EPA Delays Start of Data Reporting Period for Rule Requiring Submission of PFAS Data
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a direct final rule to delay the reporting period for the October 2023 final rule requiring companies to report on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The reporting period was scheduled to begin on November 12, 2024, but today’s final rule delays the beginning of the reporting period until July 2025 due to resource constraints.
The reporting rule under section 8(a)(7) of TSCA is a statutory requirement established by the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act that requires all manufacturers (including importers) of PFAS and PFAS-containing articles in any year since 2011 to report information related to chemical identity, uses, volumes made and processed, byproducts, environmental and health effects, worker exposure, and disposal to EPA.
The 2023 reporting rule will provide EPA, its partners, and the public with the largest-ever dataset of PFAS manufactured and used in the United States, and is a key action in EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap. To effectively research, monitor and regulate PFAS, EPA needs to be able to better understand who is using PFAS, how they are being used, and in what quantities they are being used, among other information. The rule will produce actionable data that can be used by EPA, as well as state, local, and Tribal governments to address PFAS pollution.
EPA’s TSCA program has had resource constraints for years, which has delayed a number of important efforts, including full implementation of the reporting rule. In March 2024, the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 program area budget that includes EPA’s TSCA program was reduced by $5 million compared to what was enacted in the FY 2023 budget, and the agency needed to make difficult choices to ensure that it would be able to continue its work to protect human health and the environment from the risks presented by toxic chemicals.
As a result of competing priorities, many of which related to meeting statutory deadlines, EPA’s TSCA program significantly reduced its IT operating budget in FY 2024 to prevent overspending of resources, which resulted in less funding for the contractual support EPA relies on for much of its IT efforts.
The budget reductions stopped ongoing software development and impacted operations and maintenance activities associated with both the Central Data Exchange and TSCA confidential business information-based applications, which are critical to the agency’s TSCA data collections, including for this rule. As a result, the agency software application that will collect the PFAS data will not be ready by the original November 2024 reporting period opening date and it will thus be impossible for submitters to begin to submit data on that date.
This direct final rule would change the data submission period to open on July 11, 2025, when the agency expects the software reporting application to be fully functional. Most reporters would be required to complete all reporting by January 11, 2026. Small businesses reporting data solely on importing PFAS contained in articles will have until July 11, 2026, to submit reports.
To assist entities required to report under this rule, EPA has provided guidance materials on the agency’s website, including reporting instructions, FAQs, and materials from a webinar held on January 25, 2024. EPA will launch a new guidance webpage on the TSCA guidance database (TSCA GuideME) in the coming months and add electronic reporting resources to the regulatory resources, including shorter video recordings, fact sheets, and guidance, to further support entities that must report under this rule. EPA also plans to host a series of webinars on technical topics identified as challenges by reporting entities. Webinars will begin before the reporting period opens and will continue through the reporting period.
Learn more about the reporting rule, including how to comment on the proposed rule that EPA is publishing in parallel with the direct final rule.
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