A manufacturing company discovered that Form R/EPCRA filings had never been made. A review of 10 year's worth of records indicated that Form Rs should have been filed in nine of those 10 years.

Varnum made anonymous inquiries to U.S. EPA on the likely enforcement action if such non-compliance was discovered, and was confirmed that voluntary disclosure would likely result in no enforcement action being taken.The client was counseled to file past years Form Rs, which were voluntarily submitted prior to any discovery being made by U.S. EPA. This avoided potential civil penalty in excess of $150,000.