Under the amended Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must prioritize an inventory of existing chemicals for further risk evaluation. The TSCA review of chemicals for this priority designation requires EPA to evaluate substances via several hazard and exposure-related criteria, including the potential for storage of the chemical substance near significant sources of drinking water. Here we describe the development of chemical substance ranking metrics for consideration for use in screening against this drinking water storage criteria. The metrics integrate available geospatial data related to industrial chemical use and importation, drinking water facility location, and population. EPA monitors TSCA chemicals produced in volumes of 25,000 lbs or more (2,500 lbs for certain chemicals) at production sites.  For 2012, there were 7970 TSCA chemicals reported in EPA’s Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) system for 4305 sites; with 53% reporting quantitative use or import volumes. Geospatial data from the EPA’s Facility Reporting Service (FRS) was used to map each production facility (and its associated chemical volumes) to the closest individual drinking water system that would be affected by a potential leak. The water system locations and populations served were obtained from the EPA’s Federal Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS/FED)<b>. </b> Multiple quantitative metrics for chemical ranking were estimated based on reported volumes or volumes inferred from total U.S. production volumes. These metrics will be further evaluated for incorporation into proposed prioritization candidate identification workflows being developed by the EPA’s Office and Research and Development.  The views expressed in this abstract are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Development of metrics for screening for chemical storage near drinking water sources

2019 Fall National Meeting

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