Filing Tier II in Arizona: the portal, the fees and the copies

This page explains what the rules and common practice call for. Every site is different, and what a survey or a filing needs at your facility is something we work out with you after we see it.

In Arizona the Tier II report is filed online through myDEQ and carries a state fee. The state filing does not always cover the copies owed to your local emergency planning committee and fire department.

Tier II is the annual chemical inventory report required by sections 311 and 312 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). This page covers the Arizona mechanics. For whether you have to file at all, start with the applicability test.

Who receives it in Arizona

The state emergency response commission for Arizona is AZSERC, the Arizona State Emergency Response Commission. ADEQ, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, runs the Tier II program on its behalf and operates the filing portal, myDEQ. Each county has a local emergency planning committee (LEPC), and your fire department is the third recipient.

The portal and the deadline

Arizona Tier II reports are filed in myDEQ, ADEQ's online portal. You will need a myDEQ account for the facility, and if you have never used it, setting up the account and confirming who is authorized to sign takes time, so start before February.

The report covers the previous calendar year and is due March 1. The portal typically opens for the new reporting year at the start of January, which leaves roughly two months to confirm the inventory and file. There is no extension.

EPA publishes a software tool called Tier2 Submit that some states accept. Arizona filings go through myDEQ, so a Tier2 Submit file by itself does not satisfy the Arizona requirement. If you prepared one for another state, the data still helps, but the Arizona report is entered in the state portal.

State fees

Arizona charges a Tier II filing fee, paid through myDEQ when the report is submitted.

Check the current schedule on ADEQ's site before you budget, since fees can change. Form R, by comparison, carries no state fee in Arizona.

Copies to the LEPC and the fire department

The federal rule requires the report to reach the LEPC and the fire department as well as the state. In Arizona, many of those agencies have signed an electronic acceptance agreement with AZSERC, which means they accept your myDEQ filing as their copy and you send nothing further.

ADEQ publishes the list of agencies that have signed. If your LEPC or your fire department is not on it, you still owe them a copy, and you should keep proof that it was sent. Confirm this every year, because the list changes.

Facilities in the Gila River Indian Community must send paper copies to the Community's Office of Emergency Management, even when they file electronically in myDEQ.

What goes in the report

The Tier II form asks for the same information in every state, and the Arizona portal collects it on screen. For the facility: name, address, NAICS code, Dun and Bradstreet number if you have one, owner or operator, and two emergency contacts who can be reached at any hour. For each reportable chemical: the name and CAS number, whether it is an extremely hazardous substance, and its physical and health hazards. Then the quantities: the maximum amount on site at any one time, the average daily amount and the number of days on site. Finally, how and where it is stored, and the storage conditions.

The form also asks whether the facility is subject to the emergency planning requirements of EPCRA section 302 and the chemical accident prevention rules under the Clean Air Act. Answer those carefully, because they are separate programs with their own obligations.

What to keep on file

The Tier II rule sets no retention period, so keep these for as long as the facility operates:

• The confirmation from myDEQ for each year's filing, and a copy of the report as submitted.
• The inventory behind it: the chemical list, the peak amount for each chemical and the records you used to find it.
• The fee receipt.
• Proof of the copies sent to any LEPC or fire department that has not signed the electronic acceptance agreement.
• The chemicals you evaluated and ruled out, with the reasons.

What changes from year to year

The facility details and the storage descriptions usually carry forward, and the work each January is confirming what moved:

• New products, new tanks or a larger battery fleet that bring a chemical over a threshold for the first time.
• Chemicals you stopped using, which come off the report.
• New peak amounts, since last year's maximum is not this year's.
• New emergency contacts, which the fire department cares about more than anything else on the form.
• Changes to the electronic acceptance list, and to the fee schedule.

One more thing to know. When a new chemical first reaches a threshold during the year, section 311 of EPCRA requires you to send its safety data sheet, or add it to your chemical list, within three months. That is separate from the March 1 report.

Where this fits with your other Arizona filings

If you also file Form R, the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) report, you owe Arizona two more dates. The Toxic Data Report is due July 1, through the same myDEQ portal, and the pollution prevention plan by December 31 of the following year. Tier II in March, Form R and the Toxic Data Report in July, and the plan in December. → Arizona's pollution prevention requirements

→ Do you have to file Tier II? · What if you missed March 1 · Our Tier II reporting service