Draft Scopes of the Risk Evaluations To Be Conducted for Thirteen Chemical Substances Under the Toxic Substances Control Act; Notice of Availability, 19941-19942 [2020-07484]

Download as PDF 19941 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 69 / Thursday, April 9, 2020 / Notices ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [EPA–HQ–OPPT–2019–0131; FRL–10007– 11] Draft Scopes of the Risk Evaluations To Be Conducted for Thirteen Chemical Substances Under the Toxic Substances Control Act; Notice of Availability Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice. AGENCY: As required by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which was amended by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act in June 2016, EPA is announcing the availability of the draft scope documents for the risk evaluations to be conducted for 13 of 20 High-Priority Substances designated in December 2019. The draft scope document for each chemical substance includes the conditions of use, hazards, exposures, and the potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations the EPA plans to consider in conducting the risk evaluation for that chemical substance. EPA is also opening a 45-calendar day comment period on these draft scope documents to allow for the public to provide additional data or information that could be useful to the Agency in finalizing the scope of the risk evaluations; comments may be submitted to this docket and the individual dockets for each of the chemical substances. DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 26, 2020. ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by docket identification (ID) number EPA– EPA–HQ–OPPT–2019– 0131, or the applicable docket ID number for the individual chemical substances identified in Unit III., by one of the following methods: • Federal eRulemaking Portal: https:// www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. • Mail: Document Control Office (7407M), Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), Environmental khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES SUMMARY: Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460–0001. • Hand Delivery: To make special arrangements for hand delivery or delivery of boxed information, please follow the instructions at https:// www.epa.gov/dockets/contacts.html. Additional instructions on commenting or visiting the docket, along with more information about dockets generally, is available at https:// www.epa.gov/dockets. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For technical information contact: Ross Geredien, Risk Assessment Division, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency (Mailcode 7403M), 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460–0001; telephone number: (202) 564–1864; email address: geredien.ross@ epa.gov. For general information contact: The TSCA-Hotline, ABVI-Goodwill, 422 South Clinton Ave., Rochester, NY 14620; telephone number: (202) 554– 1404; email address: TSCA-Hotline@ epa.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. General Information A. Does this action apply to me? This action is directed to the public in general and may be of interest to entities that manufacture (including import) a chemical substance regulated under TSCA (e.g., entities identified under North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes 325 and 324110). The action may also be of interest to chemical processors, distributors in commerce, and users; non-governmental organizations in the environmental and public health sectors; state and local government agencies; and members of the public. Since other entities may also be interested, the Agency has not attempted to describe all the specific entities and corresponding NAICS codes for entities that may be interested in or affected by this action. B. What is the Agency’s authority for taking this action? This action directly implements TSCA section 6(b)(4)(D), 15 U.S.C. 2605(b)(4)(D). C. What action is the Agency taking? EPA is publishing the draft scopes of the risk evaluations for 13 of 20 chemical substances designated as HighPriority Substances for risk evaluation under TSCA. Through the risk evaluation process, EPA will determine whether the chemical substances present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment under the conditions of use, in accordance with TSCA section 6(b)(4). EPA will publish a second Federal Register notice announcing the availability of the draft scope documents for the remaining seven chemical substances. II. Background TSCA section 6(b)(1) requires EPA to prioritize chemical substances for risk evaluation (15 U.S.C. 2605(b)(1)). Effective December 20, 2019, EPA designated 20 chemical substances as High-Priority Substances for risk evaluation (Ref. 1), which initiated the risk evaluation process for those chemical substances (15 U.S.C. 2605(b)(3)(A); 40 CFR 702.17). The purpose of risk evaluation is to determine whether a chemical substance presents an unreasonable risk to health or the environment, under the conditions of use, including an unreasonable risk to a relevant potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation (15 U.S.C. 2605(b)(4)(A)). As part of this process, EPA must evaluate both hazard and exposure, exclude consideration of costs or other non-risk factors, use scientific information and approaches in a manner that is consistent with the requirements in TSCA for the best available science, and ensure decisions are based on the weight-of-scientificevidence (15 U.S.C. 2605(b)(4)(F)). This process will culminate in a determination of whether or not the chemical substance presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment under the conditions of use (40 CFR 702.47). III. Draft Scopes for 13 of 20 Designated High Priority Chemical Substances The 13 chemical substances for which EPA is publishing the draft scopes of the risk evaluations are identified in the following Table, along with the corresponding Chemical Abstract System Registry Number (CASRN) and docket ID numbers. TABLE—DRAFT SCOPES FOR 13 OF 20 DESIGNATED HIGH PRIORITY CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES Chemical substance CASRN 1,3-Butadiene .................................................................................................................................. o-Dichlorobenzene (Benzene, 1,2-dichloro-) .................................................................................. VerDate Sep<11>2014 16:28 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 250001 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 106–99–0 95–50–1 E:\FR\FM\09APN1.SGM 09APN1 Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0451 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0444 19942 Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 69 / Thursday, April 9, 2020 / Notices TABLE—DRAFT SCOPES FOR 13 OF 20 DESIGNATED HIGH PRIORITY CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES—Continued Chemical substance CASRN khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES p-Dichlorobenzene (Benzene, 1,4-dichloro-) .................................................................................. 1,1-Dichloroethane .......................................................................................................................... 1,2-Dichloroethane .......................................................................................................................... trans-1,2- Dichloroethylene (Ethene, 1,2-dichloro-, (1E)-) .............................................................. 1,2-Dichloropropane ........................................................................................................................ Ethylene dibromide (Ethane, 1,2-dibromo-) .................................................................................... 1,3,4,6,7,8-Hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8-hexamethylcyclopenta [g]-2-benzopyran (HHCB) .................... 4,4′-(1-Methylethylidene)bis[2, 6-dibromophenol] (TBBPA) ............................................................ Phosphoric acid, triphenyl ester (TPP) ........................................................................................... 1,1,2-Trichloroethane ...................................................................................................................... Tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP) (Ethanol, 2-chloro-, 1,1′,1″-phosphate) .............................. The draft scope of the risk evaluation for each of these 13 chemical substances includes the conditions of use, hazards, exposures, and the potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations the EPA plans to consider. Development of the scope is the first step of a risk evaluation. The draft scope of each risk evaluation will include the following components (40 CFR 702.41(c)): • The conditions of use, as determined by the Administrator, that the EPA plans to consider in the risk evaluation. • The potentially exposed populations that EPA plans to evaluate; the ecological receptors that EPA plans to evaluate; and the hazards to health and the environment that EPA plans to evaluate. • A description of the reasonably available information and the science approaches that the Agency plans to use. • A conceptual model that will describe the actual or predicted relationships between the chemical substance, the conditions of use within the scope of the evaluation and the receptors, either human or environmental, with consideration of the life cycle of the chemical substance—from manufacturing, processing, distribution in commerce, storage, use, to release or disposal—and identification of human and ecological health hazards EPA plans to evaluate for the exposure scenarios EPA plans to evaluate. • An analysis plan, which will identify the approaches and methods EPA plans to use to assess exposure, hazards, and risk, including associated uncertainty and variability, as well as a strategy for using reasonably available information and science approaches. • A plan for peer review. With the publication of the draft scopes, EPA is providing a 45-calendar day public comment period. Note that, as a result of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families v. U.S. EPA, 943 F.3d VerDate Sep<11>2014 16:28 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 250001 397, 425 (9th Cir. 2019), EPA will no longer exclude legacy uses or associated disposal from the definition of ‘‘conditions of use.’’ Rather, when these activities are intended, known, or reasonably foreseen, these activities will be considered uses and disposal, respectively, within the definition of ‘‘conditions of use.’’ EPA encourages commenters to provide information they believe might be missing or may further inform the risk evaluation. EPA will publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing the availability of the final scopes within six months of the initiation of risk evaluations that occurred on December 20, 2019 (See Unit IV.). IV. References The following is a listing of the documents that are specifically referenced in this Federal Register notice. The docket for this action includes these documents and other information considered by EPA, including documents that are referenced within the documents that are included in the docket. For assistance in locating these referenced documents, please consult the technical person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. EPA. High-Priority Substance Designations Under the Toxic Substances Control Act and Initiation of Risk Evaluation on High-Priority Substances; Availability. Federal Register. (84 FR 71924, December 30, 2019) (FRL– 10003–15). (Authority: 15 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.) Andrew Wheeler, Administrator. [FR Doc. 2020–07484 Filed 4–8–20; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560–50–P PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 106–46–7 75–34–3 107–06–2 156–60–5 78–87–5 106–93–4 1222–05–5 79–94–7 115–86–6 79–00–5 115–96–8 Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0446 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0426 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0427 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0465 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0428 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0488 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0430 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0462 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0458 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0421 EPA–HQ–OPPT–2018–0476 EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. ACTION: Notice of information collection—emergency reinstatement without change: ADEA waivers. AGENCY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) announces that it has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for an emergency reinstatement without change of the information collection described below. On March 31, 2020, OMB approved the request for a period of six months, expiring on September 30, 2020. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen Oram, Assistant Legal Counsel, (202) 663–4668 and kathleen.oram@eeoc.gov, or Savannah Marion Felton, Senior Attorney, (202) 663–4909 and savannah.felton@ eeoc.gov, Office of Legal Counsel, 131 M Street NE, Washington, DC 20507. Requests for this notice in an alternative format should be made to the Office of Communications and Legislative Affairs at (202) 663–4191 (voice) or (202) 663– 4494 (TTY). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The EEOC enforces the ADEA of 1967, as amended, 29 U.S.C. 621 et seq., which prohibits discrimination against employees and applicants for employment who are age 40 or older. Congress amended the ADEA by enacting the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990 (OWBPA), Public Law 101–433, 104 Stat. 983 (1990), to clarify the prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of age. In Title II of OWBPA, Congress addressed waivers of rights and claims under the ADEA, amending section 7 of the ADEA by adding a new SUMMARY: E:\FR\FM\09APN1.SGM 09APN1

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[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 69 (Thursday, April 9, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19941-19942]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-07484]



[[Page 19941]]

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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPPT-2019-0131; FRL-10007-11]


Draft Scopes of the Risk Evaluations To Be Conducted for Thirteen 
Chemical Substances Under the Toxic Substances Control Act; Notice of 
Availability

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: As required by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which 
was amended by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st 
Century Act in June 2016, EPA is announcing the availability of the 
draft scope documents for the risk evaluations to be conducted for 13 
of 20 High-Priority Substances designated in December 2019. The draft 
scope document for each chemical substance includes the conditions of 
use, hazards, exposures, and the potentially exposed or susceptible 
subpopulations the EPA plans to consider in conducting the risk 
evaluation for that chemical substance. EPA is also opening a 45-
calendar day comment period on these draft scope documents to allow for 
the public to provide additional data or information that could be 
useful to the Agency in finalizing the scope of the risk evaluations; 
comments may be submitted to this docket and the individual dockets for 
each of the chemical substances.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before May 26, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by docket identification 
(ID) number EPA- EPA-HQ-OPPT-2019-0131, or the applicable docket ID 
number for the individual chemical substances identified in Unit III., 
by one of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Do not submit 
electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business 
Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted 
by statute.
     Mail: Document Control Office (7407M), Office of Pollution 
Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001.
     Hand Delivery: To make special arrangements for hand 
delivery or delivery of boxed information, please follow the 
instructions at https://www.epa.gov/dockets/contacts.html.
    Additional instructions on commenting or visiting the docket, along 
with more information about dockets generally, is available at https://www.epa.gov/dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For technical information contact: 
Ross Geredien, Risk Assessment Division, Office of Pollution Prevention 
and Toxics, Environmental Protection Agency (Mailcode 7403M), 1200 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number: 
(202) 564-1864; email address: [email protected].
    For general information contact: The TSCA-Hotline, ABVI-Goodwill, 
422 South Clinton Ave., Rochester, NY 14620; telephone number: (202) 
554-1404; email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information

A. Does this action apply to me?

    This action is directed to the public in general and may be of 
interest to entities that manufacture (including import) a chemical 
substance regulated under TSCA (e.g., entities identified under North 
American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes 325 and 
324110). The action may also be of interest to chemical processors, 
distributors in commerce, and users; non-governmental organizations in 
the environmental and public health sectors; state and local government 
agencies; and members of the public. Since other entities may also be 
interested, the Agency has not attempted to describe all the specific 
entities and corresponding NAICS codes for entities that may be 
interested in or affected by this action.

B. What is the Agency's authority for taking this action?

    This action directly implements TSCA section 6(b)(4)(D), 15 U.S.C. 
2605(b)(4)(D).

C. What action is the Agency taking?

    EPA is publishing the draft scopes of the risk evaluations for 13 
of 20 chemical substances designated as High-Priority Substances for 
risk evaluation under TSCA. Through the risk evaluation process, EPA 
will determine whether the chemical substances present an unreasonable 
risk of injury to health or the environment under the conditions of 
use, in accordance with TSCA section 6(b)(4). EPA will publish a second 
Federal Register notice announcing the availability of the draft scope 
documents for the remaining seven chemical substances.

II. Background

    TSCA section 6(b)(1) requires EPA to prioritize chemical substances 
for risk evaluation (15 U.S.C. 2605(b)(1)). Effective December 20, 
2019, EPA designated 20 chemical substances as High-Priority Substances 
for risk evaluation (Ref. 1), which initiated the risk evaluation 
process for those chemical substances (15 U.S.C. 2605(b)(3)(A); 40 CFR 
702.17). The purpose of risk evaluation is to determine whether a 
chemical substance presents an unreasonable risk to health or the 
environment, under the conditions of use, including an unreasonable 
risk to a relevant potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation (15 
U.S.C. 2605(b)(4)(A)). As part of this process, EPA must evaluate both 
hazard and exposure, exclude consideration of costs or other non-risk 
factors, use scientific information and approaches in a manner that is 
consistent with the requirements in TSCA for the best available 
science, and ensure decisions are based on the weight-of-scientific-
evidence (15 U.S.C. 2605(b)(4)(F)). This process will culminate in a 
determination of whether or not the chemical substance presents an 
unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment under the 
conditions of use (40 CFR 702.47).

III. Draft Scopes for 13 of 20 Designated High Priority Chemical 
Substances

    The 13 chemical substances for which EPA is publishing the draft 
scopes of the risk evaluations are identified in the following Table, 
along with the corresponding Chemical Abstract System Registry Number 
(CASRN) and docket ID numbers.

                  Table--Draft Scopes for 13 of 20 Designated High Priority Chemical Substances
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Chemical substance                   CASRN                         Docket ID No.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1,3-Butadiene..............................        106-99-0  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0451
o-Dichlorobenzene (Benzene, 1,2-dichloro-).         95-50-1  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0444

[[Page 19942]]

 
p-Dichlorobenzene (Benzene, 1,4-dichloro-).        106-46-7  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0446
1,1-Dichloroethane.........................         75-34-3  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0426
1,2-Dichloroethane.........................        107-06-2  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0427
trans-1,2- Dichloroethylene (Ethene, 1,2-          156-60-5  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0465
 dichloro-, (1E)-).
1,2-Dichloropropane........................         78-87-5  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0428
Ethylene dibromide (Ethane, 1,2-dibromo-)..        106-93-4  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0488
1,3,4,6,7,8-Hexahydro-4,6,6,7,8,8-                1222-05-5  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0430
 hexamethylcyclopenta [g]-2-benzopyran
 (HHCB).
4,4'-(1-Methylethylidene)bis[2, 6-                  79-94-7  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0462
 dibromophenol] (TBBPA).
Phosphoric acid, triphenyl ester (TPP).....        115-86-6  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0458
1,1,2-Trichloroethane......................         79-00-5  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0421
Tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP)               115-96-8  EPA-HQ-OPPT-2018-0476
 (Ethanol, 2-chloro-, 1,1',1''-phosphate).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The draft scope of the risk evaluation for each of these 13 
chemical substances includes the conditions of use, hazards, exposures, 
and the potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulations the EPA plans 
to consider. Development of the scope is the first step of a risk 
evaluation. The draft scope of each risk evaluation will include the 
following components (40 CFR 702.41(c)):
     The conditions of use, as determined by the Administrator, 
that the EPA plans to consider in the risk evaluation.
     The potentially exposed populations that EPA plans to 
evaluate; the ecological receptors that EPA plans to evaluate; and the 
hazards to health and the environment that EPA plans to evaluate.
     A description of the reasonably available information and 
the science approaches that the Agency plans to use.
     A conceptual model that will describe the actual or 
predicted relationships between the chemical substance, the conditions 
of use within the scope of the evaluation and the receptors, either 
human or environmental, with consideration of the life cycle of the 
chemical substance--from manufacturing, processing, distribution in 
commerce, storage, use, to release or disposal--and identification of 
human and ecological health hazards EPA plans to evaluate for the 
exposure scenarios EPA plans to evaluate.
     An analysis plan, which will identify the approaches and 
methods EPA plans to use to assess exposure, hazards, and risk, 
including associated uncertainty and variability, as well as a strategy 
for using reasonably available information and science approaches.
     A plan for peer review.
    With the publication of the draft scopes, EPA is providing a 45-
calendar day public comment period. Note that, as a result of the Ninth 
Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families 
v. U.S. EPA, 943 F.3d 397, 425 (9th Cir. 2019), EPA will no longer 
exclude legacy uses or associated disposal from the definition of 
``conditions of use.'' Rather, when these activities are intended, 
known, or reasonably foreseen, these activities will be considered uses 
and disposal, respectively, within the definition of ``conditions of 
use.''
    EPA encourages commenters to provide information they believe might 
be missing or may further inform the risk evaluation. EPA will publish 
a notice in the Federal Register announcing the availability of the 
final scopes within six months of the initiation of risk evaluations 
that occurred on December 20, 2019 (See Unit IV.).

IV. References

    The following is a listing of the documents that are specifically 
referenced in this Federal Register notice. The docket for this action 
includes these documents and other information considered by EPA, 
including documents that are referenced within the documents that are 
included in the docket. For assistance in locating these referenced 
documents, please consult the technical person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.

    EPA. High-Priority Substance Designations Under the Toxic 
Substances Control Act and Initiation of Risk Evaluation on High-
Priority Substances; Availability. Federal Register. (84 FR 71924, 
December 30, 2019) (FRL-10003-15).

(Authority: 15 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.)

Andrew Wheeler,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2020-07484 Filed 4-8-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
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