EPA is closing in on what is expected to be a major expansion of hazardous air pollutant disclosure regulations.
The planned update to what are formally known as “air emissions reporting requirements” would be the first since 2015. One goal is giving neighborhoods and other communities a better understanding of their potential exposure to such air toxics. While most states already voluntarily report some hazardous air pollutant data to EPA, “that reporting is not consistent nationwide,” the agency said last year.
Following release of the draft rule last summer and after getting a torrent of feedback on the proposal, the agency on Monday sent its final version to the White House regulations office for a pre-publication review, according to a notice on a government tracking website. EPA hopes to make that version public by this July.
The proposed rule called for nearly 130,000 industrial plants and other facilities around the country to report their releases of almost 190 hazardous pollutants either directly to EPA or through states that have federally approved programs.
