers the threshold for chemicals on the TRI list such as in the case of some PBTs that had previously been regulated at 10,000 pounds per year?
	If I start to use, manufacture, or process above threshold additional hazardous substances already on the list, do I have to modify my RPPR and my Pollution Prevention Plan and Plan Summary?
	What base year do I use for hazardous substances added to my Pollution Prevention Plan one or more years after I did my original Plan?
	What happens if my facility did a base year 1998 Pollution Prevention Plan and later amended our Plan to include a hazardous substance for which we went above threshold in calendar year 2000 --- for that newly added substance, should we establish a five year goal or stay within the planning cycle and establish a goal for the remainder of the planning period to end on December 31, 2003?
	What happens if my facility goes below the threshold for manufacture, process or otherwise use of the chemical? Do I still need to keep that chemical in my Pollution Prevention Plan and Plan Summary:
	What happens if a hazardous substance for which I had been required to prepare a Pollution Prevention Plan is deleted from the TRI list or from Appendix A of the New Jersey Pollution Prevention Program Rules?
	How will USEPA's new alternate threshold of 500 pounds or less reportable waste and 1 million pounds or less use of a hazardous substance under the federal EPCRA (Form A reporting) affect my planning and reporting requirements under the N.J. Pollution Prevention Act?
	What happens if my facility adds a new process line after already preparing a Pollution Prevention Plan? Does my facility have to do planning for that new process?
	My facility was not required to do a Pollution Prevention Plan for the base year of my SIC code since we did not exceed the threshold that year for any hazardous substances on the existing list. In the subsequent calendar year, we went above the threshold for two hazardous substances on the existing list but were still below for all others. When is my facility required to comply with the N. J. Pollution Prevention Act?
	Are there any other situations that I should know about that would trigger modifications to my facility's Pollution Prevention Plan?
	The instructions for the Release and Pollution Prevention Report (DEQ-114) state that the production ratio/activity index reported in Section C should be identical to the ratio reported on the Form R under federal EPCRA. Is this accurate in all situations?
	How will adding a new production process or discontinuing one affect my facility's production ratio/activity index?
	Who do I call for more information about compliance with the New Jersey Pollution Prevention Act?
	What are the procedures and reporting requirements when a previously regulated facility splits into two or more new facilities?
	What are the procedures and reporting requirements when two previously regulated facilities merge into one?

What happens when USEPA adds new hazardous substances to the TRI list under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA)? If I manufacture, process or otherwise use these substances, do I have to include those hazardous substances in my Pollution Prevention Plan?

Facilities that go above threshold for new hazardous substances under EPCRA are required to update their Pollution Prevention Plans and send Plan Summary revisions to the Office of Pollution Prevention by July 1 of the year following the year in which they submit their first Form R's. Examples are as follows:

• For any of the HCFCs and other chemicals that EPA added to the list of covered substances under EPCRA effective January 1, 1994 (reporting year 1994), companies were required to submit federal Form R's and state Release and Pollution Prevention Reports (RPPR's or DEQ-114's) by July 1, 1995. and were required to update their Pollution Prevention Plans and submit Plan Summary revisions by July 1, 1996.
• For the 286 chemicals added to the list for the Form R reporting year 1995, facilities were required to submit federal Form R's and state RPPR's (DEQ-114) by July 1, 1996, and were required to update their Pollution Prevention Plans and submit Plan Summary revisions by July 1, 1997.
• For new persistent bioaccumulative toxic chemicals (PBTs) added to the list for the Form R reporting year 2000, facilities will be required to submit federal Form R's and state RPPR's by July 1, 2001, and update their Pollution Prevention Plans and Plan Summaries by July 1, 2002. [See N.J.A.C. 3.1(d) and 7:1K-3.11(a).]

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What is required of a facility when USEPA lowers the threshold for chemicals on the TRI list such as in the case of some PBTs that had previously been regulated at 10,000 pounds per year?

Consistent with the previous answer, facilities that go above threshold when hazardous substance thresholds are lowered are required to update their Pollution Prevention Plans and send Plan Summary revisions to the Office of Pollution Prevention by July 1 of the year following the year in which they file their first Form R's. Thus, for PBTs that have gone above threshold in reporting year 2000, facilities will be required to submit federal Form R's and state RPPR's by July 1, 2001, and update Pollution Prevention Plans and Plan Summaries by July 1, 2002. Facilities must do the following:

1. Prepare substitute pages containing the revised information (or mark changes in red on existing pages) for inclusion in the industrial facility's Pollution Prevention Plan;
2. Submit substitute pages containing the revised information (or mark changes in red on existing pages) for the Pollution Prevention Plan Summary at the same time it submits the facility's annual Pollution Prevention Plan Progress Report for the year in which the changes took place; and
3. Submit substitute pages containing the revised information (or mark changes in red on existing pages) as part of the Pollution Prevention Plan Progress Report for the reporting year in which the changes took place and each subsequent year. [N.J.A.C. 7:1K-3.12(a).]

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If I start to use, manufacture, or process above threshold additional hazardous substances already on the list, do I have to modify my RPPR and my Pollution Prevention Plan and Plan Summary?

If a hazardous substance is involved in either a targeted or untargeted process:
· Facilities are required to revise their RPPRs by July 1 of the year after they went above threshold.

If a hazardous substance is involved in a targeted process:
· Facilities are required to modify their Pollution Prevention Plans and submit Plan Summary revisions by July 1 of the second year after they went above threshold. For example, if a facility began manufacturing or using a new hazardous substance in 2000 above threshold, it would be required to modify its RPPR by July 1, 2001, and modify its Plan and submit Plan Summary revisions to the Department by July 1, 2002

If a hazardous substance is not involved in a targeted process:
· Facilities may modify their Plan and Plan Summary, according to the above schedule, but are not required to do so. Plan Summary revisions would include modified Sections B, C and D. A facility may retarget its processes but is not required to do so. [See N.J.A.C. 3.1(e) and 7:1K-3.10(a) and (c).]

NOTE: Since the targeting criteria were developed when thresholds for all substances were 10,000 pound per year, they may not be applicable to PBTs for which many thresholds are only 10 pounds per year. It is highly recommended that all PBTs be targeted.

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What base year do I use for hazardous substances added to my Pollution Prevention Plan one or more years after I did my original Plan?

A4. For hazardous substances added to the Plan after the original Plan was done, the base year for measurement purposes should be the year after the facility went above the manufacture/process/otherwise use threshold. Do not use the original base year from when the Plan was done for these added substances. For example, if a facility prepared a base year 1998 Pollution Prevention Plan, it would be for those substances present in 1998 at the facility above the threshold. If that facility then went above threshold in 2000 for either a newly listed substance or one that was always on the list, revisions should be done to the Plan and Plan Summary for that substance using 2001 as a base year for measurement purposes.

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What happens if my facility did a base year 1998 Pollution Prevention Plan and later amended our Plan to include a hazardous substance for which we went above threshold in calendar year 2000 --- for that newly added substance, should we establish a five year goal or stay within the planning cycle and establish a goal for the remainder of the planning period to end on December 31, 2003?

For consistency purposes, your facility should stay within the five year planning cycle established during the preparation of your original Plan. Do not set up different five year planning cycles for different hazardous substances; instead use a shorter cycle for the newly added substance.

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What happens if my facility goes below the threshold for manufacture, process or otherwise use of the chemical? Do I still need to keep that chemical in my Pollution Prevention Plan and Plan Summary:

In this situation, a company must notify the Department in writing of such change and the reason for the change before the next submittal of the Pollution Prevention Progress Report, either the RPPR (DEQ-114) or the Pollution Prevention Process-level Data Worksheet (P2-115). If a facility falls below threshold for all hazardous substances regulated under the Pollution Prevention Act, it is no longer subject to pollution prevention planning. [See N.J.A.C. 7:1K-3.10(d).]

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What happens if a hazardous substance for which I had been required to prepare a Pollution Prevention Plan is eleted from the TRI list or from Appendix A of the New Jersey Pollution Prevention Program Rules?

If deletion of a hazardous substance from the TRI list or Appendix A of the Rules results in a facility no longer being regulated under this chapter, the owner or operator of the facility must submit a final Pollution Prevention Plan Progress Report by July 1 of the year following the deletion. An example is the deletion of phosphoric acid from the TRI list in 2000. Affected facilities must submit one last Progress Report (RPPR Sections C and D, or P2-115) showing the status of phosphoric acid at the time of deletion. [N.J.A.C. 7:1K-3.11(c).]

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How will USEPA's new alternate threshold of 500 pounds or less reportable waste and 1 million pounds or less use of a hazardous substance under the federal EPCRA (Form A reporting) affect my planning and reporting requirements under the N.J. Pollution Prevention Act?

USEPA's definition of "reportable waste" is essentially the same as New Jersey's nonproduct output (NPO) under the Pollution Prevention Act. Nonproduct output is all hazardous substances or hazardous wastes that are generated prior to storage, out-of-process recycling, treatment, control or disposal, and that are not intended for use as a product. Effective January 1, 1995 (for reporting July 1, 1996), facilities that have less than 500 pounds of a regulated hazardous substance in NPO at the end of a calendar year may take advantage of a new one million pound manufacture/process/otherwise use threshold by filing federal Form A certification statements for those substances only. [See November 30, 1994, 40 CFR 61488.] Although facilities may submit annual Form A's with the USEPA for substances that meet the 500 pound NPO threshold and are manufactured, processed, or otherwise used below one million pounds annually, facilities that file Form A's with the USEPA are still subject to the requirements of New Jersey pollution prevention planning and reporting for all hazardous substances manufactured/processed/otherwise used over threshold, provided they file at least one Form R. If all of a facility's covered hazardous substances meet the USEPA alternate threshold, the facility is no longer required to report under New Jersey's Worker and Community Right to Know Act and to prepare Plans under New Jersey's Pollution Prevention Act.

NOTE: USEPA's alternate threshold does not apply to PBTs.

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What happens if my facility adds a new process line after already preparing a Pollution Prevention Plan? Does my facility have to do planning for that new process?

A facility only needs to complete Part IA information in its Pollution Prevention Plan for new processes established after January 1, 1992. For a process to be considered a "new process," one of the following criteria must be met:

1. The production process results in the production of a new product, new co-product, or new intermediate product after January 1, 1992 which was not identified in the facility's most recent Plan; or
2. The production process results in production after January 1, 1992 of a product whose new active ingredient is chemically different from other products made at the industrial facility; or
3. The production process results in production after January 1, 1992 of a product which is made by a different chemical route from other products made at the industrial facility, except for an improvement in the established chemistry, such as a more efficient catalyst.

Facilities have a minimum of one year and a maximum of two years to add Part IA information to its Pollution Prevention Plan and to submit Plan Summary revisions to the Department. The Rules require that these changes be made by July 1 of the year following the date on which the new process was added, with a minimum of 12 twelve months to do this. For example, if a facility brings on a new process line in March 2000, it has until July 1, 2001 to modify its Pollution Prevention Plan. Facilities have until the five-year revision or five years from the date on which the new process was added, whichever is later, to add Part II information to the Plan, submit a revised Plan Summary to the Department and begin reporting Part IB information about pollution prevention progress on the annual Release and Pollution Prevention Report. [See N.J.A.C. 7:1K-3.13.]

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My facility was not required to do a Pollution Prevention Plan for the base year of my SIC code since we did not exceed the threshold that year for any hazardous substances on the existing list. In the subsequent calendar year, we went above the threshold for two hazardous substances on the existing list but were still below for all others. When is my facility required to comply with the N. J. Pollution Prevention Act?

A facility that becomes subject to reporting under federal EPCRA is required to file its first Form R by July 1 of the following year and to do a Pollution Prevention Plan and submit a Plan Summary to the Department by July 1 of the year following the filing of the first Form R. The Plan would be in effect for the remainder of the five-year period until a new Plan is prepared for the appropriate base year for that SIC code. For example, if a facility with SIC code 28 (base year 1998), goes above threshold in 1999, it would file its first Form R and RPPR by July 1, 2000 and do a Pollution Prevention Plan and submit a Plan Summary to the Department by July 1, 2001. The Plan would be in effect until a new Plan is prepared for base year 2003. Established base years for regulated SIC codes are as follows:

• SIC 26,28,30,33,34 1998, 2003, 2008, etc.
• SIC 20 to39 except 26,28,30,33,34 2000, 2005, 2010. etc.
• SIC 4911, 4931, 4939, 4953, 5169, 5171 1999, 2004, 2009, etc.
• [See N.J.A.C. 7:1K-3.1(d)1.]

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Are there any other situations that I should know about that would trigger modifications to my facility's Pollution Prevention Plan?

If one or more of the following actions occur, a facility is required to modify its Plan and Plan Summary by July 1 of the calendar year following the year in which the changes occurred:

• Ceases operation of a targeted production process or significantly expands the operation of a targeted production process;
• Installs a new and different primary component in a targeted production process or removes a primary component from a targeted production process, unless the installation or removal of the component results from the implementation of pollution prevention techniques at the industrial facility;
• Reclassifies an existing nonproduct output as a product, intermediate, or co-product; or
• Modifies a grouping decision that affects a targeted process.
• Modifies a targeting decision pursuant to N.J.A.C. 7:1K-4.4.
• [See N.J.A.C. 7:1K-3.9(a).]

If any of these changes occur, the facility is required to review the following information as it applies to targeted processes and amend the Plan and Summary:

• Facility-level inventory data required in Part IA of a Pollution Prevention Plan;
• Process-level inventory data required in Part IA of a Pollution Prevention Plan;
• Facility-level and process-level pollution prevention reductions required to be recorded in Part IB of a Pollution Prevention Plan or reported in a Release and Pollution Prevention Report;
• Process-level pollution prevention reductions required to be recorded in Part IB of a Pollution Prevention Plan or reported in a Release and Pollution Prevention Report;
• Five-year pollution prevention goals required in Part II of a Pollution Prevention Plan and in a Pollution Prevention Plan Summary;
• Description of targeted production processes required in Part II of a Pollution Prevention Plan and in a Pollution Prevention Plan Summary;
• Planned pollution prevention options required in Part II of a Pollution Prevention Plan;
• Implementation schedules for pollution prevention options required in Part II of a Pollution Prevention Plan.
• [See N.J.A.C. 7:1K-3.9 (b).]

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The instructions for the Release and Pollution Prevention Report (DEQ-114) state that the production ratio/activity index reported in Section C should be identical to the ratio reported on the Form R under federal EPCRA. Is this accurate in all situations?

No. Under federal EPCRA, facilities are required to account for the use, manufacture and processing of all listed substances for the entire facility, including pilot plants and treatment systems. Under the N.J. Pollution Prevention Act, the aforementioned aspects of a facility are excluded from planning and reporting. As such, a facility may report different production ratio/activity indices on the federal Form R and on the state Release and Pollution Prevention Progress Report (Section C of the RPPR or DEQ-114). Note: The facility also has the option of submitting P2-115's in lieu of the Release and Pollution Prevention Progress Report, Sections C and D of the RPPR. If this option is chosen, the facility does not have to calculate production ratio/ activity indices. The Department will calculate production ratio/ activity indices as the ratio of production quantity of the given year to that of the base year.

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How will adding a new production process or discontinuing one affect my facility's production ratio/activity index?

It should not affect your production ratio/activity index. In the instruction booklet for the Release and Pollution Prevention Report, a formula is presented for calculating an index. If you use this formula and accurately calculate your weighting factors, the index should not change. Remember to use the weighting factors from your base year measurement to calculate the index. If you use weighting factors from a year other than the base year, you will get an inaccurate calculation of pollution prevention progress. Note: If the facility chooses the option of submitting P2-115's in lieu of the Release and Pollution Prevention Progress Report, Sections C and D of the RPPR, the Department will calculate production ratio/ activity indices using these weighting factors in the formula.

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Who do I call for more information about compliance with the New Jersey Pollution Prevention Act?

You may contact the Office of Pollution Prevention and Permit Coordination at (609) 777-0518, visit our website at www.state.nj.us/dep/opppc, or stop by our offices at NJDEP Headquarters, 401 East State Street, 3rd Floor West, Trenton, NJ. We are happy to provide assistance in understanding and complying with the law and regulations.

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What are the procedures and reporting requirements when a previously regulated facility splits into two or more new facilities?

The two or more new facilities become separate reporting entities, and each new entity must evaluate the criteria for program coverage. The following scenarios may occur:

1. If one of the new entities meets the criteria, and is essentially the same as the original entity, any updates in facility name, certifications, etc., must be made, but the five-year process of the Plan is not disrupted.
2. If a new entity meets the criteria, and is essentially different from the original entity, it must submit a Release and Pollution Prevention Report, Sections A and B, by July 1 of the year following the first year it exceeds thresholds. It must then prepare a Pollution Prevention Plan and submit a Pollution Prevention Plan Summary by the following July 1, and submit Pollution Prevention Plan Progress Reports by July 1 in subsequent years of the five-year Plan. Any parts of the Plan from the original entity that are still applicable may be incorporated into the Plans of the new entities. The base years would depend on the SIC codes of the new entities.

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What are the procedures and reporting requirements when two previously regulated facilities merge into one?

The new facility becomes a separate reporting entity, and the new entity must evaluate the criteria for program coverage. The following scenarios may occur:

1. If the new entity meets the criteria, and is essentially the same as either of the original entities, any updates in facility name, certifications, etc., must be made, but the five-year process of the Plan is not disrupted.
2. If the entity meets the criteria, and is essentially different from either of original entities, it must submit a Release and Pollution Prevention Report, Sections A and B, by July 1 of the year following the first year it exceeds thresholds. It must then prepare a Pollution Prevention Plan and submit a Pollution Prevention Plan Summary by the following July 1, and submit Pollution Prevention Plan Progress Reports by July 1 in subsequent years of the five-year Plan. Any parts of the Plans from the previous entities that are still applicable may be incorporated into the Plan of the new entity. The base year would depend on the SIC code of the new entity.

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