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PR EPA Releases Most Recent Community Right-to-Know Data on Toxic Releases
Release Date: 06/18/98
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1998
EPA Releases Most Recent Community Right-to-Know Data on Toxic Releases
Total industrial releases of toxic chemicals in U.S. communities decreased by 100 million pounds, or four percent, between 1995 and 1996, according to the most recent Community Right-to-Know information released today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Since industry first began reporting releases in 1988, total releases are down by almost 46 percent. Community Right-to-Know efforts are a landmark program of the Clinton Administration and one of the most effective tools to achieve environmental and public health protection.
Vice President Al Gore said, “Putting information about toxic chemical pollution directly into the hands of citizens has kept millions of pounds of chemicals out of our lives. It has helped people live healthier lives. And, it’s spurred innovation to help businesses work smarter and cleaner and become more profitable.”
“The Clinton Administration has worked hard to expand the public’s right to know about releases of toxic chemicals in local communities,” said EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner. “These data are proof that when information is made publicly available, we can make great strides in protecting the health of our communities.”
EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program requires companies to publicly report quantities of toxic chemicals that their manufacturing facilities annually release into the air, water and land. The data are made widely available to citizens through a range of public information resources, including the Internet, and allow EPA, the states, industry and the public to gauge industry’s progress in reducing toxic chemical pollution.
From 1995 to 1996, total toxic chemical releases decreased from 2.5 billion pounds to 2.4 billion pounds, a four-percent decline of about 100 million pounds. The greatest percentage reduction in environmental releases of core TRI chemicals occurred in reported releases of toxics to underground injection wells. Those discharges were reduced by 14.9 percent, from 240 million pounds in 1995 to 204 million pounds in 1996. Reported air emissions were down 115 million pounds, or seven percent, in 1996. Since 1988, toxic discharges to underground injection wells have gone down by 27 percent and reported air emissions have decreased by almost 50 percent.
However, increases of approximately nine percent were reported in the 1996 data for both surface water discharges and land releases; surface water discharges increased by 13.5 million pounds, and land releases were up 26.1 million pounds. Since 1988, releases to surface water have generally gone down -- by 73 percent -- and releases to land also have decreased, by 35 percent.
The Clinton Administration has taken several steps to expand EPA’s toxic chemical right-to-know program. Starting next year, seven new industrial sectors will begin to make public the levels of toxic chemicals their facilities release to the environment. With the addition of these industry sectors the number of facilities reporting under the TRI program will increase by about 30 percent. In 1994 the Administration nearly doubled the list of toxic chemicals required to report under the program.
Most recently, as announced by Vice President Gore on Earth Day, EPA is now working to obtain and make public, key health and environmental effects test data on about 3,000 widely used chemicals through the Chemical Right-to-Know Initiative. Currently, there are no data or very limited health and environmental safety data available on these chemicals. There are 93 TRI chemicals representing approximately 393 million pounds in environmental releases or 5.5 billion pounds of waste associated with these high volume chemicals that lack good data.
The Agency is asking industry to provide basic safety data for these chemicals and to consider additional testing for chemicals children are most likely exposed to. Shortly, the Agency also will propose to lower the TRI reporting thresholds for persistent, bioaccumulative chemicals, which are those chemicals that in the environment collect in animals and plants and do not disperse or break down quickly.
The 1996 TRI report also includes industry-specific analyses of five major industrial sectors that are required to report their toxic chemical releases. Over the past 10 years, all of these industries have reduced the amount of toxic pollution they report to EPA. Of these five industry sectors, declines in TRI chemical releases were led by chemical manufacturing, followed by primary metals, electrical equipment, pulp and paper, and petroleum refining. In addition to reviewing the release data reported by these industries, the TRI report includes analyses of economic, regulatory and other trends that have influenced their environmental performance over the past decade. EPA will complete analyses of the additional 15 industries that report to the TRI later this summer.
“The Community Right-to-Know program has been instrumental for improving the safer environmental performance of U.S. industry,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances Dr. Lynn Goldman. “We are pleased with the overall downward trend in toxic chemical releases, and we expect to see those downward trends continue.”
Information on TRI is available in public libraries or online at www.epa.gov/opptintr/tri or by calling the Hotline number at 1-800-424-9346.
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