January 10, 2024
On January 9, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the addition of seven additional per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the list of chemicals subject to Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting for the 2024 reporting year.
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 seven 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 actions listed in the NDAA. One of the actions specified is when EPA finalizes a toxicity value for a given PFAS compound, which is the path by which six of the seven newly added PFAS earned their way onto the TRI list. The seventh PFAS compound was added after the lifting of a confidential business information claim.
The seven newly added PFAS are:
- Ammonium perfluorohexanoate; Chemical Abstract Service Registration Number (CASRN) 21615-47-4
- Lithium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl] azanide; CASRN 90076-65-6
- Perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA); CASRN 307-24-4
- Perfluoropropanoic acid (PFPrA); CASRN 422-64-0
- Sodium perfluorohexanoate; CASRN 2923-26-4
- 1,1,1-Trifluoro-N-[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl] methanesulfonamide; CASRN 82113-65-3
- Betaines, dimethyl(.gamma.-.omega.-perfluoro-.gamma.-hydro-C8-18-alkyl); CASRN 2816091-53-7
With the addition of these seven PFAS, a total of 196 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, 2025 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.