While it is impossible to flag all of the environmental, health, and safety issues we expect to confront manufacturers in 2020, this article provides a snapshot of a few to watch.
Some of these issues have been around for a while, while others are new on the scene. They all will garner attention and are worthy of watching in the coming year.
PFAS
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are getting a lot of attention everywhere you look from state regulations, federal plans, to courtrooms, around the deal table and even on the silver screen. PFAS manufacturing facilities may have been the first targets, but landfills and other potential release sites are gaining attention from regulators and plaintiffs alike.
States are moving quickly to adopt regulations or, at the very least, request information from parties that do have or may have had a connection to PFAS compounds.
With all of this attention, there has been a growing effort to sample water supplies to evaluate potential exposure issues. These efforts are sure to turn up additional PFAS contamination areas, particularly given the lengthy and prolific use of these compounds. As we identify more and more areas of contamination, the network of potentially responsible parties could expand beyond PFAS manufacturers to include landfill operators, property owners, and PFAS users and suppliers, among others.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed and released its PFAS Action Plan in February 2019, but the process to change federal regulations and standards is, well, slow. Congress is trying to speed up the action. At the end of 2019, the National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law.
This law added certain PFAS compounds to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), a program under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act that requires reporting of chemicals in certain industry sectors. Industries that are required to report under the TRI program must begin collecting PFAS data now for reporting in July 2021.
In addition, House Bill H.R. 535, introduced in January 2020, would require time frames for a number of regulatory and other actions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act. The Senate and White House vow a fight, but in 2020, it’s safe to say everyone is getting in on the PFAS action.
OSHA Inspection Weighting
In late 2019, OSHA developed new standards for the prioritization of inspections. The agency focused on the length of time an inspection would take and the number of inspections performed.
Under the new Enforcement Weighting System, OSHA is prioritizing inspections based on a number of factors with a goal of targeting higher risk activities and establishments. The agency plans to prioritize inspections in a weighted fashion in the order listed below:
Group A: Criminal and significant cases
Group B:
- Fatalities and catastrophes
- Chemical plan national enforcement priority and process safety management covered inspections
Group C:
- Caught-in hazards, such as trenching, equipment operations, oil & gas
- Electrical hazards, such as overhead power lines, electrical wiring methods
- Fall hazards, such as scaffolds, elevated walking working surfaces
- Struck-by hazards, such as highway work zones, landscaping, material handling
Group D:
- Programmed inspections following an established priority of hazards that are time insensitive and a high priority, such as:
- Amputation
- Combustible dust
- Ergonomics
- Federal agency inspections
- Heat hazards
- Non-permissible exposure limit overexposures
- Workplace violence hazards
- Confined space hazards
- Personal sampling
- Site-specific targeting
Group E: all other inspections
This weighting system provides good insight into the types of hazards that might attract OSHA’s attention in 2020.
EPA Focus on Air and Water
The EPA sets National Compliance Initiatives (NCIs, formerly known as National Enforcement Initiatives) for multi-year periods to focus its compliance and enforcement resources. The newly established NCIs focus on the EPA’s bread and butter—air and water. For fiscal years 2020-2023, the EPA plans to focus on reducing air emissions of hazardous air pollutants and volatile organic compounds, particularly when those emissions would contribute to non-attainment with National Ambient Air Quality Standards or would adversely affect vulnerable populations.
The agency also plans to reduce significant noncompliance with the Clean Water Act permit program and has identified approximately 11,000 permittees with effluent violations that are significantly noncompliant. The EPA plans to cut the incidence of significant noncompliance in half by the end of FY 2022.
