Protection of Stratospheric Ozone; Listing of Substitutes for Ozone-Depleting Substances

This action lists two substitutes for ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) in the fire suppression and explosion protection sector as acceptable (subject to use restrictions) under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program. SNAP implements section 612 of the Clean Air Act, as amended in 1990, which requires EPA to evaluate substitutes for the ODSs to reduce overall risk to human health and the environment. Through these evaluations, SNAP generates lists of acceptable and unacceptable substitutes for each of the major industrial use sectors. The intended effect of the SNAP program is to expedite movement away from ozone-depleting compounds while avoiding a shift into substitutes posing other environmental problems. On March 18, 1994, EPA promulgated a final rulemaking setting forth its plan for administering the SNAP program (59 FR 13044), and has since issued decisions on the acceptability and unacceptability of a number of substitutes. In this Final Rulemaking (FRM), EPA is issuing its decisions on the acceptability of halon substitutes in the fire suppression and explosion protection sector that were included in a notice of proposed rulemaking published on February 18, 1999 (64 FR 8038) and a correction to the February 18 proposal that was published on March 25, 1999 (64 FR 14417). To arrive at determinations on the acceptability of substitutes, the Agency completed a cross-media evaluation of risks to human health and the environment by sector end- use.