The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) both require toxic chemical release reporting, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated this list on June 23, 2023. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (NDAA), which was passed on December 20, 2019, requires that nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) be reported. As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) modified the regulations to reflect this. According to the EPA, “notice and comment rulemaking is unnecessary as this action is being taken to conform the regulations to a Congressional legislative mandate.” On July 24, 2023, the final rule will come into force. Reporting is necessary for the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Reporting Year 2023 (reporting forms are due by July 1, 2024). 

 As per the EPA’s news release on June 22, 2023, four PFAS substances have been included in the TRI list and are no longer considered private business information (CBI). The EPA is mandated by NDAA Section 7321(e) to investigate CBI claims before adding a PFAS to the TRI list, particularly if the chemical identification is being protected from disclosure under 5 U.S.C. Section 552(a).

Based on the NDAA’s provision to include specific PFAS upon NDAA’s implementation, the EPA claims to have already identified certain PFAS for addition to the TRI list. At that time, the EPA decided not to add these PFAS to the TRI list due to CBI assertions regarding their identity. Because at least one producer did not claim these PFAS as confidential during previous chemical data reporting, the identities of these PFAS were subsequently declassified, according to the EPA, in an update to the TSCA Inventory in February 2022. Because they were no longer confidential, under NDAA, EPA added the following four chemicals to the TRI list:   

  • *Alcohols, C8-16, γ-ω-perfluoro, reaction products with 1,6-diisocyanatohexane, glycidol, and stearyl alc. (Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number® (CAS RN®) 2728655-42-1);
  • *Acetamide, N-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]-, 2-[(γ-ω-perfluoro-C4-20-alkyl)thio] derivs. (CAS RN 2738952-61-7);
  • *Acetic acid, 2-[(γ-ω-perfluoro-C4-20-alkyl)thio] derivs., 2-hydroxypropyl esters (CAS RN 2744262-09-5); and
  • *Acetamide, N-(2-aminoethyl)-, 2-[(γ-ω-perfluoro-C4-20-alkyl)thio] derivs., polymers with N1,N1-dimethyl-1,3-propanediamine, epichlorohydrin and ethylenediamine, oxidized (CAS RN 2742694-36-4)

The NDAA has a clause that, once the EPA adopts a final toxicity value, it immediately adds PFAS to the TRI list. A final toxicity value for perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), its anion, and its associated salts was adopted by the EPA in December 2022.  

Reference: https://www.tscablog.com/entry/epa-implements-statutory-addition-of-certain-pfas-to-tri-beginning-with-rep 

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