Recent Regulatory Agendas Forecast New Requirements for PFAS and TSCA Chemicals

July 14, 2022

Federal agencies have recently announced their “Spring 2022” Regulatory Agendas that provide a roadmap for upcoming and long-term regulatory actions that could have significant implications for the regulated community. What these agendas make clear is that the Biden Administration continues to prioritize regulatory actions to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) across multiple agencies. And, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to implement numerous regulatory initiatives to assess and mitigate chemical risks under the strengthened Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

EPA and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) have planned a number of upcoming and novel regulations covering PFAS in the areas of procurement, drinking water, chemical reporting and recordkeeping, and site clean-up. As reflected by EPA’s release of drinking water health advisories for certain PFAS on June 15, federal agencies are initiating PFAS-related regulatory actions that will pose new compliance challenges with far-reaching implications for a broad spectrum of the regulated community and affected stakeholders.

EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) has released a robust agenda covering procedures for approvals of new chemicals, existing chemical evaluations and regulations, chemical data reporting, confidential business information, and fees under the TSCA. EPA is also taking actions not listed in the regulatory agenda to revise chemical assessments performed by the Trump administration to reflect the new Biden Administration policies. EPA’s agenda reflects an effort by the Agency to gather significantly more information from regulated entities about new and existing chemicals, improve transparency, clarify its procedures for new and existing chemical evaluations, require more from companies who seek to protect confidential information, and substantially increase fees for companies regulated under TSCA.

Hunton’s chemical regulatory team has provided analyses of these upcoming regulatory actions:

 
Please contact our team for more information.