Addition of Natural Gas Processing Facilities to the Toxics Release Inventory Final Rule
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Rule Summary
In November 2021, EPA added natural gas processing facilities to the scope of the industrial sectors covered by the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). This rule expands coverage to include all natural gas processing facilities that receive and refine natural gas. Natural gas processing facilities that primarily recover sulfur from natural gas were already covered by TRI. Facilities primarily engaged in natural gas extraction (e.g., exploration, fracking, etc.) are not included in this rule.
Adding these facilities to the TRI will increase the publicly available information on chemical releases and other waste management activities of TRI-listed chemicals from the natural gas processing sector, which furthers the goals of Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.
Rule History
Background on Natural Gas Processing Facilities
Natural gas processing facilities are stationary, surface facilities that receive gas from a gathering system that collects raw natural gas from off-site wells and prepares the gas for delivery to the natural gas processing facilities. These facilities process the gas to meet industrial or pipeline specifications and extract heavier liquid hydrocarbons from the prepared field natural gas. This processed pipeline-quality natural gas is then transferred to consumers via intra- and inter-state pipeline networks. Natural gas liquids and contaminants separated from the natural gas during the processing are sent downstream to petrochemical manufacturers and refineries, released, or otherwise handled or treated.
In processing natural gas and associated products, these facilities deal with over 21 TRI-covered chemicals. Accordingly, TRI reporting by these facilities will provide significant release and waste management data that will meaningfully increase the amount of publicly available information.
Petition Related to the Rule
On October 24, 2012, the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), together with 18 other organizations submitted a petition to EPA, requesting that EPA exercise its discretionary TRI sector addition authority to add the Oil and Gas Extraction sector to the scope of industrial sectors covered by the TRI. On October 22, 2015, EPA granted the portion of the petition requesting that EPA begin the rulemaking process to add natural gas processing facilities to the scope of TRI.
On January 6, 2017, EPA published a proposed rule to add natural gas processing facilities to the scope of industry sectors required to report to the TRI.
Additional Resources
- TRI Oil and Gas Extraction Petition Official Response Letter (pdf)
- TRI Oil and Gas Extraction Petition Response FAQs (pdf)
Compliance
EPA estimates that at least 321 natural gas processing facilities in the United States meet the TRI reporting criteria. These include the employee threshold of 10 full-time employees or equivalent and the activities threshold, which includes the manufacture, processing, or otherwise use of at least one TRI-listed chemical above applicable threshold quantities.