Environmental Groups Sue EPA Over Approval of Semiconductor Chemicals Used in AI Data Centers

Three environmental organizations filed suit on Friday, Aug 14, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco – challenging the Environmental Protection Agency‘s (EPA) approval of two chemicals used in semiconductor manufacturing.

CHIPS Communities United and the Sierra Club, represented by Earthjustice, filed the petition, according to Children’s Health Defense ^[1]. The complaint alleges violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and says the EPA permitted the chemicals to be used without adequately assessing risks to plant employees and surrounding communities.

Congress amended TSCA in 2016 to shift the burden onto chemical manufacturers, requiring them to demonstrate new substances are unlikely to present unreasonable risks to human health or the environment before they are allowed on the market ^[2]. Earlier in the law’s history, the EPA restricted only a handful of chemicals that were in commerce before 1976, including certain forms of asbestos, hexavalent chromium, dioxin-contaminated wastes and the paint-stripper methylene chloride ^[3].

Redacted Chemicals and Identified Hazards

The two chemicals are identified in EPA records only by premanufacture notice numbers P-26-0029 and P-26-0045 because their identities are designated confidential business information. According to Earthjustice, the EPA identified potential hazards including cancer, neurological damage and sudden death. The agency acknowledged it lacked sufficient information to determine the full extent of those risks, the groups said.

The lack of toxicity data has been a recurring issue under TSCA. A manufacturer’s notice to the EPA that it intends to begin manufacturing or importing a chemical is not required to contain toxicity or exposure information, and few such notices do ^[4]. By 2006, about 30 years after TSCA’s passage, the EPA had required testing of fewer than 200 of the 20,000 chemicals added to the inventory and had issued regulations to limit or ban production of only five chemicals ^[5].

Plaintiffs: EPA Violated Required Risk Assessment Process

Earthjustice senior attorney Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz said the Trump administration is “rushing dangerous chemicals to market without the review or the protection that the law require