At a concrete facility on North Industrial Road in Tupelo, three chemical-reporting deadlines passed without the filings federal law required, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

One report concerned lead. EPA’s settlement document says the B & B Concrete facility processed more than 100 pounds of it during 2022, enough to trigger a reporting obligation under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. The required Form R was due to EPA and the State of Mississippi by July 1, 2023. The agency says it was not submitted by that deadline.

The other missing filings covered five materials kept in much larger quantities: calcium nitrate, diesel oil, fly ash, limestone and Portland cement. EPA says each was present at or above 10,000 pounds at some point in both 2022 and 2023. Annual chemical-inventory forms were supposed to go to state and local emergency authorities and the fire department by March 1 of the following year.

Two reports serve different right-to-know functions

The case involves two sections of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, commonly called EPCRA. Their reporting rules overlap, but they are not interchangeable.

Section 313 requires qualifying facilities to file a Form R for listed toxic chemicals processed above the applicable threshold. Most chemicals have much higher thresholds, but lead is designated a chemical of special concern. Its processing threshold is 100 pounds in a calendar year.

Section 312 requires facilities to submit an emergency and hazardous chemical inventory, commonly known as a Tier I or Tier II form, when covered hazardous chemicals reach specified onsite quantities. For the five materials in this case, the relevant threshold was 10,000 pounds. Those reports go to the State Emergency Response Commission, the Local Emergency Planning Committee and the fire department with jurisdiction over the facility.

The lead threshold is deliberately lower

Federal rules set a 25,000-pound reporting threshold for most toxic chemicals manufactured or processed at a facility. Lead is treated differently. Under the regulation cited in the settlement, its threshold is 100 pounds.

EPA states that B & B Concrete crossed that lower threshold in 2022. The document does not provide an exact lead quantity, identify the material in which the lead was processed or describe what ultimately happened to it. That limits what can be concluded about environmental or health consequences.

It does establish the reporting consequence EPA attached to the quantity: the facility was required to file a Form R. The missed filing concerned whether required information entered the federal and state disclosure system, not a finding that more than 100 pounds of lead entered the environment.

Five onsite chemicals went unreported to emergency authorities

The second part of the case concerns information intended for agencies responsible for chemical planning and emergency response. EPA’s agreement identifies calcium nitrate, diesel oil, fly ash, limestone and Portland cement as hazardous chemicals under the relevant reporting rules.

The order says each was present at the facility in quantities of at least 10,000 pounds at some point in 2022 and again in 2023. B & B Concrete was therefore required to provide an annual inventory to the state commission, local planning committee and fire department.

EPA says those forms were not filed on time. The record does not state whether the emergency agencies had comparable information from another source, whether the missing reports affected a response or whether any emergency occurred. The documented consequence is narrower: the company did not use the disclosure channel the law required by the applicable deadlines, according to the agency.

How the missed deadlines accumulated