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Enforceable Consent Agreements (ECAs)
The formal ECA process began in 1992 when EPA publicly announced an "Open
Season" to encourage members of the U.S. chemical industry to submit testing
offers to conduct needed testing under public ECA procedures on chemicals
for which EPA had not yet issued final TSCA Section
4 test rules
Creation of an ECA requires the development of formal agreement between
EPA, industry, and other interested parties on what testing must be conducted.
ECAs allow greater flexibility in the design of the testing program (e.g.,
test methods can be negotiated).
EPA is not required to make statutory TSCA
Section 4 "findings" for ECAs.
The relationship between EPA and industry is typically non-adversarial/
It usually takes less than a year for testing to begin on chemicals subject
to ECAs.
For all chemicals subject to ECAs, TSCA Section
12(b) export notification by industry is still required.
ECAs allow greater recognition of industry efforts in that companies can
offer a balanced program combining chemical testing with voluntary product
stewardship activities. Typically, these voluntary product stewardship
programs involve pollution prevention activities (e.g., via waste minimization
and exposure reduction), additional health/environmental effects data
development activities, risk communication activities (e.g., via enhanced
product literature), risk reduction activities (including use of safer
substitutes).