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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 50 / Wednesday, March 17, 2021 / Proposed Rules 6. Pretreatment Standards for New Sources PSNS
Section 307c of the CWA, 33 U.S.C.
1317c, authorizes EPA to promulgate PSNS at the same time it promulgates NSPS. As is the case for PSES, PSNS are designed to prevent the discharge of any pollutant into a POTW that interferes with, passes through, or otherwise is incompatible with the POTW. In selecting the PSNS technology basis, the Agency generally considers the same factors it considers in establishing NSPS, along with the results of a passthrough analysis. Like new sources of direct discharges, new sources of indirect discharges have the opportunity to incorporate into their operations the best available demonstrated technologies. As a result, EPA
promulgates pretreatment standards for new sources based on best available demonstrated control technology for new sources. See Natl Assn of Metal Finishers v. EPA, 719 F.2d 624, 634 3rd Cir. 1983.
C. Summary of the Existing OCPSF ELGs
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The OCPSF ELGs 40 CFR part 414
were originally promulgated in 1987, and then amended in 1989, 1990, 1992, and 1993. The OCPSF category includes more than 1,000 chemical facilities producing over 25,000 end products.
These include such products as benzene, toluene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, chlorinated solvents, rubber precursors, rayon, nylon, and polyester. The OCPSF
industry is large and diverse with complex operations and processes.
Some plants produce chemicals in large volumes through continuous chemical processes, while others produce only small volumes of specialty chemicals through batch chemical processes.
Only a small subset of the facilities that are currently regulated under the OCPSF ELGs manufacture or formulate PFAS. Although the OCPSF ELGs may apply to PFAS manufacturers and formulators, the OCPSF ELGs do not establish effluent limitations or pretreatment standards for any PFAS
compounds. Rather, the revision to the OCPSF ELGs would address PFAS
discharges from PFAS manufacturers and formulators.
IV. The EPAs PFAS Multi-Industry Study and Identification of PFAS
Manufacturers and Formulators for Potential Regulation As described in the Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 14
Preliminary Plan 14, published in October 2019, EPA conducted an initial examination of readily available public
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information about PFAS surface water discharges to identify industrial sources that may warrant further study. The Preliminary Plan 14 docket EPAHQ
OW20180618 includes a summary of the information EPA reviewed and a report with a more thorough description of our review activities. Based on this initial review, EPA decided to conduct further studies to better understand and document facilities discharging PFAS
compounds to surface waters and to POTWs. This was introduced in the Preliminary Plan 14 as the PFAS MultiIndustry Study.
The goals of the PFAS Multi-Industry Study are to identify industries and specific facilities producing or using PFAS compounds; quantifyto the best of EPAs abilitythe amounts of PFAS
being discharged; identify PFAS control practices and treatment technologies;
document PFAS removal efficiency in wastewater; and estimate costs associated with PFAS treatment systems. EPA identified the following industrial point source categories as the primary focus of this study: OCPSF
manufacturers; pulp and paper manufacturers; textiles and carpet manufacturers; and commercial airports.1
For the OCPSF manufacturers, EPA
reviewed numerous data sources and identified six PFAS manufacturers and ten likely PFAS formulators. EPA is not sure that the ten facilities that it identified as likely PFAS formulators are actually PFAS formulators due to limited data available at this time. We discuss each of these data sources in greater detail below.
EPA reviewed 2019 Discharge Monitoring Reports DMRs and obtained PFAS data for six PFAS
manufacturers and three likely PFAS
formulators the other seven facilities do not report PFAS compounds in their DMRs or they do not have DMRs because they are indirect dischargers.
These nine facilities combined reported a total of 17 PFAS compounds in their discharges. Based on the DMRs, effluent data detected a total of 15 PFAS
compounds, and concentrations ranged from non-detect to 777 parts per billion ppb. The 2019 Monitoring Period Level DMR PFAS Data DCN
OCPSF00030 includes additional information on the compounds that were monitored, and the concentration ranges reported in DMRs.
EPA reviewed NPDES permits for these PFAS manufacturers and formulators to evaluate whether their permits contain effluent limitations or 1 Military bases and airports are not included in the scope of this study.

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monitoring requirements for PFAS
compounds. One current NPDES permit in West Virginia contains effluent limitations for two PFAS compounds Perfluorooctanoic acid PFOA and Hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid HFPODA that go into effect on September 1, 2021. Another facility in North Carolina is under a consent decree with requirements for no discharge of PFAS process wastewater.
See DCN OCPSF00079 for consent decree. The North Carolina facility is currently hauling all PFAS process wastewater off-site for disposal. The consent decree went into effect on February 25, 2019 and ends on January 31, 2023. This North Carolina facility reported detections of PFOA for 9 of 12
reporting periods in 2019 DMRs, including periods after February 2019.
Four of the other PFAS manufacturers and formulators have PFAS monitoring requirements, and no effluent limitations, in their NPDES permits.
Two Alabama facilities and one Illinois facility are operating under expired, administratively continued NPDES
permits. The NPDES permit materials collected and reviewed are available as DCNs OCPSF000008 to OCPSF00025.
EPA also reviewed the Toxics Release Inventory TRI, which is managed by EPAs Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention OCSPP and tracks annual environmental waste management, including releases, of 767
individually listed chemicals and 33
chemical categories from industrial facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use these chemicals in amounts above their applicable reporting thresholds. Release of a TRI
chemical refers to an emission to air, discharge to water, or placement in some type of land disposal. EPA has not yet received any information or data pertaining to the release of PFAS
compounds through TRI reporting.
However, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020
added 172 PFAS compounds to the TRI.
TRI reporting for these PFAS will be due to EPA by July 1, 2021, for calendar year 2020 data. For additional information on the addition of 172
PFAS to TRI, see https www.epa.gov/
toxics-release-inventory-tri-program/listpfas-added-tri-ndaa.
EPA reviewed data from the Toxic Substances Control Act TSCA
Inventory, which lists chemicals manufactured including imported or processed in the United States. The TSCA Inventory, managed by the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics OPPT within OCSPP, currently lists more than 86,000 chemicals, of which approximately half are currently in
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