As our blog has reported frequently, the Environmental Protection Agency announced an ambitious national strategy to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Dubbed a “roadmap,” the EPA says it is centered on three guiding strategies focused on research, restrictions, and remediation. Specifically: “Increase investments in research, leverage authorities to take action now to restrict PFAS chemicals from being released into the environment and accelerate the cleanup of PFAS contamination.” As part of this plan, we have blogged many times about the additions of various PFAS to the Toxic Release Inventory List (TRI). (We previously reported on PFAS additions to the TRI here, here and here.)
Last week, EPA issued a proposed rule to add 16 more individual PFAS and 15 PFAS categories (i.e., in total- more than 100 individual PFAS) to TRI. The proposed rule also designates them as chemicals of special concern so they must meet more robust reporting requirements, including reporting even for small concentrations. EPA says that “With this rule, EPA would be able to collect data on how more than a hundred PFAS are released into the environment through Toxics Release Inventory reporting requirements,” and that “This information will help EPA and communities better understand how PFAS are being used and managed across the country.”
EPA’s proposed rule sets a reporting threshold of 100 pounds for manufacture, processing and other uses (consistent with other PFAS added to TRI pursuant to Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, known as NDAA). If the proposed rule is finalized, all the PFAS in a given category would count towards the 100-pound reporting threshold for that category; according to EPA, this change “would improve reporting on PFAS by ensuring that facilities would not be able to avoid reporting on PFAS that are similar to one another if each PFAS does not meet the reporting threshold individually.” For the same reason, EPA’s new proposed rule also seeks to reclassify some PFAS that were previously added to the TRI individually as part of one of the 15 PFAS categories.
TRI data is reported to EPA annually by facilities in designated industry sectors and federal facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use TRI-listed chemicals above set quantities. The data include quantities of such chemicals that were released into the environment or otherwise managed as waste. Information collected through TRI allows communities to learn how facilities in their area manage listed chemicals. The data collected can be found here.
As background, the NDAA provides the framework for adding additional PFAS to the TRI each year. Among other provisions, section 7321(c) of the NDAA identifies certain regulatory activities that automatically add PFAS, or classes of PFAS, to the TRI, and the agency’s finalization of a toxicity value is one of the triggering actions. The latest proposed rule also proposes a list of different types of EPA toxicity values that automatically initiate the process of adding to TRI any PFAS associated with the toxicity value. EPA will accept public comments on this new proposed rule until December 9, via docket EPA-HQ-TRI-2023-0538 at the Regulations.gov page.
