In case you are producing and/or using fluoropolymers, the following might be interesting for you:
As you may know, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection recently embarked on a process to identify Currently Unavoidable Uses ("CUUs") of PFAS under the State's PFAS law (38 M.R.S. §1614). As part of that process, the Department is accepting public proposals and comments from manufacturers seeking CUU determinations for their products. To the extent you wish to seek such treatment for your products, the Department asks that you submit your proposal by March 1, 2024. Please note that the submissions are required to be submitted via email to PFASProducts@maine.gov. You may email the Department individually, or in tandem with other companies.
The proposals must:
1. Provide a brief description of the type of product including the Global Product Classification (GPC) brick category code or the Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code, whichever of the two is applicable.
2. Describe the intended use of the product and explain how it is essential for health, safety or the functioning of society.
3. Describe how the specific use of PFAS in the product is essential to the function of the product (if this use of PFAS is required by federal or state law or regulation, the proposal must contain citations to that requirement).
4. Describe whether there are reasonably available alternatives for this specific use of PFAS.
5. Provide contact information for the submission.
Please ensure that the proposals do not contain any Confidential Business Information.
Upon review of the submissions, the Department expects to initiate the rulemaking process in September 2024 with an aim to submit a provisionally adopted major substantive rule to the Maine legislature in early 2025.
Additional information about the State of Maine's request for CUU proposals can be found here. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.
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Markus Haager
AGRU Kunststofftechnik GmbH
Bad Hall, Austria
hm@agru.at------------------------------