The EPA Adds Nine PFAS Chemicals to TRI List and Wins Stay of PFAS Litigation in Federal District Court

The EPA automatically adds nine PFAS chemicals to the Toxics Release Inventory (“TRI”) list pursuant to the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) and after finding some PFAS chemicals could no longer be claimed as confidential business information, and as a result, the persons/facilities required to annually report TRI data to the EPA must now include data on the nine additional PFAS chemicals. The EPA also adds PFBA, its anion, and related salts to the TRI list via the NDAA after finalizing their toxicity values. These additions coincide with a federal district court’s grant to stay litigation challenging two of the EPA’s rules regarding PFAS, including the EPA’s previous application of the de minimis exemption to PFAS reporting. The EPA moved to stay the litigation to complete the rulemaking process to list PFAS as “chemicals of special concern,” which would prevent any required reporter from utilizing the de minimis exemption to avoid PFAS reporting. Since the EPA’s rule would provide the plaintiffs the substantive relief they seek, the court granted the stay of litigation.

January 1 & 6, 2023 | Nat’l PFAS Contamination Coal. v. U.S. EPA (D.D.C.); EPA Requires Reporting on Releases and Other Waste Management for Nine Additional PFAS, U.S. EPA