Technical Amendments to the EPCRA Hazardous Chemical Inventory Reporting Requirements To Conform to the 2024 OSHA Hazard Communication Standard

<RULE> ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY <CFR>40 CFR Part 370</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EPA-HQ-OLEM-2025-0299; FRL-12698-04-OLEM]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2050-AH40</RIN> <SUBJECT>Technical Amendments to the EPCRA Hazardous Chemical Inventory Reporting Requirements To Conform to the 2024 OSHA Hazard Communication Standard</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Direct final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Environmental Protection Agency is taking direct final action to conform the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act hazardous chemical inventory reporting regulations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Hazard Communication Standard amendments of 2012 and 2024. The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act and its regulations rely on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Hazard Communication Standard for the definition of a <E T="03">hazardous chemical</E> and for the categories of health and physical hazards that must be reported under the hazardous chemical inventory regulations. This action will conform the terminology used and information that must be reported on the hazardous chemical inventory forms to the Hazard Communication Standard amendments. As a result, this action will also improve first responder and community safety, reduce discrepancies and confusion, prevent interpretation burdens on facilities when using (Material) Safety Data Sheets to complete annual hazardous chemical inventory reports, and improve clarity. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on January 16, 2026 without further notice, unless the EPA receives adverse comment by December 17, 2025. If EPA receives adverse comment, we will publish a timely withdrawal in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> informing the public that the rule, or the relevant provisions of this rule, will not take effect. Compliance with these updates is required for the 2026 annual hazardous chemical inventory reporting year. Reports for calendar year 2026 are due on or before March 1, 2027. <E T="03">Effective date:</E> January 16, 2026. <E T="03">Compliance date:</E> December 1, 2026. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> EPA has established a docket for this action under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2025-0299. All documents in the docket are listed on the <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> website. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, <E T="03">e.g.,</E> Confidential Business Information (CBI), Proprietary Business Information (PBI), or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, is not placed on the internet and will be publicly available only in hard copy form. Publicly available docket materials are available electronically through <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Jennifer Barre, Regulation Implementation Division of the Office of Emergency Management (5104A), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20460; telephone number: (240) 644-4559; email address: <E T="03">barre.jennifer@epa.gov;</E> websites: <E T="03">https://www.epa.gov/epcra/emergency-planning-and-community-right-know-act-non-section-313-regulations-and-amendments.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Why is EPA using a direct final rule?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. General Information</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Summary of This Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Who does this regulation apply to?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. What does this regulation require from facilities?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Why is the Agency taking this action?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. What is the Agency's authority for taking this action?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. What are the incremental costs and benefits of this action?</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Revisions to 40 CFR Part 370</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. History of EPCRA Hazard Categories</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Revisions to EPCRA Hazard Categories</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Revisions to EPCRA Definitions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Other Revisions to 40 CFR Part 370</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Summary of Revisions to 40 CFR Part 370</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Statutory and Executive Orders Reviews</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory Planning and Review and Executive Order 13563: Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Executive Order 14192: Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Executive Order 13132: Federalism</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Executive Order 13175: Consultation and Coordination With Indian Tribal Governments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Executive Order 13045: Protection of Children From Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Executive Order 13211: Actions Concerning Regulations That Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution or Use</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2"> J. National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">K. Congressional Review Act (CRA)</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Why is EPA using a direct final rule?</HD> The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA” or “Agency”) is publishing this rule without a prior proposed rule because the Agency views this as a noncontroversial action and anticipates no adverse comment because the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) statute [42 U.S.C. Chapter 116]  <SU>1</SU> relies on the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970 [29 U.S.C. Chapter 15]  <SU>2</SU> and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) implementing regulations [29 CFR 1910.1200]  <SU>3</SU> for the definitions of hazardous chemical, physical hazard, and health hazard and the hazardous chemical reporting hazard categories. More specifically, section 311(e) of the EPCRA statute and its attendant regulation at 40 CFR 370.66  <SU>4</SU> define <E T="03">hazardous chemical</E> as any hazardous chemical defined under 29 CFR 1910.1200(c). The EPCRA statute further requires that hazardous chemical inventory reporting be grouped into categories of health and physical hazards as set forth under the OSH Act and its implementing regulations [42 U.S.C. 11021(a)(2)(A)(1) and section 11022(a)(1)]. This action adopts the OSHA definitions and hazard categories as is required by the EPCRA statute and its regulations. EPA anticipates that this action will improve first responder and community safety; prevent interpretation burdens for facilities, states, local agencies, and fire departments; and improve clarity without increasing the regulatory burden under EPCRA. However, in the “Proposed Rules” section of this <E T="04">Federal Register</E> publication, EPA is publishing a separate document that will serve as the proposed rule to solicit comments on the amendments incorporated in this direct final rule if adverse comments are received on this direct final rule. EPA will not institute a second comment period on this action. Any parties interested in commenting must do so at this time. For further information about commenting on this rule, see the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section of this document. If EPA receives adverse comment, the Agency will publish a timely withdrawal in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> informing the public that this direct final rule will not take effect. EPA would address all public comments in any subsequent final rule based on the proposed rule. If the Agency receives adverse comment on a distinct provision of this rulemaking, we will publish a timely withdraw in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> indicating which provisions we are withdrawing. The provisions which are not withdrawn will become effective on the date set out above, notwithstanding adverse comment on any other provision. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. General Information</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Summary of This Action</HD> EPA is amending its hazardous chemical inventory reporting regulations at 40 CFR part 370 to conform to OSHA's Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) updates of 2012 and 2024 and to make minor corrections for plain language, clarity, and consistency. In 2012, the OSHA HCS, codified at 29 CFR 1910.1200, was amended to adopt the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) [77 FR 17574; March 26, 2012  <SU>5</SU> ]. Among these 2012 OSHA HCS amendments, OSHA replaced the term <E T="03">Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)</E> with the term <E T="03">Safety Data Sheet (SDS)</E> and also stated that these two terms mean the same thing. In alignment, EPA amended its hazardous chemical reporting regulations at 40 CFR part 370 to conform to these changes [81 FR 38104; June 13, 2016  <SU>6</SU> and 81 FR 47311; July 21, 2016  <SU>7</SU> ]. The EPA 2016 amendments included adding the term SDS to the regulation so that both terms are used together throughout 40 CFR part 370. In this action, EPA is removing use of the term MSDS to conform to the OSHA HCS and to improve readability of the regulation in the following sections: §§ 370.3, 370.10, 370.12, 370.13, 370.14, 370.20, centered heading, 370.30, 370.31, 370.32, 370.33, 370.60, 370.62, 370.63, and 370.64. In 2024, the OSHA HCS, codified at 29 CFR 1910.1200, was further amended to conform to revisions of the United Nations Globally Harmonized ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 115k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━