EPA’s plan to significantly narrow what was supposed to be the largest federal data collection on “forever chemicals” is prompting criticism that the new approach would produce a far less robust dataset and trigger state action to fill in the cracks.
The agency on Monday unveiled its proposed slate of exemptions to a Biden-era PFAS reporting rule meant to fill knowledge gaps on the health risks and different uses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
Those exemptions would shrink the estimated number of respondents from 131,410, under the 2023 final rule, to 255. That’s because roughly 99.8 percent of the original batch of respondents were firms that import articles containing PFAS, which would be exempt under the proposal.
“These exemptions risk creating significant blind spots in tracking PFAS sources,” said Dave Kempisty, vice president of technology at Montrose Environmental Group.
