Tier II Chemical Reporting in Montana: Who Files & How

Short answer: if your Montana facility stores a hazardous chemical at or above its EPCRA reporting threshold — generally 10,000 pounds, or as low as 500 pounds for an Extremely Hazardous Substance — you must file an annual Tier II chemical-inventory report by March 1, covering the prior calendar year. It goes to your State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), your Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), and your local fire department. In Montana you file through E-Plan, reviewed by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ); there is no state fee. The hardest part is compiling an accurate inventory with quantities — which is exactly what SDSentry ($24 per location per month) keeps current for you year-round. Here is how Tier II works in Montana.

Free, no signup: the SDS binder builder at sdsentry.0xpi.com/sds-binder.html turns a pasted list of the products you keep on site into one printable index of their current safety data sheets.

What Tier II is (and isn't)

Tier II is the annual chemical-inventory report required under Section 312 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). Its purpose is to tell fire departments and emergency planners what hazardous chemicals are stored at your facility, in what quantities, and where, so responders know what they are walking into. It is a separate obligation from OSHA Hazard Communication — the same chemicals on your shelves, but a different law and a different audience. Meeting your HazCom duties does not satisfy Tier II, and vice versa.

Who has to file in Montana

The trigger is federal and applies the same way in Montana as everywhere else. You must file Tier II if any hazardous chemical for which you are required to keep a safety data sheet is present at your facility at or above its reporting threshold at any point during the year:

• 10,000 lbs for most hazardous chemicals (those that require an SDS).
• 500 lbs — or the chemical's Threshold Planning Quantity, whichever is lower — for Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHSs) on EPA's list.

Quantities are based on the maximum amount present at any one time, aggregated across the facility. A small clinic or shelter often stays under these limits, but bulk propane or diesel tanks, stored fuel, pool and spa chemicals, fertilizer, or a large supply of a single disinfectant can push you over — and EHS thresholds are low enough that a modest amount of the wrong chemical can trigger a report.

Where Montana facilities submit

EPCRA sends every Tier II report to three places: your State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), your Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), and your local fire department.

Montana's Tier II page is run by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ): “Facilities must submit their Tier II Report by logging into E-Plan's Online Tier II Reporting System,” and a submittal “will be deemed complete when the Montana Department of Environmental Quality can view its electronic submittal on E-Plan.” DEQ does not accept hard copies, and “Montana follows EPA requirements and does not have state-level requirements.”

Local copies are your job. DEQ: “You will need to contact the appropriate Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC -- there is one in each of Montana's 56 counties) and fire department to see if they can accept electronic filings. If they cannot accept electronic filings, a paper copy will need to be sent to the LEPC and fire department.” Start from DEQ's EPCRA page.

State systems and instructions can change year to year, so confirm current details with Montana DEQ before you file.

The deadline

DEQ's page does not publish its own date; Montana follows EPA requirements, so the federal deadline applies: March 1 each year for the previous calendar year.

Are there Montana state fees?

No. DEQ: “Montana does not collect fees for this submittal.”

What to have ready before you file

The report itself is mostly a structured list. What slows people down is assembling accurate underlying data. Before you start, have on hand:

• A complete chemical inventory for the location, with the product name and chemical identity for each item.
• The maximum quantity on site during the year and the average daily quantity, with units.
• Storage details — container type, pressure, temperature, and the specific location or building.
• Hazard information from each product's safety data sheet.
• Facility identifiers, emergency contacts, and (where required) latitude and longitude.

If you keep a current SDS library and a per-location inventory with quantities throughout the year, the February scramble largely disappears. See our guide on building a chemical inventory from scratch for a starting point.

How SDSentry helps

SDSentry tracks quantity and unit per item in your per-location inventory, flags items over a threshold you set, and exports an EPCRA Tier II CSV so your preparer is not rebuilding the inventory by hand each February. It keeps a current SDS on file for every product, which is where most of the hazard and storage details on the report come from. It will not submit the report for you — you still file through E-Plan — but it turns the worst part, compiling and maintaining the data, into a download. Pair it with our HazCom compliance checklist so your OSHA and EPCRA obligations stay covered at the same time.

Track inventory for Tier II — free trial

Educational information only, not legal or compliance advice. Tier II thresholds, deadlines, submission methods, and any state fees change, and Montana's specific process is set by the state. Verify your obligations with Montana DEQ, and with EPA's EPCRA resources at epa.gov/epcra, before you file — and consult a qualified professional for your situation.