OMB Approves EPA TCE TSCA Final Rule

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a final rule from the EPA on “Trichloroethylene (TCE); Regulation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)”. The final rule was sent to OIRA on July 18^th, 2024. The notice of proposed rulemaking was published on October 31^st, 2023.

According to the Spring 2024 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“On October 31, 2023, EPA issued a proposed rule to address the unreasonable risk of injury to human health presented by trichloroethylene (TCE) under its conditions of use as documented in EPA's November 2020 Risk Evaluation for TCE and January 2023 revised risk determination for TCE pursuant to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). TCE is widely used as a solvent in a variety of industrial, commercial and consumer applications including for hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) production, vapor and aerosol degreasing, and in lubricants, greases, adhesives, and sealants. TSCA requires that when EPA determines a chemical substance presents unreasonable risk that EPA address by rule the unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment and apply requirements to the extent necessary so the chemical no longer presents unreasonable risk. EPA determined that TCE presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health due to the significant adverse health effects associated with exposure to TCE, including non-cancer effects (liver toxicity, kidney toxicity, neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, and developmental toxicity) as well as cancer (liver, kidney, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma) from chronic inhalation and dermal exposures to TCE. TCE is a neurotoxicant and is carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure. The most sensitive adverse effects of TCE exposure are non-cancer effects (developmental toxicity and immunosuppression) for acute exposures and developmental toxicity and autoimmunity for chronic exposures. To address the identified unreasonable risk, EPA is proposing to: prohibit all manufacture (including import), processing, and distribution in commerce of TCE and industrial and commercial use of TCE for all uses, with longer compliance timeframes and workplace controls for certain processing and industrial and commercial uses (including proposed phaseouts and time-limited exemptions); prohibit the disposal of TCE to industrial pre-treatment, industrial treatment, or publicly owned treatment works, with a time-limited exemption for cleanup projects; and establish recordkeeping and downstream notification requirements.”

Again, (see Tuesday’s posts about EPA TSCA final rules here and here) this final rule will fall afoul of the incoming Trump Administration’s more hands off (slightly understated) approach to environmental regulations. With an effective date falling after January 20^th, Trump will be able to effectively kill this rule with the stroke of a pen. If it had been published 30 days ago, it would have taken a full rulemaking process to overturn this regulation.

I will not (and even under ‘normal’ circumstances would not) cover this final rule in any detail. I will certainly announce its publication in the appropriate ‘Short Takes’ post.