EPA PFAS Survey to Target 1,815 Plating, Finishing Shops

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking for feedback on a proposed questionnaire it will be sending to electroplaters to collect data for the agency’s revision of the metal finishing and electroplating guidelines to address discharges of PFAS from chrome finishing wastewater.

Further, the EPA has disclosed the 1,815 shops in the U.S. that they will send the survey to, which they then plan to test their effluent discharge for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

View and download the survey HERE.

“As currently designed, the questionnaire will be administered as a census to all facilities in the chromium finishing industry profile (approx. 1,815 facilities),” the EPA says. “All facilities that have conducted one or more of the chromium operations of interest at any time since they began operation and were still operating as of January 1, 2023, will be required to complete the questionnaire.”

The EPA is required by law by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to get public comment on proposed information collection surveys. The comment period is open until January 17, 2023.

The EPA says most facilities will not need to complete every question in the questionnaire, and the survey instrument includes instructions about skipping questions that do not apply.

“Facilities that do not perform these chromium finishing operations or closed by January 1, 2023, will complete a handful of basic facility identification and industrial classification questions and then be done,” the agency says.

The EPA announced earlier that it would survey the finishing and coating industry as part of its effort to review and revise, as appropriate, effluent limitations guidelines and standards (ELGs) for point source categories

The 84-question survey the EPA plans to use — called “Information Collection Request for the Metal Finishing and Electroplating Industry” — is broken into nine specific parts:

• Section 1: General Facility Information
• Section 2: Facility Operations and Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Use 
• Section 3: Wastewater Generation
• Section 4: Wastewater Flow Diagram
• Section 5: Wastewater Management and Treatment
• Section 6: Permit Requirements and Monitoring Data
• Section 7: Environmental and Other Information
• Section 8: Financial Information
• Section 9: Comments

When the survey is approved and sent to finishers, they will have 60 days to complete the questionnaire.

The EPA says the rulemaking is to address PFAS discharges from a subset of facilities in the metal finishing and electroplating point source categories.

“Based on information and data collected during the Multi-Industry PFAS Study, EPA determined PFAS are used by some metal finishing and electroplating facilities to control hexavalent chromium emissions, a known human carcinogen, and inhalation hazard,” the agency says. “EPA determined facilities performing certain chromium operations — including chromium plating, chromium anodizing, chromic acid etching, and chromate conversion coating operations — are the predominant sources of PFAS discharges by the Metal Finishing and Electroplating point source categories.”

U.S. EPA's Chromium Finishing Facility List 

Select Facility, Address, City, State, or Zip to sort by that function