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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 50 / Wednesday, March 17, 2021 / Proposed Rules
potential formulators, but requests additional details regarding formulator facilities.
As with manufacturers, EPA is interested in obtaining additional information and data regarding discharges of PFAS from formulators in order to inform the Agencys decisionmaking regarding the need for new or revised ELGs for these types of facilities.
EPA is requesting the following information and data from PFAS
formulators:
1. Identification of all known PFAS
formulators in the United States.
2. Descriptions of the manufacturing processes occurring at formulating facilities, including descriptions of how PFAS compounds are utilized at these facilities.
3. The SIC or NAICS codes of formulating facilities.
4. Information and data on the PFAS
compounds that are currently being used at these facilities including the product name, CAS number and class of each compound, the quantities that are being used, the quantities that are being sold or transferred for further processing or as materials for incorporation into finished products, and the customers or industries that are purchasing these materials and products.
5. Information on whether PFAS is being imported by formulators from outside the United States, and if any formulators are exclusively utilizing imported PFAS.
6. The locations and number of formulating facilities, as well as whether process wastewater associated with PFAS formulating is being discharged at these facilities.
7. Whether facilities have current monitoring requirements for PFAS or other fluorocarbons.
8. Information and data on the current wastewater treatment and management practices including pollution prevention and product recovery practices being utilized at existing PFAS formulators. Specific information requested includes descriptions of the treatment technologies, their size and flow rate, process flow diagrams, capital and operation and maintenance costs, treatment chemical utilization, and residuals generation and management. If wastewater storage ponds are used to hold PFAS wastewater, provide a description of the ponds including purpose, age, capacity, design, wastewater characteristics, whether they are lined or unlined, and whether they have discharge outfalls.
9. For facilities that discharge process wastewater, whether facilities are subject to national ELGs, and if so, identification of the applicable parts
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and subparts e.g., 40 CFR 414 Subpart H and the wastewater discharge permit identification numbers. EPA is also requesting copies of NPDES permits and fact sheets or statement of basis for direct discharging facilities, and copies of control agreements for indirect discharging facilities.
10. Process flow diagrams showing where wastewater is generated.
11. Identification of the wastewater streams at formulating facilities that contain PFAS e.g., process wastewater, cooling water, contaminated stormwater, wastewater from aqueous scrubbers or air pollution control equipment, off-specification products, equipment cleaning wastewater, spills and leaks, their volumes, characteristics, and concentrations of PFAS compounds in those individual waste streams.
12. If formulators are not treating PFAS containing wastewater onsite, EPA is requesting information on the management or disposal practices being utilized e.g., zero liquid discharge, disposal wells, transfer to off-site centralized waste treatment facilities or transfer to POTWs, the volumes of wastes being managed via different practices, and their associated costs.
13. Information and data on future planned process changes at formulators, any plans to change or phase-out use of specific fluorinated compounds or to increase or decrease production of specific compounds, and any planned major upgrades to existing formulating facilities or construction of new formulating facilities in the United States.
14. EPA has collected existing publicly available DMR data and monitoring data from potential PFAS
formulators, as well as data from TRI
and CDR databases, as indicated in the docket. These DMRs contain data on only a subset of the total PFAS that are potentially present in discharges from these facilities. EPA requests additional monitoring data see DCN OCPSF00115
for suggested data format and fields on PFAS compounds in wastewater discharges from PFAS formulating facilities. Since there is currently no CWA-approved analytical method promulgated for analysis of PFAS
compounds in wastewater, EPA requests that monitoring data that is submitted include information on the analytical methods used as well as associated information and data that can be used by EPA to determine the quality of the data. EPA also requests comment on whether additional PFAS compounds or precursors that are not reported in DMRs are found in wastewater discharges from these facilities, and the
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quantities of such PFAS compounds, precursors and other organofluoride compounds found in untreated and treated wastewaters from these facilities.
In addition to data on individual compounds, EPA is also particularly interested in data that would provide the total quantity of organofluorides present, such as would be provided by a Total Organic Fluorine TOF analysis or other assays.
15. EPA is interested in information regarding any potential changes in PFAS formulating processes, pollution prevention practices or product substitution, or use and cost of specific technologies that can reduce the quantity of PFAS in wastewater from PFAS formulating operations.
16. Analytical methodologies used to monitor wastewater at PFAS
formulating facilities, including in house SOPs and method performance data, including lists of specific PFAS
compounds being monitored, and any aggregate procedures e.g., adsorbable or extractable organic fluorine by combustion ion chromatography.
17. Any studies that have been conducted concerning environmental or human health impacts e.g., toxicity, risk, fate and transfer, cross media of PFAS discharges from formulators.
VI. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews Under Executive Order 12866, titled Regulatory Planning and Review 58 FR
51735, October 4, 1993, this is a significant regulatory action because the action raises novel legal or policy issues. Accordingly, EPA submitted this action to the Office of Management and Budget OMB for review under Executive Order 12866, and any changes made in response to OMB
recommendations have been documented in the docket for this action. Because this action does not propose or impose any requirements, other statutory and Executive Order reviews that apply to rulemaking do not apply. Should EPA subsequently determine to pursue a rulemaking, EPA
will address the statutes and Executive Orders that apply to that rulemaking.
EPA welcomes comments and/or information that would help the Agency to assess any of the following: The potential impact of a rule on small entities pursuant to the Regulatory Flexibility Act RFA 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.; potential impacts on federal, state, or local governments pursuant to the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act UMRA 2 U.S.C. 15311538;
federalism implications pursuant to Executive Order 13132, entitled Federalism 64 FR 43255, November 2,
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