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Toxic Release Inventory Includes Data on Seven New Industries

Release Date: 5/11/2000
Contact Information: For more information contact the Office of External Affairs at (214) 665-2200.

     
     The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the first-ever reporting of toxic emissions discharged into the environment from seven newly added industrial sectors, including coal and metal mining, electric utilities that combust coal and/or oil, hazardous waste treatment and disposal facilities, wholesale bulk petroleum distributors, chemical wholesale distributors and solvent recyclers.

     This expansion of EPA's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) is part of EPA's commitment to increase the public's right to know about toxic emissions in local communities.

     "This annual report was created to provide American families the information they need to make informed decisions about environmental issues affecting their neighborhoods. It has also served as an impetus for industries to reduce their chemical releases," EPA Regional Administrator Gregg Cooke said.

     Because new sectors are now reporting, total emissions data from each state may be significantly different from years past. Ranking changes from 1997 to 1998 include:

     - Arkansas drops from 16th in the rankings to 33rd,

     - Louisiana drops from second to 10th,

     - New Mexico's ranking rises from 25th to seventh,

     - Oklahoma drops from 30th to 31st, and

     - Texas drops from first place to fifth.  

     Individual manufacturing and federal facilities, along with facilities in the seven new sectors, submit annual reports listing the amounts of specific chemicals released into the air, land and water. The list of reportable chemicals includes more than 600 specific chemicals and 28 chemical categories.

     This list has changed from time to time to reflect new research into the health effects of exposure to specific chemicals. The core chemicals are those which have been reportable since the original 1988 reporting year and are used for comparisons among annual reports.

     After the data is quality checked, it is compiled and made available to the public, most notably through EPA's web site. This provides a report card of the progress being made in reducing the industrial release of toxic chemicals to states, industries and citizens so they can work together for further reductions.

     TRI information is available at https://www.epa.gov/tri/tri98/ . The web site allows data to be viewed by a variety of criteria. For example, data about emissions to the air, surface water, land and/or underground injection can be viewed by state, county or zip code.