EPA Proposes Rule to Clarify Supplier Notification Requirements for TRI-Listed PFAS
Released Jan. 16, 2025
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule to clarify the timeframe for when companies must first notify a customer that one of their mixtures or trade name products contains a per- or polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) listed on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in accordance with Section 7321(c) of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This law provides the framework for the automatic addition of PFAS to TRI each year on Jan. 1 in response to specified EPA activities involving PFAS in the preceding year.
Once PFAS have been added to TRI, facilities in designated industry sectors and federal facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use these PFAS above set quantities must report information to EPA, such as the quantities of such chemicals that were released into the environment or otherwise managed as waste. The data collected is made available online and helps to support informed decision-making by companies, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the public. To help TRI facilities with their reporting, covered suppliers must provide notifications for mixtures or trade name products with TRI chemicals to their customers, if their customers own or operate TRI facilities, or to someone who will later distribute that mixture or trade name product to others who own or /operate TRI facilities. Supplier notification helps ensure that purchasers of mixtures and trade name products containing these chemicals are informed of their presence in mixtures and products they purchase to help them determine their TRI reporting obligations.
EPA is taking this action in response to questions from industry regarding the effective date of supplier notifications for PFAS added to TRI pursuant to the NDAA. Specifically, stakeholders questioned whether the supplier notification requirements for such PFAS begin on Jan. 1, when the PFAS is added to the statutory TRI chemical list or upon EPA completing a rulemaking to include the added PFAS in the Code of Federal Regulations.
This action would clarify that the supplier notification requirement for these PFAS starts immediately when they are added to the TRI (Jan. 1) by explicitly defining PFAS added to the TRI by the NDAA as TRI chemicals. As TRI chemicals, they are immediately covered by the TRI regulation’s supplier notification provision as well as all other TRI reporting requirements. Supplier notifications must begin with the first shipment of the calendar year in which the chemical addition to TRI is effective.
Learn more about the addition of certain PFAS to the TRI by the NDAA.