The D.C. District Court has entered two consent decrees concerning over twenty overdue Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk evaluations, holding the incoming administration’s EPA to aggressive deadlines for completing the chemical reviews.
The consent decrees, approved November 22, concern 20 risk evaluations initiated by EPA in December 2019 and two manufacturer-requested risk evaluations initiated in January 2020. None were completed within TSCA’s 3.5-year deadline.
Under the consent decrees, linked here and here, EPA will be required to complete:
- Draft risk evaluations for six of the substances, including 1,3-butadiene, by December 31, 2024;
- Final risk evaluations for TCEP, formaldehyde, 1,1-dichloroethane, and DIDP by December 31, 2024;
- A final risk evaluation for DINP by January 15, 2025;
- A draft risk evaluation for one of the remaining substances by March 31, 2025;
- Final risk evaluations for seven of the substances, including 1,3-butadiene, by December 31, 2025; and
- Final risk evaluations for the remaining 10 substances by December 31, 2026.
The deadlines are largely unchanged from those in the proposed consent decrees, released in April and discussed in a previous blog post. Since then, EPA has released a final risk evaluation for TCEP and drafts for 1,1-dichloroethane, DINP, and 1,3-butadiene. However, as it stands, EPA will be required to complete three more final risk evaluations before the end of 2025—and a fourth before the presidential transition.
Meanwhile, EPA looks likely to designate another five chemicals as “high priority” this December, automatically triggering new risk evaluations. More on those chemicals can be found here.