EPA Withdraws Proposed Significant New Use Rules for 18 Chemicals, Citing Litigation
On July 8, EPA announced its withdrawal of proposed significant new use rules (SNURs), which would have applied to the use of 18 chemicals derived from plastic waste in manufacturing transportation fuels and other pyrolysis products. The SNURs, which EPA proposed under the Toxic Substances Control Act in 2023, would have required entities intending to manufacture, import, or process any of these 18 chemicals to notify EPA at least 90 days before commencing activities identified as significant new uses. The proposed SNURs were withdrawn due to litigation, according to EPA’s news release.
A notice in the Federal Register explains that, in 2022, EPA imposed a TSCA section 5(e) order on the 18 chemicals after reviewing premanufacture notices for them. According to EPA’s website, TSCA section 5(e) orders are consent orders negotiated with the submitter of a premanufacture notice, which authorize production of a new chemical substance or adoption of a significant new use, given certain conditions are met. These conditions may include testing for toxicity or environmental fate, the use of personal protective equipment, and the implementation of other health and safety measures. TSCA section 5(e) orders may be issued when EPA determines it lacks sufficient information to evaluate the health and safety effects of the new chemical or use, among other circumstances.
In April 2023, a petition for review of the TSCA order was filed by Cherokee Concerned Citizens, a Mississippi-based community health nonprofit. According to a press release by Earthjustice, the law firm representing Cherokee Concerned Citizens, the nonprofit is concerned with increased cancer risk and other human health and environmental effects associated with the 18 chemicals listed in EPA’s TSCA order.
In December 2024, the court granted EPA’s motion for voluntary remand of the TSCA order so that the agency could reconsider it, eventually leading EPA to withdraw the SNURs as well. “After the proposed rule’s publication, EPA received comments, including adverse ones, which encouraged the agency to remand or modify the TSCA section 5(e) Order and SNURs,” EPA’s news release states. “The proposed SNURs are being withdrawn because the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 5 (e) Order on which they were based was withdrawn on December 18, 2024, in response to litigation.” Manufacture of the chemicals of concern had not begun by the time the TSCA order was withdrawn.
More information is available in EPA’s news release and the Federal Register notice. The proposed SNURs and related documents may be found at regulations.gov.