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EPA Issues Nevada Toxics Inventory Data

Release Date: 12/16/2010
Contact Information: Margot Perez-Sullivan (415) 947-4149, [email protected]

The data comes from the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory, commonly referred to as TRI. It’s one of the EPA’s largest publicly available databases, providing communities valuable information on more than 650 toxic chemical that are managed or released by various industries. The chemical information in the inventory is calculated by industrial facilities and reported to the EPA, as required by law.

“These annual reports arm citizens and local governments with information about toxics that could pose potential hazards in their area,” said Jared Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator for EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “Federal law ensures that all communities have a “Right-To-Know” so they can make informed decisions to reduce chemical use and plan for emergency responses.”

Total releases include toxic chemicals discharged by facilities to air, water, land, and underground, and the amount transferred off-site for disposal. Pollution controls apply to many of the reported releases. Reporting facilities must comply with environmental standards set by local, state and federal agencies.

Release data alone are not sufficient to determine exposure or to calculate potential risks to human health and the environment. TRI data, in conjunction with other information, such as the toxicity of the chemical, the release medium (e.g., air), and site-specific conditions, may be used in evaluating exposures that may result from releases of toxic chemicals.

Here’s a look at toxic disposals and releases in Nevada from 2007 – 2009, reported in pounds:

	Reporting Year
Type of Release	2007	2008	2009
Air	1,756,341	1,550,110	1,631,934
Land (On-site)	197,183,994	196,366,905	179,536,919
Underground Injection	0	0	0
Water	144	160	118
Off-site disposal	2,940,978	1,874,256	2,374,338

§ Air releases increased 5% (82 thousand pounds)
§ Water releases decreased 27% (43 pounds)
§ On-site land releases decreased 9% (17 million pounds)
§ Total off-site transfers increased 27% (500 thousand pounds)
§ Underground Injection releases did not change since 2008 (0 reported).The top five released chemicals are copper and copper compounds, zinc, lead and lead compounds, barium and barium compounds and manganese and manganese compounds.
§ In Nevada, 56 million pounds of total releases of persistent bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals (PBTs) were reported a decrease of 40% or 38 million pounds. Arsenic and arsenic compounds top the list.

	Facility Name	City	Total Releases
1	Newmont Mining Corp Twin Creeks Mine	Golconda	47,984,557
2	Barrick Gold Corp Goldstrike Mine	Elko	41,478,744
3	Newmont Mining Corp Southern Carlin Mine	Carlin	28,273,751
4	Newmont Mining Corp Copper Canyon Mine	Battle Mountain	20,422,374
5	Barrick Gold Corp Cortez Mine	Crescent Valley	19,561,629
6	Robinson Nevada Mining Co	Ruth	11,127,558
7	US Ecology Nevada Inc	Beatty	2,569,162
8	Tronox LLC	Henderson	1,944,163
9	Smoky Valley Common Operation	Round Mountain	1,593,595
10	Queenstake Resources USA Inc – Jerritt Canyon Mine	Elko	1,038,716

§ There was a 12% decrease in total reported releases into the environment nationwide from 2008 to 2009
§ The number of facilities reporting chemical releases decreased 7% nationally