EPA Rings in 2024 with Addition of Seven PFAS to Toxic Release Inventory

The new year marks the final one of U.S. EPA’s Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (“PFAS”) Strategic Roadmap, and so it is only fitting that the Agency begins 2024 by adding seven additional PFAS to the Toxic Release Inventory (“TRI”).

These PFAS are being added to the TRI pursuant to Section 7321 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (“NDAA”), which outlines how the Agency may automatically add certain PFAS to the TRI in annual phases. The NDAA includes a provision that automatically adds individual PFAS to the TRI upon EPA’s finalization of a toxicity value. Because EPA finalized toxicity values for the following six PFAS in 2023, they are now automatically added for Reporting Year 2024:• 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; and• 1,1,1-Trifluoro-N-[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl] methanesulfonamide; CASRN 82113-65-3.Ammonium perfluorohexanoate; Chemical Abstract Service Registration Number (“CASRN”) 21615-47-4;

A seventh PFAS – Betaines, dimethyl(.gamma.-.omega.-perfluoro-.gamma.-hydro-C8-18-alkyl); CASRN 2816091-53-7 – also is being added for TRI Reporting Year 2024 after confidentiality claims were rescinded for the substance.

With the addition of these seven PFAS to the TRI, 196 PFAS chemicals are now subject to the TRI reporting requirements outlined in Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (“EPCRA”). Facilities that manufacture, process or otherwise use any of these chemicals above the 100 pound annual threshold must report releases and other waste management activities involving these substances for the 2024 reporting year (reports are due July 1, 2025). Hence, facilities should be tracking the use of these chemicals now. For the other, already listed 189 PFAS subject to TRI Reporting Year 2023, reporting is due on July 1, 2024.

Note that EPA classified PFAS as ​“chemicals of special concern” on October 23, 2023, thereby eliminating applicability of the de minimis exemption which allowed facilities to forego accounting for negligible amounts of PFAS in chemical mixtures when present at concentrations below 1% (or 0.1% for carcinogens) in the materials they process or otherwise use in their manufacturing process.