We spoke with attorney Ethan Ware to get his perspective on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalizing its rule on reporting on PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).

Ethan WareThe new rule eliminates an exemption that allowed facilities to avoid reporting information on PFAS when those chemicals were used in small concentrations.

Ware says the PFAS reporting rule may apply to finishers and coaters in some circumstances.

“It's not restricted by type of business,” Ware says. “It could apply to distributors, it could apply to manufacturers, and it certainly could apply to the surface finishing industry to those who have used a lot of surface coatings and other materials or finishes that may contain these PFAS compounds in them.”

While there is a companion information request by the EPA under the Clean Water Act to learn what surface finishers are doing — or have done in the past — with respect to poly-fluoroalkyl substances, Ware says this is a much broader application.

“It says if you manufacture or import any chemicals — and that includes any products, articles, metal, hard chemicals, or hard products that have coatings on them that might contain a PFAS — you have an obligation to report,” Ware says. “And that goes back to the presence on your products or in your formulations or in your hard materials.”

Ware is with the Williams Mullins law firm.

Watch the video and read more about the rule at https://finishingandcoating.com/index.php/plating/1773-epa-finalizes-rule-to-require-enhanced-pfas-reporting.