EPA Releases Updated 2020 TRI Data
WASHINGTON (October 21, 2021) – Today, EPA has made available updated 2020 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data about chemical releases, chemical waste management, and pollution prevention activities that took place during 2020 at more than 21,000 federal and industrial facilities throughout the United States and its territories. This dataset builds on the preliminary data released in July. It includes revised and late submissions from facilities, and additional data quality checks by EPA.
The data released today also include the first-ever reporting on the 172 per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) added to TRI by the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
At this time, the data related to the PFAS added by the NDAA and received by the agency include a total of 91 TRI reporting forms for 43 discrete PFAS chemicals filed by 39 individual facilities. The data indicate facilities managed over 841,000 pounds of production-related waste of PFAS during 2020.
Members of the public can use the 2020 TRI data to identify how many facilities that reported to EPA’s TRI Program operate in a given geographic area and where they are located, as well as which chemicals facilities have released or otherwise managed as waste and in what quantities. EPA has conducted various data quality reviews to help verify the submitted data.
EPA's full analysis of the 2020 data will be published early next year in the reporting year 2020 TRI National Analysis, and will examine different aspects of the data, including trends in releases, other waste management practices, and pollution prevention activities.
The TRI National Analysis will include discussion on the quantities of the PFAS that were released to the environment, recycled, burned for energy recovery or treated; source reduction activities implemented on PFAS; the facilities and sectors that disclosed this information; and the communities in which these activities took place. The National Analysis will provide insights regarding the seemingly limited scope of the reporting, including the types and number of facilities reporting and specific PFAS reported.
Additionally, as part of the recently released PFAS Roadmap, EPA plans to enhance PFAS reporting under the TRI by proposing a rulemaking that would, among other changes, remove the eligibility of the de minimis exemption. The de minimis exemption allows covered facilities to disregard certain minimal concentrations of non-persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals in mixtures or trade name products. This proposal would make unavailable the de minimis exemption with regards to providing supplier notifications to downstream TRI facilities.
Because PFAS are used at low concentrations in many products, the elimination of the de minimis exemption will result in a more complete picture of the releases and waste management quantities for these chemicals.
The 2020 data are available in the online TRI tools and data files, including the location-based TRI factsheets.