EPA Proposes Narrowed Scope for PFAS Reporting Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed amendments to simplify its Toxic Substances Control Act Section 8(a)(7) PFAS Reporting and Recordkeeping Rule, first released in 2023. Compliance deadlines have been postponed several times.

The proposed rule, announced in November, would narrow the rule’s scope and reduce compliance burdens by exempting certain categories not likely to produce high value information for the EPA, while maintaining many of the core reporting requirements for PFAS manufactured or imported between 2011 and 2022.

Under the proposed rule, the EPA would offer two key exemptions (among others) and adjust the submission period to reflect the narrowed obligations.

The reporting window would now open 60 days after the final rule’s effective date and remain open for three months, meaning regulated entities should anticipate a condensed reporting timeline in 2026.

TSCA PFAS Reporting Rule

The original TSCA PFAS Reporting Rule established a one-time, nationwide reporting obligation for any company that manufactured or imported PFAS — including PFAS contained in articles — at any time from 2011 through 2022.

It required detailed, compound-by-compound submissions covering each year in that period, including data on chemical identity, categories of use, production volumes, byproducts, environmental and health effects, worker exposure and disposal practices.

The rule applied broadly, even to entities that had never before filed under TSCA, and did not include exemptions for de minimis, imported-articles, or other customary TSCA chemical data, making compliance particularly challenging for manufacturers and importers with complex or global supply chains.

The EPA’s intent was to build a comprehensive database of PFAS presence and use across U.S. commerce to inform future regulatory and risk-management actions.

Key Proposed Exemptions

1. De Minimis Exemption (0.1%)
The EPA proposes to exempt from reporting all PFAS present at concentrations below 0.1% in mixtures or articles.

The EPA cited both legal precedent and practical considerations, noting that such trace-level information is generally unknown or not reasonably ascertainable for manufacturers and importers based on historical recordkeeping and labeling standards.

The 0.1% threshold aligns with long-standing Safety Data Sheet notification levels and recognizes that many PFAS used at low levels were never disclosed by suppliers during the 2011–2022 lookback period.

The exemption is intended to eliminate disproportionate compliance efforts to locate information of minimal regulatory or environmental value, while still capturing reportable PFAS above that concentration. 

This will allow most manufacturers and importers to reasonably rely on their supplier SDSs as the justification for reporting (or not reporting) under the rule. 

2. Imported Articles Exemption
The EPA also proposes to exclude PFAS imported as part of a finished article from the rule’s scope.

EPA found that importers of finished goods are least likely to have direct knowledge of PFAS content in those products and that Congress, in drafting TSCA Section 8(a)(7), intended reporting to apply to manufacturers of PFAS themselves, not to importers of products merely containing PFAS.

The EPA reasoned that this exemption will still preserve meaningful data through reporting by the original PFAS manufacturers, who remain responsible for identifying downstream uses of their PFAS in articles. 

The EPA estimates this significant change will eliminate approximately 80% of the total cost of compliance with the PFAS reporting rule, saving small businesses more than $700M.

Other Clarifications

Although affecting a much smaller subset of industry, additional proposed exemptions include PFAS manufactured as byproducts or impurities, or used as non-isolated intermediates within a closed system and PFAS manufactured or imported in small quantities solely for research and development purposes.

These adjustments would further align the PFAS reporting rule with the Chemical Data Reporting framework under TSCA.

Practical Implications

While the proposed changes provide significant relief, especially for importers of finished goods/articles and small manufacturers, companies should not interpret the revisions as removing all PFAS-related reporting obligations under TSCA.

The rule remains broad in coverage for entities that directly manufacture or import PFAS compounds or mixtures containing them above the de minimis threshold and it will be important to continue internal compliance efforts.

Importantly, the reporting window will likely be shorter and the expected start date in 2026 means affected companies should begin re-scoping (hopefully in progress) compliance efforts in 2025 to align with the revised submission requirements.

Next Steps

The EPA’s proposed revisions are open for public comment until Dec. 29, 2025.

Sixty days after the rule is finalized, the submission period of regulatorily required reporting information (on a yet to be published online form) will open and run for three months.  

As long as the rule is finalized by Aug. 1, 2026, the required PFAS reporting information, for all 12 reporting years, will be due to EPA in calendar year 2026. 

Takeaways

The proposal is a shift to a narrower and more manageable PFAS reporting framework, emphasizing data from entities most likely to have meaningful information.

The de minimis and imported-articles exemptions are expected to simplify compliance while preserving the EPA’s ability to collect the most critical PFAS manufacturing data.

Manufacturers and importers should continue efforts to ensure compliance, as the EPA has recognized industry has been aware of this rule since 2023 and expects companies will need less time to prepare reports based on work to date.

This article first appeared on CBIA's website and is published here with permission.