January 7, 2025
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on January 3 the addition of nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) chemicals list for reporting year 2025. This addition was formalized in a final rule published in the Federal Register on January 6, 2025.
The TRI was established under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). Under the TRI program, regulated facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use listed chemicals above set quantities must report annually to EPA. This reporting includes releases and waste management of listed chemicals. Reporting forms are due to EPA July 1 of each year for the prior reporting year, after which EPA processes the received data and makes it publicly available. The purpose of TRI reporting and data sharing is to enable government entities, organizations, and the public to know of the facilities managing listed chemicals and of any associated releases in their community.
The addition of these nine PFAS to the TRI is a product of the framework established under the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which provides for the automatic addition of PFAS to the TRI annually when EPA takes one of a number of specified actions. One of the actions specified is when EPA finalizes a toxicity value for a given PFAS compound. That action, along with declassification as the subject of a confidential business information claim (last compound listed below), is the path by which these PFAS were added to the TRI.
The nine newly added PFAS are:
- Ammonium perfluorodecanoate (PFDA NH4) (3108-42-7)
- Sodium perfluorodecanoate (PFDA-Na) (3830-45-3)
- Perfluoro-3-methoxypropanoic acid (377-73-1)
- 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate acid (27619-97-2)
- 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate anion (425670-75-3)
- 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate potassium salt (59587-38-1)
- 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate ammonium salt (59587-39-2)
- 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonate sodium salt (27619-94-9)
- Acetic acid, [(γ-ω-perfluoro-C8-10-alkyl)thio] derivs., Bu esters (3030471-22-5)
With the addition of these nine PFAS, a total of 205 PFAS compounds are subject to TRI reporting. Facilities required to report under EPCRA Section 313 should track activities associated with these PFAS in preparation for the July 1, 2026 reporting deadline. Given EPA’s October 2023 classification of all TRI-listed PFAS as chemicals of special concern, facilities should be aware that PFAS are no longer exempt from TRI reporting even if used in small concentrations and will need to be reported at any quantity.