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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 50 / Wednesday, March 17, 2021 / Proposed Rules Category
Example of regulated entity
Industry

PFAS Manufacturers.
PFAS Formulators.

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This section is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather provides a guide regarding entities likely to be regulated by any future rulemaking activities following this notice. Other types of entities that are not included in the examples above could also be regulated.
PFAS manufacturers are facilities that produce PFAS compounds or precursors through processes including, but not limited to, electrochemical fluorination ECF and telomerization. Facilities that manufacture PFAS are currently regulated under EPAs national Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards ELGs for the OCPSF category 40 CFR
part 414. EPA has also gathered more limited information about PFAS
formulators. PFAS formulators are facilities that are the primary customers of the PFAS manufacturers, and that use raw PFAS feedstock to a produce commercial or consumer goods e.g., weather-proof caulking, or b as intermediary products for use in the manufacture of commercial goods e.g., a grease-proof coating for a pizza box.
If you still have questions regarding the applicability of any future rulemaking activities following this notice to a particular entity, please consult the person listed for additional information in the preceding FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.
B. What is the purpose of this notice?
As part of EPAs statutorily required Effluent Guidelines planning process, EPA has reviewed readily available information about PFAS surface water discharges to identify industrial sources that may warrant further study for potential regulation through national ELGs. Based on the limited data available at the time, in February of 2019, EPA published the PFAS Action Plan, in which it identified several industries with facilities that are likely to be discharging PFAS compounds in their wastewater and EPA began a more detailed study to evaluate the potential for PFAS presence in their wastewater discharges. Through the PFAS MultiIndustry Study, described in EPAs Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 14, EPA gathered a range of information about PFAS
manufacturers and formulators, as well as the potential discharges of PFAS from these facilities further details on these efforts are provided in Section V below.
PFAS manufacturers are facilities that produce PFAS compounds or precursors
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through processes including, but not limited to, ECF and telomerization.
Facilities that manufacture PFAS are currently regulated under EPAs national ELGs for the OCPSF category 40 CFR part 414. EPA has also gathered some information about PFAS
formulators. PFAS formulators are facilities that are the primary customers of PFAS manufacturers, and that use raw PFAS feedstock to a produce commercial or consumer goods e.g., weather-proof caulking, or b as intermediary products for use in the manufacture of commercial goods e.g., a grease-proof coating for a pizza box.
EPAs data set for formulators is more limited than for manufacturers, as the Agency has identified little publicly available information on these facilities and their potential discharges.
This notice provides for public review and comment on the information that EPA has collected to date on PFAS
discharges from both PFAS
manufacturers and formulators. In addition, as detailed in Section V below, EPA is soliciting additional information and data regarding PFAS manufacturers and formulators, including wastewater characteristics and treatability. EPA will use any information and data received to inform potential next steps, which could include developing new or revised ELGs for these categories of dischargers. Because formulators may be subject to national ELGs outside of the OCPSF category, future EPA actions to address PFAS discharges from these facilities may include revisions to ELGs other than the ELGs that apply to the OCPSF category or proposal of a new ELG.
III. Background A. Clean Water Act Among its core provisions, the Clean Water Act CWA prohibits the discharge of pollutants from a point source to waters of the United States, except as authorized under the CWA.
Under CWA Section 402, 33 U.S.C.
1342, discharges may be authorized through a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System NPDES permit.
The CWA outlines a dual approach for establishing discharge limits for these permits: 1 Technology-based effluent limitations that establish a floor of performance for categories of dischargers, and 2 water quality-based effluent limitations that are established where technology-based effluent limitations are insufficient to meet applicable state water quality standards WQS or site specific water quality goals. The CWA authorizes EPA to establish national technology-based
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ELGs and new source performance standards for discharges to waters of the United States from categories of point sources such as industrial, commercial, and public sources. These national ELGs are used by state permitting authorities to establish technologybased effluent limitations for NPDES
permits.
The CWA also authorizes EPA to promulgate nationally applicable pretreatment standards that control pollutant discharges from sources that discharge wastewater indirectly to waters of the United States through Publicly Owned Treatment Works POTWs, as outlined in Sections 307b and c of the CWA, 33 U.S.C. 1317b and c. EPA establishes national pretreatment standards for pollutants in wastewater from such indirect dischargers shown to pass through, to interfere with, or to be otherwise incompatible with POTW operations.
Pretreatment standards are designed to ensure that wastewaters from indirect industrial dischargers are subject to similar levels of treatment as direct dischargers in the same industrial category. See CWA Section 301b, 33
U.S.C. 1311b.
Technology-based effluent limitations in NPDES permits are derived from effluent limitations guidelines CWA
Sections 301 and 304, 33 U.S.C. 1311
and 1314 and new source performance standards CWA Section 306, 33 U.S.C.
1316 promulgated by EPA. Where EPA
has not promulgated an applicable ELG
or new source performance standard, technology-based effluent limitations are based on the best professional judgment BPJ of the permitting authority. Additional limitations are also required in a permit where necessary to meet WQS. CWA Section 301b1C, 33 U.S.C. 1311b1C.
The ELGs are established by EPA
regulation for categories of industrial dischargers and are based on the degree of control that can be achieved using various levels of pollution control technology, as specified in the CWA
e.g., Best Practicable Control Technology Currently Available BPT, Best Conventional Pollutant Control Technology BCT, Best Available Technology Economically Achievable BAT; see below.
The EPA promulgates national ELGs for industrial categories for three classes of pollutants: 1 Conventional pollutants total suspended solids TSS, oil and grease, biochemical oxygen demand BOD5, fecal coliform, and pH, as outlined in CWA Section 304a4, 33 U.S.C. 1314a4, and 40 CFR 401.16;
2 toxic pollutants e.g., toxic metals such as arsenic, mercury, selenium, and
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