Under SARA, facilities that contain certain hazardous chemicals must do what?

• A. Notify state and federal agencies
• B. Submit annual safety reports to the EPA only
• C. Hire a full-time safety officer
• D. Replace chemicals with safer alternatives

Answer: (A)

Under SARA, the emergency planning and community right-to-know provisions require facilities that store certain hazardous chemicals above specified amounts to share information with authorities so responders can plan and act quickly. The essential requirement is to notify both state and federal agencies about the chemicals on site (and any releases), which enables proper emergency response and planning. In practice, this also leads to annual Tier II inventory reporting to state emergency planning commissions and local committees, and reporting to the EPA for certain substances, but the core obligation described here is the notification to state and federal agencies. The other options don’t reflect this mandated notification requirement.