EPA Delays Recent Hazardous Waste, PFAS Final Rules

Delayed RCRA, TRI Regulations Now Take Effect 3/21

US EPA has delayed the effective date for two recently published Final Rules—a rule to revise or “correct” several RCRA requirements for hazardous waste generators and a rule adding 9 PFAS to TRI reporting list under EPCRA—until March 21, 2025.

Delayed: RCRA Corrections—Generator Improvements, Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals, and 2018 Definition of Solid Waste Rules

A Final Rule to revise and clarify several RCRA requirements for hazardous waste generators takes effect on March 21, 2025. The Final Rule affects four specific requirements in 40 CFR Part 262:
 

• Limits for small quantity generators (SQGs) accumulating acute hazardous waste.
• Exclusions under RCRA for managing samples used in treatability studies. 
• "Closure" of units at a large quantity generator (LQG) site.
• Some hazardous waste pharmaceuticals (HWP) shipped on the manifest. 

EPA included these revisions in a RCRA rule in 2023, but withdrew them after industry stakeholders responded with legitimate questions and concerns. Those comments led EPA to revise and clarify some of the withdrawn provisions before republishing them recently.

Delayed: Statutory Addition of PFAS to the TRI Reporting List

EPA has delayed the effective date for this Final Rule until March 21, 2025. The Final Rule adds 9 PFAS to the TRI reporting list, beginning in Reporting Year 2025. That means the first TRI submissions covering these nine substances will be due July 1, 2026.

Without further action, EPA’s delay of the effective date will not affect the reporting requirement taking effect for 2026 submissions. Facilities that are already tracking any of these nine chemicals for reporting purposes should, it seems, continue to do so unless told otherwise. 

Adding PFAS to the TRI list is something EPA is required by law to do, namely the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). 

As of February 2025, the TRI reporting regulations list about two hundred PFAS by name (40 CFR 372.65(d)). In 2023, EPA designated PFAS a “chemical of special concern” under EPCRA. Chemicals of special concern are subject to lower reporting thresholds than other listed substances (40 CFR 372.28).
 
EH&S Cheat Sheet: EPCRA TRI Reporting Due July 1