[co-author: Karina Zakarian]
After evaluating public comments on its proposed PFAS-in-products reporting rules (see our previous posts here and here), the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has agreed to exercise its authority under section 116.943 of the Minnesota Statutes (Amara’s Law) and extend the deadline for manufacturers (including importers) to comply with the statute’s reporting requirements for products containing intentionally added PFAS. According to its responses to public comments, the MPCA plans to provide companies with further details on this extension “in the near future.”
Many of the public comments submitted to the MPCA on the proposed reporting rules focus on a variety of challenges companies asserted they would face in complying with the rules, and particularly the reporting deadline of January 1, 2026. Numerous commenters suggested that MPCA grant a general extension of the time to report, suggesting extensions ranging from six months to several years. In their public comments, these companies took the position that the upcoming proposed reporting deadline, which is now less than six months away, will inhibit them from conducting effective investigations into their products and supply chains, gathering sufficient data, and responding timely with the requisite information given that the MPCA has yet to complete its rulemaking process. Also, companies expressed issues with the broad regulatory definitions for key terms like “PFAS” and “intentionally added,” and the impacts those definitions, if not narrowed, would have on their ability to comply with the proposed reporting requirements.
The MPCA, in announcing its intention to extend the reporting deadline, noted that an extension would better align with the EPA’s updated reporting deadline under section 8(a)(7) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and with Maine’s approach, under its similarly comprehensive statute, to its reporting requirements for PFAS in products. Although the Maine Department of Environmental Protection had originally proposed a reporting deadline of January 1, 2023 in the state’s 2021 PFAS in Products Law, the agency received such intense resistance during the comment period that Maine’s Governor moved the deadline back two years to January 1, 2025 (see our previous post here). As the MPCA’s proposed rules have broader applicability and set forth even stricter criteria than Maine for reporting on intentionally added PFAS, there is a possibility that the agency will craft an extension with Maine’s two-year extension to its original reporting deadline in mind.
We will provide an update when a new reporting deadline is set. In the meantime, the pre-hearing, post-hearing, and rebuttal comments/responses can be found below:
[View source.]
