US EPA proposes streamlined PFAS reporting rules

In October 2023, the Biden Administration EPA finalised a one-time PFAS reporting and recordkeeping regulation under TSCA section 8(a)(7) that requires manufacturers (including importers) of PFAS in any year between 2011-2022 to report data to EPA related to exposure and any existing environmental and health effects. The rule exemplifies regulatory overreach by imposing a nearly billion-dollar compliance burden on industry without establishing any clear framework for utilising the collected data or demonstrating how it advances environmental protection goals. The rule's lack of practical implementation standards, evidenced by significant IT system failures and administrative delays, represents poor regulatory design that unnecessarily burdens small businesses and importers while failing to achieve meaningful environmental outcomes.

“This Biden-era rule would have imposed crushing regulatory burdens and nearly $1 billion in implementation costs on American businesses,” said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin. “Today’s proposal is grounded in commonsense and the law, allowing us to collect the information we need to help combat PFAS contamination without placing ridiculous requirements on manufacturers, especially the small businesses that drive our country’s economy.”

The proposed changes to improve reporting regulations will support Zeldin’s ‘Powering the Great American Comeback’ initiative by reducing regulatory reporting burdens and providing greater regulatory certainty to industry, resulting in a net reduction in cost while ensuring that EPA receives the PFAS data that are most relevant to the agency. These proposed changes will also deliver on Zeldin’s April 28, 2025, commitment to implement [TSCA] section 8(a)7 to smartly collect necessary information, as Congress envisioned and consistent with TSCA, without overburdening small businesses and article importers, the US EPA said in a press release.

The exemptions and modifications that EPA is proposing would maintain important reporting requirements on PFAS while exempting reporting on activities that manufacturers are least likely to know or reasonably determine. The proposed exemptions are PFAS manufactured (including imported) in mixtures or products at concentrations 0.1 per cent or lower, imported articles, certain byproducts, impurities, research and development chemicals; and non-isolated intermediates. 

The agency is also proposing technical corrections to clarify what must be reported in certain data fields and to adjust the data submission period.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (RR)