The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the finalized amendments to the General Provisions that apply to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) under section 112 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) in the Federal Registrar on October 1, 2020.
These amendments allow a source to reclassify to an “area source” (non-major) of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP)s at any time upon reducing its Potential to Emit (PTE) below 10 tons per year (tpy) of a single HAP or 25 tpy of all HAPs combined.
In 2019, the EPA added hazardous waste aerosol cans to the federal universal waste list, which allows generators to manage the cans with the less burdensome universal waste requirements. The final rule became effective on February 7, 2020, and applies to those who generate, transport, treat, recycle or dispose of hazardous waste aerosol cans. Under the universal waste rule, generators and handlers can store cans for a year and manage all aerosols together provided they are punctured and drained of any free liquid. (Note that the collected liquid from draining the aerosol cans will likely be considered hazardous waste.)
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals that have been the subject of new regulations in recent years. Beginning with the 2020 reporting year, 172 new PFAS chemicals have been added to the list of reportable chemicals under Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program. Facilities that manufacture, process, or use 100 pounds or more per year of any of the listed PFAS chemicals must include those chemicals in their annual TRI report due July 1, 2021.
TSCA Chemical Data Reporting is Back in 2020
Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) requires U.S. manufacturers and importers of certain chemicals to report information on these chemicals to the USEPA between June and September 2020.
