Three New PFAS Actions Announced by EPA
EPA has announced three new actions to help reduce the potential risks to the public from PFAS. These actions include: issuing a proposed TSCA rule with new reporting requirements for more than 1,000 PFAS manufactured in the US; withdrawing guidance that weakened EPA’s July 2020 Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) restricting certain long-chain PFAS; and publishing a final rule that officially incorporates three additional PFAS into the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).
TSCA Reporting Rule: The proposed TSCA rule on PFAS reporting was required by the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and would require all manufacturers and importers of PFAS to report information in any year since 2011 and provide a comprehensive set of data with chemical identities, categories of use, volumes manufactured and processed, byproducts, environmental and health effects, worker exposure, and disposal. The proposed deadline for reporting PFAS data to EPA is one year following the effective date of the final rule. EPA will accept public comments on the proposed rule for 60 days following publication in the federal register via docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2020-0549 at www.regulations.gov. View a prepublication version of the proposed rule.
Withdrawing Compliance Guide on PFAS SNUR: EPA has withdrawn a compliance guide that weakened the July 2020 Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) as required by the Biden Administration’s regulatory review requirement. The compliance guide was issued in January 2021 and limited PFAS “surface coatings” subject to the SNUR. After review, EPA determined that the guide inappropriately narrowed the scope and weakened the prohibitions included in the SNUR. EPA’s July 2020 SNUR continues to be in effect and EPA does not intend to issue a new guidance document. For more information, visit EPA’s website.
Implementing NDAA Requirements to Report PFAS to TRI: EPA has taken the next step to implement the NDAA requirements that provided a framework for additional PFAS to be added to TRI on an annual basis. The NDAA automatically added three PFAS to the TRI list for reporting became effective in January 2021 and EPA issued its final rule on June 3rd requiring PFAS reporting to EPA by July 1, 2022, for calendar year 2021 data. For more information, view the final rule and visit EPA’s website.
