Dive Brief:
- The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on Monday said it has modified and adopted the state’s PFAS reporting and fees rule in an effort to curb the so-called forever chemicals in products.
- The revised regulation addressed various issues that a Minnesota administrative law judge noted in August, which led to disapproval of the rule, according to a state register notice. The deadline to submit initial reports remains at July 1, 2026.
- Additionally, the MPCA will soft-launch its PFAS Reporting and Information System for Manufacturers, or PRISM, to a small selection of manufacturers for final review in December. The system will expand to all manufacturers in January 2026.
Dive Insight:
Administrative Law Judge Jim Mortenson said in his Aug. 28 report that the MPCA did not include a cumulative effect assessment of the regulation, which is the incremental impact of the rule in addition to other state and federal regulations.
While manufacturers will have to make an additional effort to comply with Minnesota’s specific reporting requirements, it will also reduce some of the burden for reporting under other jurisdictions and other provisions in Amara’s Law, the MPCA said in an Oct. 27 letter to Interim Chief Administrative Law Judge Tim O’Malley. The PFAS reporting and fees rule is mandated under Amara’s Law, a Minnesota statute that aims to ban products intentionally manufactured with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances by 2032.
Other changes made to the adopted rule include updating the manufacturer definition and product descriptions, removing language that exceeded the pollution agency’s power and violated the state administrative rules law, and clarifying language regarding extension requests.
Additionally, the MPCA reduced the initial reporting fee from $1,000 to $800 per manufacturer. The state agency said the originally proposed fees were found to exceed the reasonable costs of implementation. The MPCA kept the required yearly update for manufacturers due on Feb. 1 but removed the $500 fee, effective in 2027.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is making similar changes to its own PFAS reporting rule. Last month, the agency published a proposed rule that would modify reporting requirements for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act. The revised rule aims to make the federal reporting regulations “more practical” and easier to implement in an effort to reduce unnecessary or duplicated records while maintaining the ability to collect the required PFAS information.
Additionally, states such as Illinois enacted their own PFAS reporting legislation that’s set to begin next year.
