EPA has announced that it will publish a final rule amending the Inventory Update Rule, or IUR, sometime in the next several weeks. The new regulations will not affect IUR reporting requirements for 2002, however.
The final version of the regulation amending the IUR was cleared by the Office of Management and Budget on July 12, 2002. An EPA source advises that the Agency hopes to publish the rule in the Federal Register before the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30, 2002.
The Inventory Update Rule requires companies to report basic chemical production data every four years for any chemical listed on the TSCA Inventory that they manufactured or imported in amounts of 10,000 pounds during the previous fiscal year. Inorganic chemical substances, polymers, microorganisms, and naturally occurring chemical substances are exempt from IUR reporting requirements. The new rule comes just as companies are preparing to file their reports for the 2002 reporting cycle. A recent Reporting Notice published by the EPA announced that the 2002 reporting period is from August 26, 2002 to December 23, 2002. As a result, this year's reports are to be based on a production in the last fiscal year ending prior to August 26, 2002. See 67 Fed. Reg. 18615 (April 16, 2002).
The new rule will apply to the next IUR reporting cycle in 2006. While there is no advance information on the substance of the revisions to the rule, representatives of the chemical industry are concerned the changes may be similar to amendments that were proposed in 1999. Those amendments would have required significantly more information from chemical manufacturers, including worker exposure and average and maximum concentrations of chemicals leaving a manufacturer's possession. The 1999 proposal also would have imposed additional reporting requirements on downstream use and exposure for chemicals manufactured or imported in amounts greater than 300,000 pounds.
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