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EPA Accepting Public Comments on SACC Candidates under Consideration
Posted on July 23, 2020 by Lynn L. Bergeson

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting public comments on the experts under consideration for membership on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC).  Biographies of the candidates are available in Docket ID EPA-HQ-OPPT-2020-0135.  Comments are due August 21, 2020.  EPA states that it will use public comments to assist it in selecting multiple members of SACC over the next year.  EPA expects to appoint approximately 15 members to SACC by March 2021.

Tags: SAAC, Comments
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NGOs State That EPA Fails to Meet Regulatory Requirements
Posted on May 19, 2020 by Lynn L. Bergeson

By Christopher R. Blunck
 
As we noted in our May 15, 2020, blog item “NGOs Ask EPA to Revise Draft Scope Documents to Comply with TSCA and EPA Regulations,” Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families filed comments on May 13, 2020, stating that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 20 draft scope documents released on April 9 and April 23, 2020, fail to meet Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and EPA regulatory requirements.  In the comments, linked to in EDF’s May 14, 2020, blog item on the subject (the comments are not yet posted to the EPA dockets), the non-governmental organizations (NGO) called on EPA to revise the draft documents to include the information that both TSCA and EPA’s risk evaluation rule require to be included, and then make the revised draft scopes available for public comment.  In their comments, the NGOs note that TSCA Section 6(b)(4)(D) requires that EPA, “not later than 6 months after the initiation of a risk evaluation, publish the scope of the risk evaluation to be conducted, including the hazards, exposures, conditions of use, and the potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations the Administrator expects to consider” (emphasis added) and that under EPA’s risk evaluation rule at 40 C.F.R. Section702.41(c), the scope of a risk evaluation must, among other things, identify:

  • The potentially exposed populations, including any potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations identified as relevant to the risk evaluation by EPA under the conditions of use, that EPA plans to evaluate;
     
  • The ecological receptors that EPA plans to evaluate;
     
  • The hazards to health and the environment that EPA plans to evaluate; and
     
  • The “reasonably available information” on which EPA relies to identify these required scope elements.
The NGOs state that EPA regulations at 40 C.F.R. Section 702.41(c)(7) make clear that these elements are to be included in the draft scope made available for public comment, not just in the final scope.  According to the NGOs, despite the regulatory requirements, EPA has not addressed the specific obligations and “Instead, EPA has only generally described some broad categories of hazards, exposures, and potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations, and has suggested it will identify the specific hazards, exposures, and subpopulations -- and the reasonably available information it relies on to identify them -- only later, well after the current comment periods have closed and possibly even after the scopes are finalized.”  This, the NGOs state, is not allowed under TSCA and the TSCA risk evaluation rule.
 
Furthermore, the NGOs state that EPA also refers in each draft scope to “systematic review documentation” that has not yet been made public.  While EPA states it plans to publish this second document prior to issuing the final scope document, and take comment on it, the comments state that “EPA has wholly divorced any public comment opportunity it will provide on that systematic review document from the current public comment opportunity” and “[g]iven that the systematic review document is not yet available, the public is unable to consider its content in preparing comments on the draft scope document.”
 
The NGOs indicate that given these faults, “EPA jeopardizes the integrity and legality of the entire risk evaluation process.”  They request EPA simultaneously to publish and take comment on, for a period of no less than 30 days, revised draft scope documents that reflect the planned systematic review, and the systematic review documentation for each scope.
 
We agree that the faults identified by the NGOs on the draft scope documents and the associated process are significant and that if not remedied, any risk evaluations with scopes founded on the drafts would be legally vulnerable as not comporting with TSCA and EPA’s risk evaluation rule.  EPA may wish to consider taking corrective measures along the lines urged.  This change would include adding into revised draft scopes for comment the reasonably available information EPA has indicated it will identify through the yet-to-be-completed systematic review process, and will identify the specific hazards, exposures, and potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations that EPA expects to consider in the risk evaluations.
 
Tags: Risk Evaluation, Comments, Draft Scope, NGO
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EPA to Provide Supplemental Analysis of Alternative Small Business Size Standard Definitions in User Fees Rulemaking Docket and Extend User Fees Rulemaking Comment Period
Posted on April 23, 2018 by Lynn L. Bergeson

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Margaret R. Graham

On April 24, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is scheduled to publish a notice in the Federal Register that it will be adding a supplemental analysis, “Supplemental Analysis of Alternative Small Business Size Standard Definitions and their Effect on TSCA User Fee Collection,” to the rulemaking docket for the User Fees for the Administration of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) proposed rule published on February 26, 2018.  EPA will also be extending the comment period for the proposed rule for an additional 30 days “to give interested parties the opportunity to consider this additional analysis and prepare meaningful comments.”  Comments will be due within 30 days of publication (by May 24, 2018).  The original comment deadline was April 27, 2018.

Regarding the supplemental analysis, EPA states that it “provides additional estimates for the impact of setting the small business definition based on an employee-based threshold.”  More information on the proposed rule is available in our February 9, 2018, memorandum “Administrator Pruitt Signs TSCA User Fee Proposal.”

Tags: user fees, fees rule, comments, extension, small business size standard
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EPA Extends Comment Period for PBT Chemicals
Posted on December 06, 2017 by Lynn L. Bergeson

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Margaret R. Graham

On December 6, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was extending the public comment period to receive information on the five persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals that are subject to Section 6(h) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) which requires EPA to take expedited regulatory action to address risks from certain PBT chemicals.  Comments were initially due on December 9, 2017; they are now due on January 12, 2018.  EPA states it is interested in information from the public about these chemicals, including uses, products containing these chemicals, exposed populations, and alternatives to these chemicals.  Very few comments have been filed regarding these chemicals thus far.  The chemicals and corresponding docket numbers are:

More information on the PBTs is available on our blog under keyword PBTs.

 

Tags: Section 6, PBT, PBTs, comments, use information, extension
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Comments Due on Use Information of PBT Chemicals by December 9, 2017
Posted on November 20, 2017 by Lynn L. Bergeson

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Margaret R. Graham

On December 9, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opened five dockets to collect information on five persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals.  EPA requested information on uses, products containing these chemicals, exposed populations, and alternatives to these chemicals.  These five chemicals were selected on October 11, 2016, to receive expedited action under Section 6(h) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), as amended by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which requires EPA to take expedited regulatory action to address risks from certain PBT chemicals.  The deadline to submit comments is fast approaching:  December 9, 2017.  The five chemicals and their corresponding dockets are:

In August 2017, EPA provided background information for each of the five PBT chemicals in the form of use documents which provide a preliminary summary of available information collected by EPA on the manufacturing (including importing), processing, distribution in commerce, use, and disposal of each chemical.  Amended TSCA gives EPA three years to propose rules to reduce risks and exposures from these PBT chemicals to the extent practicable (until June 22, 2019), and EPA must issue the rules in final within 18 months of when they are proposed. 

More information on the PBTs is available on our blog under keyword PBTs.

Tags: Section 6, PBT, PBTs, comments, use information
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EPA Extends Comment Deadline for Risk Evaluation Scoping Efforts Under TSCA
Posted on March 03, 2017 by Lynn L. Bergeson

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Margaret R. Graham

On March 6, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is scheduled to publish a notice in the Federal Register reopening the comment period on the risk evaluation scoping efforts under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for the ten chemical substances that were designated on December 19, 2016:

  • 1, 4 Dioxane;
  • Methylene Chloride;
  • 1-Bromopropane;
  • N-Methylpyrolidone;
  • Asbestos;
  • Pigment Violet 29;
  • Carbon Tetrachloride;
  • Trichloroethylene;
  • Cyclic Aliphatic Bromide Cluster (HBCD); and
  • Tetrachloroethylene.

The prepublication version is available on the Federal Register website.  The initial notice, issued in the Federal Register on January 19, 2017, announced a public meeting which took place on February 14, 2017, and solicited “comments to receive input and information to assist the Agency in its efforts to establish the scope of risk evaluations under development for the ten chemicals substances.”  This notice will extend the comment period for 14 days, from March 1, 2017, to March 15, 2017, in response to a request from the interested public.  

More information is available in our blog items EPA To Hold Public Meeting on Uses and Conditions of Use for the Initial Ten Chemicals to be Evaluated under TSCA Section 6 and EPA Announces Initial List of TSCA Section 6 Chemicals for Risk Evaluation. 

 

Tags: risk evaluation, extension, comments, designated chemicals
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