California Green Chemistry Regulation to Be Effective October 1, 2013

The State of California has posted the Effective Date of its Safer Consumer Product Regulation as October 1, 2013, and has also posted the final version of the regulation.  Currently, it is requesting comments on new provisions of the regulation.  The new sections eligible for comment are limited to Section 69501.3, which requires submissions to be in English and in acceptable electronic format, and Section 69501.3, regarding the state's handling of information designated as trade secret by submitters.   Specifically, with respect to information marked trade secret, the new text in Section 69509.1 states that in the event that the state (i.e., California's Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) disagrees with a submitters claim of trade secret protection from public disclosure, the state must give the submitting party 30 days’ notice of such determination.  During that 30 day period, the submitter may seek judicial review to obtain a preliminary injunction and/or a declaratory judgment.   Comments on these new sections are due by September 9, 2013.  The revised text and the 15-day public notice with reasons for the changes and instructions on how to comment are available at http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/SCPRegulations.cfm. 

Within 30 days after the effective date of the regulation, the Candidate Chemicals List will be posted on the DTSC website.  The initial Priority Product List, specifying product-chemical combinations, will be released for review and comment within 180 days after the effective date of the regulation.  The unlucky manufacturers of priority products containing chemicals of concern in California will not only face a reporting obligation, but an obligation to prepare an alternatives analysis.  The vast majority of reports to date in states, like Washington, with green chemistry laws, demonstrate that most reports involve contaminant levels.  That will pose yet heavier burdens in creating analyses of “alternatives.”