EPA Proposes Adding Natural Gas Processing Facilities Report Toxic Release Inventory

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted a Federal Register notice Jan. 6, 2017, proposing to add natural gas processing facilities to industrial sectors covered by reporting requirements of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), commonly known as the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and section 6607 of the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA).

Comments are due on or before March 7, 2017. The agency observes adding natural gas processing facilities would “meaningfully increase the information available to the public on releases and other waste management of listed chemicals from the natural gas processing sector and further the purposes of EPCRA section 313.”

EPA estimates at least 282 facilities in the U.S. would meet the TRI employee threshold—10 full-time employees or equivalent—and manufacture, process, or otherwise use at least one TRI-listed chemical in excess of applicable threshold quantities. EPA asserts natural gas processing facilities in the U.S. manufacture, process, or otherwise use more than 21 different TRI-listed chemicals, including n-hexane, hydrogen sulfide, toluene, benzene, xylene, and methanol. EPA expects that TRI reporting would provide significant release and waste management data on these chemicals to the public.

(SOURCE: The Weekly Propane Newsletter, BPN)