Last month, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) published a direct final rule that conforms Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) chemical inventory reporting regulations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard. The amendments modify how regulated facilities categorize and report hazardous chemicals to state and local emergency response agencies, resulting in a more streamlined process for annual EPCRA reporting.

The amendments adopt OSHA’s 2012 and 2024 hazard classification updates that aligned hazard classification with the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals. Most significantly, the rule expands the EPCRA hazard categories from 24 to 112 by directly incorporating OSHA’s more detailed hazard classification categories. By amending these categories, USEPA intends to alleviate the existing requirement for regulated facilities to conform safety data sheet (SDS) hazard classification information to EPCRA’s classifications. Reporting facilities will instead be able to simply copy that information directly from Section 2 of the SDS, resulting in a more streamlined reporting process. The amendments are also intended to provide more consistency to first responders who review that hazard classification information. Lastly, the amendments implement some general update and cleanup revisions to the existing rule, such as replacing “MSDS” terminology with “SDS” moving forward, and updating definitions.

USEPA is using the direct final rule process because it views the amendments as non-controversial, allowing it to forego publishing a proposed rule before the rule can take effect. The rule becomes effective January 16, 2026 (unless USEPA receives comments adverse to the rule by December 17, 2025), with a compliance deadline of December 1, 2026. USEPA simultaneously published a proposed rule should the direct final rule receive adverse comments.

Once the rule becomes final, regulated facilities subject to EPCRA Sections 311 and 312 reporting requirements must comply with these updated requirements for the 2026 annual hazardous chemical inventory reporting year (meaning the new categories will be in effect for the Section 312 annual report due March 1, 2027). Regulated facilities should review their EPCRA reporting guidance and training to ensure those procedures are aligned with the new reporting procedures. The triggers for Section 311 reporting remain unchanged and will not require proactive steps by regulated facilities to comply once the rule takes effect.

We will continue to monitor this rule and other chemical reporting requirements at the Corporate Environmental Lawyer.