To file a claim of trade secrecy for the identity of a chemical under 40 CFR Part 350, a covered facility is required to submit a substantiation form to justify the claim of trade secrecy and the Tier II report for that chemical to EPA. In a given reporting year, a facility subject to EPCRA Section 312 sends the substantiation form and Tier II report to EPA. Over the course of the next year, nothing changes with respect to the product that contains the chemical or the identity of the chemical at the facility. Must the facility submit a new copy of the substantiation form to claim trade secrecy for the identity of the chemical in the following reporting year?

Yes. A facility must file a substantiation form at the same time as the Tier II report for each reporting year that the facility wants to claim trade secrecy for the identity of a chemical. The facility must continue to submit the trade secrecy forms for each reporting year, even if the information on the substantiation form does not change and remains the same from year to year.

Additional guidance for completing the trade secret package, including where to send the sanitized and unsanitized substantiation forms and EPCRA forms, can be found in the Instructions for Completing the EPCRA Trade Secret Substantiation Form, available at the following URL:

https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/epcra/epcra-trade-secret-form-instructions-pdf