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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 3 / Wednesday, January 6, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
process controls and providing appropriate personal protective equipment PPE to their employees consistent with these requirements. EPA
received no information on 2,4,6-TTBP
to the contrary. Further, EPA has not conducted a risk evaluation on 2,4,6TTBP or any of the five PBT chemicals.
Without a risk evaluation and given the time allotted for this rulemaking, EPA
cannot identify additional engineering or process controls or PPE requirements that would be appropriate to each chemical-specific circumstance. For these reasons, EPA has determined that it is not practicable to regulate worker exposures in this rule through engineering or process controls or PPE
requirements.
Under a newly created general provisions section at 40 CFR 751.401b, EPA is listing three activities to which the prohibitions and restrictions under the PBT regulations at subpart E of 40
CFR 751 do not apply in general, unless otherwise specified in the individual chemical regulations.
The first activity is distribution in commerce of any chemical substance, or products and articles that contain the chemical substance, that has previously been sold or supplied to an end user, i.e., an individual or entity that purchased or acquired the finished good for purposes other than resale. An example of this is a consumer who resells a product they no longer intend to use through the internet or donates a used article to charity. EPA does not believe it practicable to attempt to regulate such activity, given the small quantities involved in end user resale relative to overall sales, the multitude of potentially affected persons, the difficulties of making consumers and other end users aware of potential compliance obligations, and the difficulties the Agency would have enforcing such resale prohibitions on the general public and other end users.
The second activity is disposal of any chemical substance, or products and articles that contain the chemical substance, including importation, processing and distribution-incommerce for purposes of disposal. EPA
explained in the proposed rule the basis of its determination that, as a general matter, disposal is adequately regulated under the authority of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act RCRA
which governs the disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes, and it is not practicable to impose additional requirements under TSCA on the disposal of the PBT chemicals in the proposed rule. 84 FR 36744. EPA
received a number of comments on this aspect of its proposal. Some
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commenters agreed with EPAs proposed determination that it is not practicable to regulate disposal, while others disagreed. Comments specific to other PBT chemicals, are addressed in those chemicals final rule notices. More information on the comments received and EPAs responses can be found in the Response to Comments document Ref.
5. One commenter noted that, while EPA proposed to not regulate disposal of the PBT chemicals under TSCA, the effect of EPAs proposed prohibition on manufacturing, processing, and distribution in commerce would prohibit the processing and distribution in commerce of the PBTs and articles and products containing the PBT
chemicals for disposal. EPA did not intend such an effect, and is including a general provision in the final regulatory text in the new section 40
CFR 751.401b to address disposal of any chemical substance, or products and articles that contain the chemical substance, including importation, processing and distribution in commerce for purposes of disposal. In regard to the disposal of 2,4,6-TTBP, use of the chemical as a feedstock, use as a waste fuel, and use as a fuel additive all result in the destruction of the chemical through combustion. This final rule will ultimately eliminate releases from the use of 2,4,6-TTBP-containing retail fuel additive products which are sold in small containers, such as spillage which may occur when the product is poured into fuel tanks or fuel cans, as well as releases from the disposal of used small containers that held those products in the municipal solid waste stream.
EPA also received comments regarding the use of PBT chemicals in research and development and lab use.
The final activity addressed under newly established 40 CFR 751.401b is the manufacturing, processing, distribution in commerce and use of any chemical substance, or products and articles that contain the chemical substance, for research and development, as defined in new 40 CFR
751.403. Research and Development is defined in new 40 CFR 751.403 to mean laboratory and research use only for purposes of scientific experimentation or analysis, or chemical research on, or analysis of, the chemical substance, including methods for disposal, but not for research or analysis for the development of a new product, or refinement of an existing product that contains the chemical substance. This will allow, for example, for samples of environmental media containing PBTs, such as contaminated soil and water, to be collected, packaged and shipped to a
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laboratory for analysis. Laboratories also must obtain reference standards containing PBTs to calibrate their equipment, otherwise they may not be able to accurately quantify these chemical substances in samples being analyzed. However, research to develop new products that use PBTs subject to subpart E of 40 CFR 751, or the refinement of existing uses of those chemicals, is not included in this definition, and those activities remain potentially subject to the chemical specific provisions in subpart E of 40
CFR 751. EPA believes it is not practicable to limit research and development activity as defined, given the critical importance of this activity to the detection, quantification and control of these chemical substances.
III. Provisions of This Final Rule A. Scope and Applicability EPA carefully considered all public comments related to the proposal. This rule finalizes EPAs proposal to prohibit all distribution in commerce of 2,4,6TTBP and products containing 2,4,6TTBP in small containers, and prohibit all processing and distribution in commerce of 2,4,6-TTBP, and products containing 2,4,6-TTBP, for use as an oil or lubricant additive, with changes being made from the proposal to the container size limit, the concentration limit for 2,4,6-TTBP, and the compliance date for the prohibitions.
1. Container size.
In the proposed rule, EPA solicited comment from the public on the optimal container size limit to impose:
Specifically, whether a 35-gallon container size would impact industrial use less than a 55-gallon container size while also preventing the sale of retail products with 2,4,6-TTBP. Two comments were received on this issue.
SI Group recommended EPA adopt a 35gallon size limit, commenting that:
Industrial users of chemicals occasionally ship materials in the nonstandard 55-gallon drum size. This slight decrease in container size will not impact the intent or outcome of the original proposalconsumer access to 2,4,6-TTBP will be restricted EPA
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stated that: A 35-gallon container size would be more appropriate, because it would impact industrial use less while also preventing the commercial and retail sale of products with 2,4,6-TTBP.
Based on this information EPA is adopting a 35-gallon container size limit in the final regulation, which will still reduce the exposure to consumers to the same extent EPAHQOPPT2019
00800539.

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