ASDWA, ACWA, and ECOS Submit Joint Comments to EPA on Adding PFAS to TRI-EPCRA
On February 3rd, ASDWA, the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA), and the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) submitted joint comments to EPA on the “Addition of Certain Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS); Community Right-to-Know Toxic Chemical Release Reporting.” Our joint comments support the new requirements in Section 7321 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed in December 2019 to have a hybrid approach for listing specific PFAS individually and for each major class of PFAS, as well as provisions for listing additional compounds as new information becomes available. However, our comments recommend that, “the NDAA reporting threshold of 100 lbs for the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is too high and not appropriate,” to capture important data from permitted discharges or accidental releases that, “can rapidly accumulate to unacceptable levels in waterbodies…potentially affecting public drinking water supplies, fish tissue intended for human consumption, aquatic life, and soils.”
While EPA has now added 160 PFAS to the TRI under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) per the NDAA requirements, we expect EPA will consider additional actions based on the Agency’s comment request. In this regard, ASDWA, ACWA, and ECOS comments “urge EPA to consult states before making determinations (on TRI reporting thresholds and future PFAS actions)…and err on the side of inclusion when considering (future PFAS listings).” View the joint comments here.
