Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 194 / Monday, October 7, 2024 / Notices 81077 

• Quantity of material received for 

reclamation 

Per facility: 

• Amount of HFC–23 generated 

• Emissions of HFC–23 

By regulated HFC: 

• Amount destroyed 

• Amount exported 

• Total amount imported 

• Amount imported and not used as 

feedstock 

• Total amount produced (gross) 

• Amount produced for feedstock use 

• Calculated consumption consistent 

with the AIM Act 

• Calculated consumption consistent 

with reporting requirements under the 

Montreal Protocol 

• Total end of year inventory 

Cynthia A. Newberg, 

Director, Stratospheric Protection Division. 

[FR Doc. 2024–23143 Filed 10–4–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OW–2022–0365 and EPA–HQ– 

OW–2022–0366; FRL 8310–02–OW] 

Final Recommended Aquatic Life 

Criteria and Benchmarks for Select 

PFAS 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice of availability. 

SUMMARY: As part of the Environmental 

Protection Agency’s (EPA) commitment 

to safeguard the environment from perand polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), 

the agency is announcing the 

availability of national ‘‘Final 

Recommended Freshwater Aquatic Life 

Ambient Water Quality Criteria and 

Acute Saltwater Aquatic Life 

Benchmarks for Perfluorooctanoic Acid 

(PFOA)’’ and ‘‘Final Recommended 

Freshwater Aquatic Life Ambient Water 

Quality Criteria and Acute Saltwater 

Aquatic Life Benchmarks for 

Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS),’’ 

pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA). 

The EPA is also announcing the 

availability of Acute Freshwater Aquatic 

Life Benchmarks for eight data-limited 

perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): 

perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), 

perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), 

perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), 

perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), 

perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS), 

perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), 

2H-perfluoro-2-decenoic acid (8:2 

FTUCA), and 2H,2H,3H,3Hpefluorodecanoic acid (7:3 FTCA). 

These final CWA recommended criteria 

and benchmarks provide information 

that States and Tribes may consider 

when adopting water quality standards. 

Consistent with Clean Water Act 

sections 304(a)(1) and (a)(2), the EPA 

expects to update these recommended 

criteria and benchmark values from time 

to time as new information becomes 

available. This announcement is in 

accordance with Clean Water Act 

section 304(a)(3), which directs the EPA 

to publish information developed under 

sections 304(a)(1) and (a)(2) in the 

Federal Register and make it available 

to States, Tribes, and the public. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. How can I get copies of these 

documents and other related 

information? 

The EPA has established a first docket 

for the ‘‘Final Recommended 

Freshwater Aquatic Life Ambient Water 

Quality Criteria and Saltwater Acute 

Benchmarks for Perfluorooctanoic Acid 

(PFOA)’’ under Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

OW–2022–0365 and a second docket for 

the ‘‘Final Recommended Freshwater 

Aquatic Life Ambient Water Quality 

Criteria and Saltwater Acute 

Benchmarks for Perfluorooctane 

Sulfonate (PFOS)’’ under Docket ID No. 

EPA–HQ–OW–2022–0366. Publicly 

available docket materials are available 

either electronically through 

www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at 

the EPA Docket Center, WJC West 

Building, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution 

Ave. NW, Washington, DC. The Docket 

Center’s hours of operations are 8:30 

a.m.–4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday 

(except Federal holidays). For further 

information on the EPA Docket Center 

services and the current status, see: 

https://www.epa.gov/dockets. 

The ‘‘Final Recommended Freshwater 

Aquatic Life Ambient Water Quality 

Criteria and Saltwater Acute 

Benchmarks for Perfluorooctanoic Acid 

(PFOA)’’ document can be accessed on 

the EPA’s website through the following 

link: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/ 

documents/2024-09/pfoa-report2024.pdf. The ‘‘Final Recommended 

Freshwater Aquatic Life Ambient Water 

Quality Criteria and Saltwater Acute 

Benchmarks for Perfluorooctane 

Sulfonate (PFOS)’’ document can be 

accessed on the EPA’s website through 

the following link: https://www.epa.gov/ 

system/files/documents/2024-09/pfosreport-2024.pdf. The ‘‘Final Acute 

Freshwater Aquatic Life Benchmarks for 

Eight Data-Limited PFAS: PFBA, 

PFHxA, PFNA, PFDA, PFBS, PFHxS, 8:2 

FTUCA, and 7:3 FTCA’’ document can 

be accessed on the EPA’s website 

through the following link: https://

www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/ 

2024-09/pfas-report-2024.pdf. 

II. What are PFAS, including PFOA and 

PFOS? 

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances 

(PFAS) are human-made organic 

chemical compounds composed of a 

carbon chain bound to multiple fluorine 

atoms. PFAS have been manufactured 

and used by a broad range of industries 

since the 1940s, and there are estimated 

to be thousands of PFAS present in the 

global marketplace that are used in a 

range of commercial and industrial 

products. PFOA and PFOS are two of 

the most widely used and studied 

chemicals in the PFAS group. PFAS are 

not naturally occurring and have no 

biologically important functions or 

beneficial properties to aquatic life. 

PFAS, including PFOA and PFOS, can 

persist in the environment and have 

been detected in U.S. rivers, lakes, and 

streams. At elevated concentrations, 

PFAS can be toxic to fish and other 

aquatic species. 

III. What are CWA national ambient 

water quality criteria and benchmarks 

developed by the EPA? 

CWA section 304(a) directs the EPA to 

develop and publish water quality 

criteria that reflect the latest scientific 

knowledge. The EPA develops national 

recommended ambient water quality 

criteria for the protection of aquatic life 

based on the highest numeric 

concentrations of pollutants, with 

specific recommendations on the 

duration and frequency of those 

concentrations, that are protective of 

aquatic ecosystems as a whole. The 

EPA’s section 304(a)(1) criteria 

recommendations generally follow the 

Guidelines methods (Guidelines for 

Deriving Numerical National Water 

Quality Criteria for the Protection of 

Aquatic Organisms and Their Uses), 

which recommend toxicity data for a 

minimum of eight families of aquatic 

animals be used in developing aquatic 

life criteria to ensure criteria will 

protect aquatic ecosystems as a whole. 

Water quality criteria are based solely 

on data and scientific judgments about 

the relationship between pollutant 

concentrations and potential 

environmental effects. The EPA’s 

recommended water quality criteria are 

not regulatory, nor do they 

automatically become part of a State’s 

water quality standards. States must 

adopt into their standards water quality 

criteria that protect the designated uses 

of their water bodies. States can 

establish water quality criteria based on 

the EPA’s recommended criteria, modify 


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81078 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 194 / Monday, October 7, 2024 / Notices 

1The EPA’s Guidelines for Deriving Numerical 

Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Aquatic 

Organisms and Their Uses can be accessed through 

the EPA web page at: https://www.epa.gov/sites/ 

default/files/2016-02/documents/guidelines-waterquality-criteria.pdf. 

recommended criteria to reflect sitespecific conditions, or develop 

proposed standards using on other 

scientifically defensible methods. A 

State’s or Tribe’s water quality criteria 

are not legally effective under the Clean 

Water Act until they have been adopted 

into a State’s or Tribe’s water quality 

standards and are approved by the EPA. 

Aquatic life benchmarks, developed 

under section 304(a)(2) of the CWA, are 

informational values that the EPA 

generates when there are limited high 

quality toxicity data available and data 

gaps exist for several aquatic organism 

families. The EPA develops aquatic life 

benchmarks to provide information that 

States and Tribes may consider in their 

water quality protection programs. In 

developing aquatic life benchmarks, 

data gaps may be filled using new 

approach methods (NAMs), such as 

computer-based toxicity estimation 

tools (e.g., EPA’s Web-ICE; Version 3.3; 

https://www.epa.gov/webice/) or other 

new approach methods intended to 

reduce reliance on additional animal 

testing (https://www.epa.gov/chemicalresearch/epa-new-approach-methodswork-plan-reducing-use-vertebrateanimals-chemical), including the use of 

read-across estimates based on other 

chemicals with similar structures. The 

EPA’s aquatic life benchmark values are 

not regulatory, nor do they 

automatically become part of a State’s 

water quality standards. 

IV. What are the EPA’s recommended 

criteria for PFOA and PFOS in 

freshwater for the protection of aquatic 

life? 

The EPA has developed separate 

PFOA and PFOS criteria to protect 

aquatic life from the effects of these 

individual chemicals. The EPA 

developed these final recommended 

aquatic life ambient water quality 

criteria following the general approach 

outlined in the EPA’s Guidelines.1 The 

EPA developed the final PFOA and 

PFOS recommended criteria to protect 

aquatic life designated uses established 

for freshwaters. The final criteria 

documents contain acute and chronic 

water column criteria for freshwaters 

(see Table 1 of this document). Acute 

criteria protect aquatic species from 

short-term exposures to high pollutant 

concentrations while chronic criteria 

protect aquatic species from long-term 

and repeated pollutant exposures. The 

final criteria also contain chronic 

criteria expressed as PFOA and PFOS 

concentrations in fish muscle tissue, 

fish whole-body tissue, and in 

invertebrate tissue (see Table 1 of this 

document). Many States and Tribes 

measure PFAS in fish tissues and these 

tissue-based criteria values allow States 

and Tribes to assess the health of fish 

and invertebrates in their freshwaters. 

The chronic freshwater and chronic 

fish/invertebrate tissue-based criteria for 

both chemicals are intended to be 

independently applicable and no one 

criterion takes primacy. 

The PFOA and PFOS criteria establish 

maximum concentrations (i.e., 

magnitude component), averaged over a 

given time period (i.e., duration 

component), that if not exceeded more 

than the allowable number of times 

during a specified time period (i.e., 

frequency component), are expected to 

protect aquatic ecosystems as a whole. 

The duration components of criteria are 

set to be substantially shorter than the 

length of toxicity tests used to derive the 

criteria magnitude and restrict allowable 

fluctuations in pollutant concentrations 

over time. The frequency components of 

aquatic life criteria ensure aquatic 

communities have adequate time to 

recover following a criteria exceedance 

event. The EPA’s final recommended 

PFOA and PFOS criteria magnitudes 

combined with the associated duration 

and frequency components are expected 

to protect fish and other aquatic species 

in freshwaters (see Table 1). 

TABLE 1—FINAL RECOMMENDED FRESHWATER AQUATIC LIFE WATER QUALITY CRITERIA FOR PFOA AND PFOS 

Criteria component Acute water column 

(CMC) 1

Chronic water column 

(CCC) 2

Invertebrate 

whole-body 

Fish 

whole-body Fish muscle 

PFOA Magnitude .......... 3.1 mg/L ....................................... 0.10 mg/L ..................................... 1.18 mg/kg ww 4 ..... 6.49 mg/kg ww 4 ..... 0.133 mg/kg ww.4

PFOS Magnitude .......... 0.071 mg/L ................................... 0.00025 mg/L ............................... 0.028 mg/kg ww 4 ... 0.201 mg/kg ww 4 ... 0.087 mg/kg ww.4

Duration ........................ 1-hour average ............................. 4-day average .............................. Instantaneous.3

Frequency ..................... Not to be exceeded more than 

once in three years, on average.

Not to be exceeded more than 

once in three years, on average.

Not to be exceeded.5

1 Criterion Maximum Concentration. 

2 Criterion Continuous Concentration. 

3Tissue data provide instantaneous point measurements that reflect integrative accumulation of PFOA or PFOS over time and space in aquatic life population(s) at 

a given site. 4Wet-Weight. 

5PFOA and PFOS chronic freshwater tissue-based criteria should not be exceeded, based on measured tissue concentrations representing the central tendency of 

samples collected at a given site and time. 

V. What are the EPA’s saltwater acute 

benchmarks for protecting aquatic life 

from PFOA and PFOS? 

Data limitations did not allow for 

derivation of PFOA or PFOS national 

recommended water quality criteria to 

protect saltwater organisms. Therefore, 

the EPA derived PFOA and PFOS 

aquatic life benchmark values under 

section 304(a)(2) of the CWA using the 

best available data on the effects of 

PFOA and PFOS to provide information 

that States and Tribes may consider in 

their water quality protection programs. 

These benchmark values are based 

solely on data and scientific judgments 

about the relationship between 

pollutant concentrations and potential 

environmental effects. Like national 

recommended water quality criteria, the 

EPA’s acute PFOA and PFOS aquatic 

life benchmark values for saltwater are 

nonbinding and nonregulatory. 

The EPA derived acute saltwater 

benchmarks using available toxicity 

data on PFOA and PFOS, supplemented 

with data estimated using the EPA’s 

Web-ICE tool. With data gaps addressed 

using both laboratory and estimated 

toxicity test data, the acute saltwater 

benchmarks for PFOA and PFOS were 

calculated following methods outline in 

the EPA’s Guidelines.1 The EPA’s acute 

saltwater benchmarks for PFOA and 

PFOS values are the maximum 

concentrations of these PFOA and PFOS 

(individually, not in mixture), with 

associated frequency and duration 

specifications, that are expected to 

support protection of aquatic life from 

acute effects in saltwater (see Table 2). 


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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 194 / Monday, October 7, 2024 / Notices 81079 

TABLE 2—ACUTE SALTWATER AQUATIC LIFE BENCHMARKS FOR PFOA AND PFOS 

Chemical PFOA PFOA 

Magnitude ................................................................................................................................ 7.0 mg/L 0.55 mg/L. 

Duration ................................................................................................................................... One hour average. 

Frequency ................................................................................................................................ Not to be exceeded more than once in three years 

on average. 

VI. What are the EPA’s freshwater 

acute benchmarks for protecting 

aquatic life from eight additional 

PFAS? 

Toxicity data to support benchmarks 

for these eight PFAS benchmarks were 

limited relative to the data requirements 

traditionally used to develop aquatic life 

criteria. Therefore, the EPA derived 

PFAS aquatic life benchmark values 

under section 304(a)(2) of the CWA 

using the best available data on the 

effects of these PFAS to provide 

information that States and Tribes may 

consider in their water quality 

protection programs. These benchmark 

values are based solely on data and 

scientific judgments about the 

relationship between pollutant 

concentrations and potential 

environmental effects. Like national 

recommended water quality criteria, the 

EPA’s eight separate acute aquatic life 

benchmark values for eight different 

data-limited PFAS in freshwater are 

nonbinding and nonregulatory. 

Compared to PFOA and PFOS, acute 

freshwater data were more limited for 

these eight PFAS that the EPA 

evaluated. The EPA developed the 

benchmarks by using the available 

laboratory-based data on the effects of 

those chemicals on freshwater 

organisms, supplemented with data 

estimated using the EPA’s Web-ICE tool, 

following the same peer-reviewed 

approach applied in development of the 

acute saltwater benchmarks for PFOA 

and PFOS. With data gaps addressed 

using both laboratory and estimated 

toxicity test data, the acute benchmarks 

for these eight PFAS were calculated 

following methods outline in the EPA’s 

Guidelines.1

The EPA’s acute freshwater 

benchmark values are the maximum 

concentrations of these PFAS 

(individually, not in mixture), with 

associated frequency and duration 

specifications, that are expected to 

support protection of aquatic life from 

acute effects in freshwaters (see Table 2 

of this document). These acute 

benchmarks for these eight PFAS (Table 

3) provide information for States and 

Tribes to consider as protective values 

in their water quality protection 

programs. 

TABLE 3—ACUTE FRESHWATER AQUATIC LIFE BENCHMARKS FOR EIGHT PFAS 

Chemical PFBA PFHxA PFNA PFDA PFBS PFHxS 8:2 

FTUCA 

7:3 

FTCA 

Magnitude 1 ...................................................... 5.3 4.8 0.65 0.50 5.0 0.21 0.037 0.012 

Duration ............................................................ One hour average. 

Frequency ........................................................ Not to be exceeded more than once in three years on average. 

1Values expressed as mg/L, or ppm. 

Bruno Pigott, 

Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2024–23024 Filed 10–4–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

[EPA–HQ–OAR–2021–0669; FRL–9116–05– 

OAR] 

Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: 

Notice of Final Administrative 

Consequences Under the American 

Innovation and Manufacturing Act 

Affecting 2024 Allowances 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is providing notice of 

Agency actions previously taken to 

establish administrative consequences 

for specific entities. These previously 

finalized actions withheld, retired, or 

revoked the identified entities’ calendar 

year 2024 allowances in accordance 

with the administrative consequence 

regulatory provisions. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Connor Henderson, U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency, Stratospheric 

Protection Division, telephone number: 

202–564–2177; email address: 

henderson.connor@epa.gov. You may 

also visit EPA’s website at https://

www.epa.gov/climate-hfcs-reduction for 

further information. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

hereby provides notice that it has taken 

final actions establishing administrative 

consequences for specific entities under 

the American Innovation and 

Manufacturing Act (AIM Act). Each 

action, which EPA took through a letter 

issued to the relevant entity, is a 

separate final action informing the 

recipient entity of an administrative 

consequence. The requirements 

pertaining to administrative 

consequences are codified in 40 CFR 

84.35. Under this provision, EPA can 

retire, revoke, or withhold the allocation 

of allowances, or ban an entity from 

receiving, transferring, or conferring 

allowances. A retired allowance is one 

that must go unused and expire at the 

end of the year; a revoked allowance is 

one that EPA takes back from an 

allowance holder and redistributes to all 

the other allowance holders; and a 

withheld allowance is one that is 

retained by the Agency until an 

allowance holder that has failed to meet 

a regulatory requirement comes back 

into compliance, at which point EPA 

allocates it to the allowance holder. A 

withheld allowance could become a 

revoked allowance if the allowance 


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