Various Industries Must Report Releases of 12 Chemicals to EPA

Electrical utilities and plastic and paint producers are among the industries that will have to tell the EPA the volume of 12 chemicals they release into the environment under a final rule the agency will publish Wednesday.

Military and other federal facilities with electrical transformers that use certain fluids containing the chemicals or use them in other ways also could be required by the rule (RIN 2070-AK26) to report their releases of them to the agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).

Releases of the chemicals into the air or water or onto land along with volumes disposed of or recycled during 2023 must be reported annually beginning July 1, 2024, the EPA said.

The 12 chemicals include substances used to make paints, plastics, other chemicals, industrial fluids, and fragrances in household products.

Companies Making Chemicals

The trigger to report 11 of those chemicals is the agency’s standard 10,000 or 25,000 pounds annually depending on the type of industrial use that generated them.

Companies that manufactured one or more of the 11 chemicals in recent years include the BASF Corp., Dow Chemical Co., Nissan Chemical America Corp., Olin Corp., and Sherwin-Williams Co., according to the EPA’s most recent data.

The EPA classified one chemical, 1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8- hexamethylcyclopenta[g]-2-benzopyran (HHCB), as a “chemical of special concern” due to its persistence, toxicity, and ability to build up in the food chain. HHCB is a fragrance in soaps, cleaning, and other products that may be identified on business documents by its Chemical Abstract Service number, CAS No. 1222-05-5 1.

Companies and federal facilities must report releases of 100 pounds or more of HHCB. Firmenich Inc., International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., and the Procter & Gamble Co. are among its recent producers or importers, according to the EPA.

Reporting Costs

The EPA estimates the rule will cost $6.6 million in the first year of reporting and about $3.2 million annually thereafter.

The rule results from a petition the Toxics Use Reduction Institute sent to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2014. The petition asked the agency to add 25 chemicals recognized as hazardous by US or international agencies to the TRI list. A 1989 Massachusetts law established the institute located at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Some of those 25 chemicals already have been added to TRI or regulated through other means, the EPA said. Nine chemicals lacked sufficient data for the agency to determine whether they met the criteria to be listed.

That 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) created the TRI to ensure emergency responders and communities can prepare ahead of time how they would deal with explosions, fires, or other accidents that release toxic chemicals.

The public attention TRI data receives also spurs companies and federal facilities to better manage and reduce their use of the chemicals, the EPA has said.