Inventory Reporting Rule

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)i called for the creation of a massive list of all the chemicals in commerce in the United States. The list is the TSCA Inventory, or more simply, the Inventory. To compile the Inventory, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an Inventory Reporting Rule in 1977 requiring companies to report all the chemicals they had manufactured or imported in the previous three years, and the result was inclusion of approximately sixty-two thousand chemicals on the Inventory. Since that time, over twenty-one thousand more chemicals have been added to the Inventory." ... 

The U.S. HPV chemicals are those which are manufactured in or imported into the United States in amounts equal to or greater than 1 million pounds per year. The U.S. HPV chemicals were identified through information collected under the TSCA Inventory Update Rule (lUR). Organic chemicals that are manufactured in, or imported into, the United States in amounts equal to or exceeding 10,000 pounds per year are subject to reporting under the TSCA lUR. Reporting is required every 4 years. 

A9.6.4.4 The U.S. EPA has recently posted a draft document on its website Development of Chemical Categories in the HPV Challenge Program, that proposes the use of chemical categories to voluntarily compile a Screening Information Data Set (SIDS) on all chemicals on the US HPV list. .. [to provide] basic screening data needed for an initial assessment of the physicochemical properties, environmental fate, and human and environmental effects of chemicals (US EPA, 1999). This list consists of ...about 2,800 HPV chemicals which were reported for the Toxic Substances Control Act s 1990 Inventory Update Rule (lUR) . 

Inventory Update Rule (lUR) (40 CFR 710). The lUR was established in 1986 to require manufacturers and importers of chemicals listed on the master TCSA Inventory to report current data every four years on the production volume of chemicals imported or produced. Food and feed products produced from natural agricultural product, such as oilseeds, are not required to be reported but all oU and meal products obtained by solvent extraction that is sold for other than food or feed use (e.g., oils as chemical raw materials and meal as fertilizer) are. Cottonseed oil, soap stocks, acidulated soap stocks, deodorized distillates, hydrogenated cottonseed oil are some of the substances reported by extraction and refining operations under lUR. EPA amended this rule in 2003 (1/9/03 68 FR 848). Cottonseed oil is on the list of partially exempt substances, which are not subject to the new reporting requirements for processing and use data but continue to have to report the current lUR information as well as manufacturing exposure-related information. 

We now turn our focus to the PBT-TRI reporting rules. The most significant aspect of these rules is that EPA has withdrawn the de minimis exclusion. Without the de minimis exclusion, all contaminants at any level, known or estimated, must be considered in determining whether or not reporting thresholds are exceeded and what emissions, if any, occurred at the reporting facility. The final PBT-TRI rule requires that Form R inventory emission reports be submitted for any of the chemicals in Table 22-1 at the noted threshold ... 

At this time, it is expected that airlines, as corporate entities, are subject to these requirements and that approximately 10 to 20 US airports meet the requirements to report their greenhouse gas emissions, particularly those airports that have co-generation plants. A smaller subset of these airports may also be subject to the Title V Tailoring Rule. It is recommended that airport operators conduct a greenhouse gas inventory to determine if the regulatory thresholds of 25,000 metric tons for the Mandatory Reporting Rule and 75,000 metric tons for the Title V Tailoring Rule are exceeded. 

All the PMBs are Hsted on the U.S. EPA s Toxic Substances Control Act NonConfidential Chemical Substances Inventory (Table 8). In the early to mid-1980s, pseudocumene, mesitylene, hemimellitene, and trimethylbenzene were coveted by TSCA Section 8(a) Preliminary Assessment Information Rule (PAIR) reporting requirements (22) and by TSCA Section 8(d) for health and safety data (23). Mesitylene is the subject of a test rule subacute oral toxicity and subchtonic oral toxicity in tats were underway in 1994 (24). The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) allows monitoring for pseudocumene and mesitylene at the discretion of the State (25). Of the PMBs, only pseudocumene is subject to SARA Tide III section 313 annual release reporting (26). 

The EPA Risk Management Plan (RMP) defines a worst-case scenario as the catastrophic release of the entire process inventory in a 10-min period (assumed to be a continuous release). The dispersion calculations must be completed assuming F stability and 1.5 m/s wind speed. As part of the RMP rule, each facility must determine the downwind distance to a toxic endpoint. These results must be reported to the EPA and to the surrounding community. 

Monsanto s experience with information-gathering and reporting under section 8(d) - Health and Safety Studies - has not been as rewarding as the inventory activity. On July 8, 1978 EPA issued a Final Rule requiring submission of lists and copies of... 

The list of toxic chemicals subject to reporting was originally derived from those designed for similar purposes by the states of Maryland and New Jersey. As such, over 300 chemicals and categories are noted. (After appropriate rule making, modifications to the list can be made by the EPA.) The inventory is designed to inform the public and government officials about routine and accidental releases of toxic chemicals to the environment. 

The two-percent rule has been used since the development of the TSCA Inventory in the determination as to which reactants must be included in naming the polymer for TSCA purposes. The two-percent rule means that monomers and reactants of a polymer that are used or incorporated at no more than 2 wt%, may be, but need not be, included in the considerations leading to the formal chemical description of a polymer manufactured from those precursors [3]. It is the submitter s choice as to whether he/she wishes to have these reactants considered or not considered in describing a polymer. There is no choice for precursors used or incorporated (whichever is less) at more than two weight percent. These precursors must be included in the information reported, and, ordinarily, they will be reflected in the name of the polymer. The two-percent rule has not meant that a precursor reflected in the description of a polymer must be used [4] or incorporated [5] at more than two weight percent. Therefore, any precursor reflected in description of a polymer can be used at any concentration greater than zero, but a precursor must not be completely omitted. These applications and interpretations of the two-percent rule also applied under the initial polymer exemption of 1983. 

The only subsequent regulatory development thus far under TOSCA, directed specifically at soluble silicates, was a proposed rule (54) under Section 8(a) which would require manufacturers to keep certain records and report production and exposure related data on approximately 2300 chemicals to EPA. This information was held to be necessary to rank chemicals for investigation and to make preliminary risk assessments. Sodium silicate, potassium silicate, sodium metasilicate and sodium orthosilicate were included on the candidate list, presumably because reports to the initial inventory showed them to be manufactured in high tonnage volume. 

Impurities are chemical substances, but they are not required to be listed on the Inventory. Impurities are subject to reporting under 8, and may be regulated under other sections of TSCA, including 4 test rules. 

TSCA 8(a) authorizes EPA to promulgate rules requiring manufacturers and importers of certain chemical substances and mixtures to maintain records and submit reports of production volumes, distribution, use, and human exposure under the Preliminary Assessment Information Rule (PAIR) and Inventory Update Reporting (lUR) Rule ... 

Fed. Reg. 21438 (June 12,1986) Partial Updating of TSCA Inventory Data Base Production and Site Reports Final Rule 51 FR 21438 lUR... 

Higher regulatory compliance risk, specifically for hazard communication rules Inaccurate, incomplete regulatory reporting Increased corporate liability So, how do most companies fare with respect to chemical inventory accuracy ... 

It is important to recognize that not all of the substances listed on the TSCA Inventory are actually in commerce or used in large quantities. Under the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule, the US EPA periodically collects information from industry on the manufacture and importation of chemicals. In 2012, companies reported that they manufactured or imported a total of 7,674 chemicals in amounts of 25,000 pounds or more at each of their sites during calendar year 2011, not including exempt substances. (In 2006, companies reported 6,200 chemicals [15].) Approximately 3,000 chemicals are manufactured or imported in quantities of 1,000,000 pounds per year [16,17]. 

On July 13, 2012, EPA published a final rule to revise Tier I and Tier II reporting forms. The revisions add some new data elements and revise some existing data elements. The rule becomes effective on January 1, 2014. Facilities must comply with the new requirements on the Tier II inventory form starting with reporting year 2013, which is due by March 1, 2014. 

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