Delays Push Effective Date for Risk Management Rule for Solvent TCE
EPA’s risk management rule for the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) has yet to go into effect due to a temporary administrative stay first put in place by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the agency announced in a news update on Monday. The rule was issued in December 2024 and was originally set to take effect on Jan. 16, 2025, but the effective date has been postponed both by orders from federal appeals courts—the Third Circuit later left in place the Fifth Circuit’s temporary stay—and by EPA in accordance with a memorandum from President Trump titled “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review.” In response to the memorandum, a Federal Register notice published by EPA in late January delayed the rule’s effective date until March 21, 2025. The agency will soon publish a new notice to further delay the effective date of certain provisions of the rule—specifically, the conditions it imposes on the uses of TCE with Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) exemptions.
A pre-publication copy (PDF) of the upcoming Federal Register notice states that EPA will postpone by 90 days the effective date of those provisions, until June 20, 2025, pending judicial review. According to the pre-publication version of the document, one example for which the postponement will apply is “the conditions imposed under the TSCA section 6(g) exemption for the use of TCE as a processing aid for specialty polymeric microporous sheet material manufacturing.” EPA has also requested additional delays in court.
“EPA has asked the court for more time to determine our next steps and to extend our deadline to respond to the stay for another 60 days,” the agency says. “EPA is awaiting that response and will provide more information as it becomes available.”
Under EPA’s risk management rule for TCE, most uses of the solvent, including its manufacture and processing for all consumer and most commercial products, will be prohibited within one year. All other uses of TCE will be phased out over a longer period, with EPA requiring compliance with a workplace chemical protection program and controls intended to limit occupational exposure to the substance.
For further information, see EPA’s news update.
