New Jersey Technical Assistance Program for Industrial Pollution Prevention
   
New Jersey Technical Assistance Program
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NJ Community Right to Know Act


The New Jersey Worker and Community Right to Know Act requires public and private employees to provide information about hazardous substances at their workplace via a survey. 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 in the state of New Jersey. The 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 survey consists of two parts: Part 1 is for facility information and Part 2 is a chemical inventory form for listing environmental hazardous substances present at the facility.

Private employers covered by the law include lawn and garden services, pipelines, transportation services, communications, utilities, car dealers, gas stations, commercial testing labs, dry cleaners, automatic repair facilities, hospitals, schools, and manufacturers. The SIC codes for facilities required to file surveys appear in Table C of the survey manual. Public employers covered include state, county, and local government agencies. In addition, any employer who is required to report under SARA Title III must file a Community Right to Know Survey with DEP.

Whether a hazardous substance must be reported is based on its chemical name and whether its quantity met or exceeded a minimum quantity (threshold) at any one time during the reporting year. For facilities regulated under the state law, there are two categories of hazardous substances which must be reported on the CRTK survey:
  1. Environmental Hazardous Substances (EHSs) must be reported if they were present at a facility during the previous year at or above the reportable thresholds. EHSs are listed in Table A of the CRTKS.
  2. Any product or substance for which a MSDS is required in accordance with the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard must be reported if it was present at the facility during the previous year at 10,000 pounds or more at any one time. This is a federal requirement under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA).
Facilities whose SIC codes do not appear in Table C are required to complete the survey under Section 312 of the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986 (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. Also under EPCRA, any substance listed in Table A with an asterisk (Extremely Hazardous Substance) which was present at 500 pounds or the Threshold Planning Quanity 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.

The following environmental hazardous substances are exempt from reporting on the Community Right to Know Survey and should not be included in the threshold determination:
  1. Environmental hazardous substances located in an approved Research and Development (R&D) laboratory. The R&D laboratory exemption from state chemical inventory reporting does not apply to substances subject to reporting under Section 312 of EPCRA. Those substances should be reported on the CRTK survey with any reportable substances found in the non R&D laboratory areas of the facility.
  2. Substances which are an integral part of a facility structure or furnishings.
  3. Personal property for the personal use of employees of a facility.
  4. Ammunition when on the person of security personnel.
  5. Except for saran, PVC and lopac, substances present as a solid in any manufactured item which has been formed to a specific shape or design during manufacture to the extent that exposure to any environmental hazardous substances does not occur under normal conditions of use.
  6. Environmental hazardous substances comprising one percent or less of a mixture, or 0.1 percent if the environmental hazardous substance is carcinogenic as defined at 29 CFR 1910.1200(d)4 of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's hazard communications regulations. For more information, try the EPCRA Hotline at (800)-535-0202 or the New Jersey Community Right to Know program at (609)-292-6714.
Copyright © 1999
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New Jersey Technical Assistance Program for Industrial Pollution Prevention ·
138 Warren Street · Newark, NJ 07102-1982 ·
Phone: 973-596-5864 · Fax: 973-596-6367 · Email: njtap@megahertz.njit.edu