Ask the Expert Question-and-Answer Archive (TRI)

by Joelie Zak, Scientific Control Labs, Inc.
July, 2002

Late Filing of Form R

Q. What are the penalties and other consequences of filing Form R late?

A. As you may know, the penality for late filing of Form R reports is a maximum fine of $25,000 per day.

However, in my experience, the average fines for late filing (or not filing at all) have been around $20,000 after settlement. However, these fines have ONLY been issued if EPA Enforcement has actually done an on-site audit of the facility.

Many companies do discover that they were required to file, often for the past 3-5 years. If that is the case, we typically will voluntarily retrofile these reports and submit them with a cover letter explaining the situation. This voluntarily disclosure, in my ten years of experience, has never even illicited a response from the Agency (not even a thank you letter!)

Back in 1986, EPA published an environmental self-auditing policy statement that encourages companies to conduct audits to maintian compliance. However, this policy states that facilities who self-audit and discover non-compliances must disclose those to the Agency.

Links:
EPAs website on Voluntary Self-Disclosure
NMFRCs Self Audit Page