TSCA Inventory Update Rule Changes Proposed

EPA has a new proposal to make the TSCA Inventory Update Rule even more of a pain for reporting in 2011 (June 1 – Sept 30).  Proposed Rule Federal Register Notice.  From EPA’s summary of changes:

What Are Some of the Proposed Changes?
• Require use of the electronic reporting software

• Require reporting if the production volume of a chemical substance met or exceeded the 25, 000 lb. threshold in any calendar year since the last principal reporting year (proposed method would be effective after the 2011 submission period).

• Require reporting of production volume for all years since the previous principal reporting year (i.e., 2005), rather than just the principal reporting year.

• Require upfront substantiation of certain data elements when the information is claimed as confidential business information (CBI).

•Require the reporting of certain manufacturing data elements, including:      -   whether an imported chemical is physically at the reporting site (EPA is proposing to allow the contracting company to report manufacture that is done at a toll manufacturer's site, since the contracting company knows more about uses).

-    volume of the chemical substance directly exported and not domestically processed or used

-   whether a manufactured chemical, such as a byproduct, is being recycled, remanufactured, reprocessed, reused, or reworked.

• Lower the 300,000 lb. threshold for processing and use information to 25,000 lb., thereby requiring all reporters of non-excluded substances to report information in all parts of the IUR Form U.

• Revise the list of industrial function categories for the reporting of processing and use information and replacing the five-digit North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes with 48 Industrial Sectors (IS).

• Separate the consumer and commercial product categories to distinguish between the use types.

• Revise the consumer and commercial product category codes for the reporting of consumer and commercial use information. (No more use of "other" without an explanation.)

•Return the reporting frequency from every five years to every four years.

• Eliminate the 25,000 lb. threshold for certain chemical substances that are the subject of particular TSCA rules and/or orders and to require manufacturers (including importers) of such chemicals to report under the IUR rule, regardless of the production volume.

Perhaps the biggest potential gotchas are in the requests for comments where EPA floats some major impact ideas:

• Should the IUR apply to PROCESSORS so that EPA can get better use information?

• Should vastly more exposure information be collected (because EPA admits the level of detail they ask for, while a pain for manufacturers/importers to report, doesn't really help them do risk assessments - so why ask at all?) and on what?:

-    require essentially the same information as in PMNs ?

-    focus requirements based on a volume cutoff or ~ 100 priority chemical/year?

-    or use their subpoena authority to get the information from whomever and whenever they want based on the IUR information?

EPA is thinking big.  As with climate change, there is a lot the agency can do now with the authority already present in the current TSCA law.  Who needs to wait for TSCA Reform?

Call EHS Strategies, Inc. to help you work through the proposal and prepare your 2011 IUR reports.