31. A retail gas station sells only products supplied by one covered bulk petroleum station. Is the retail gas station considered an auxiliary facility and therefore does it take on the covered NAICS code of the bulk petroleum station?
No. While the retail gas station sells only products supplied by the covered bulk petroleum station it is not an auxiliary facility because it does not support the operation of the bulk petroleum station (i.e., the retail sale of gasoline and other petroleum products is a distinctly separate activity that benefits the gas station as opposed to benefitting the bulk petroleum station). The SIC system assigned SIC codes to auxiliary facilities according to the primary activity of the establishment that they served. An auxiliary facility was one that supported another facility’s activities. An auxiliary facility could assume the SIC code of another covered facility if its primary function is to serve that other covered facility’s operations. However, the NAICS system does not recognize the concept of auxiliary facilities and assigns NAICS codes to all establishments based on their own activities. For the purpose of establishing consistency with the NAICS classification methodology, EPA changed its interpretation of the applicability of TRI reporting requirements to auxiliary facilities. As a result, some establishments previously considered to be auxiliary will no longer be subject to TRI reporting.