View Rule

As amended in June 2016, section 26(b)(1) of the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) authorizes EPA to issue a rule to establish fees to defray the cost (including contractor costs incurred by the Agency) associated with administering sections 4, 5, and 6, and collecting, processing, reviewing, and providing access to and protecting from disclosure information on chemical substances as appropriate under section 14. EPA issued a proposed rule in February 2018 and is planning to issue a final rule in September 2018, with immediate effect to enable the collection of fees beginning in October 2018.

Statement of Need:

The fees are intended to achieve the goals articulated by Congress to provide a sustainable source of funds for EPA to fulfill its legal obligations to conduct activities such as risk-based screenings, designation of applicable substances as High- and Low-Priority, conducting risk evaluations to determine whether a chemical substance presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, requiring testing of chemical substances and mixtures, and evaluating and reviewing manufacturing and processing notices, as required under TSCA sections 4, 5 and 6, as well as management of chemical information under TSCA section 14.

Summary of the Legal Basis:

TSCA section 26(b), 15 U.S.C. 2625(b), provides EPA with authority to establish fees to defray a portion of the costs associated with administering TSCA sections 4, 5, and 6, as amended, as well as the costs of collecting, processing, reviewing, and providing access to and protecting information about chemical substances from disclosure as appropriate under TSCA section 14.

Alternatives:

Alternative approaches were considered in developing the proposed rule (see 83 FR 8212, Unit III.C, available at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/02/26/2018-02928/user-fees-for-the-administration-of-the-toxic-substances-control-act) and are being further considered in light of comments received on the proposed rule.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

EPA has evaluated the potential incremental economic impacts of the proposed rule. The Agency analyzed a three-year period, since the statute requires EPA to reevaluate and adjust, as necessary, the fees every three years. The Economic Analysis, which is available in the docket for the proposed rule (EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0401, ref. 2), is briefly summarized here. The annualized fees collected from industry for the proposed option (identified as Option C in the Economic Analysis) are approximately $20.05 million. This total does not include the fees collected for manufacturer-requested risk evaluations. Total fee collections were calculated by multiplying the estimated number of actions per fee category anticipated each year, by the corresponding proposed fee. For the proposed option, TSCA section 4 fees account for less than 1 percent of the total fee collection, TSCA section 5 fees for approximately 43 percent, and TSCA section 6 fees for approximately 56 percent. Annual fees collected by EPA are expected to total approximately $20.05 million. Under the proposed option, the total fees collected from industry for a risk evaluation requested by manufacturers are estimated to be $1.3 million for chemicals included in the Work Plan and $2.6 million for chemicals not included in the Work Plan. EPA estimates that 18.5 percent of TSCA section 5 submissions will be from small businesses that are eligible to pay discounted fees because they have average annual sales of less than $91 million in the three preceding years. Total annualized fees for TSCA section 5 collected from small businesses are estimated to be $550,000. For TSCA sections 4 and 6, discounted fees for eligible small businesses and fees for all other affected firms may differ over the three-year period that was analyzed, since the fee paid by each firm is dependent on the number of affected firms per action. Based on past TSCA section 4 actions and data related to the first ten chemicals identified for risk evaluations under TSCA as amended, EPA estimates annualized fees collected from small businesses for TSCA section 4 and TSCA section 6 to be approximately $37,000 and $2.6 million, respectively. EPA estimates that total fees paid by small businesses will account for about 16 percent of the approximately $20.05 million fees to be collected for TSCA sections 4, 5, and 6 actions. The annualized total industry fee collection for small businesses is estimated to be approximately $3.2 million.

Risks:

n/a