The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 2002 data for the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) shows a 5 percent increase in toxic releases to the environment. The agency's premier right-to-know program released the new data on June 23, one day after the Environmental Integrity Project published a report documenting levels of air toxins four to five times higher than previously reported. Although EPA published the 2002 data online, it did not publish a full Public Data Release (PDR) as it has done in previous years. The lack of full analysis by EPA is putting the public's right to know at risk. RTK NET, operated by OMB Watch, made the TRI data available on its site June 24. Background Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) in 1986 shortly after the Union Carbide chemical disaster in Bhopal, India killed thousands of people. The law aims to alert the public of any chemical facilities emitting toxins in their communities in order to avoid a disaster of the Bhopal magnitude. The Toxic Release Inventory was created in 1987 under EPCRA, and mandates the collection of data on releases and transfers of certain toxic chemicals from industrial facilities for public disclosure. TRI has expanded over the years and is now EPA's premier database of environmental information. RTK NET developed a searchable online database for TRI and other environmental data in 1989. Increase in Toxic Releases Overall, toxic releases reported for 2002 fell 15 percent from 2001. However, this number is misleading due to massive underreporting by the mining sector. A 2003 court decision, Barrick Goldstrike Mines, Inc. v. Whitman, allows mining facilities to report far less toxic waste because they do not have to include waste rock. Barring the mining waste numbers that significantly skew the data, EPA reports that:

• Total disposal or releases of TRI chemicals increased by 5 percent (151 million pounds);
• On-site disposal increased by 7 percent (196 million pounds);
• Off-site disposal decreased by 8 percent (44 million pounds);
• Total production-related wastes managed decreased by 4 percent (1.05 billion pounds);
• Disposal or releases of persistent bio-accumulative and toxic chemicals increased 3 percent (11 million pounds);
• Lead releases increased 3 percent (14 million pounds);
• Dioxin releases decreased 5 percent (7,082 grams) from 2001, although these had increased by 43 percent from 2000 (42,188 grams); and
• Mercury releases or disposal increased by 10 percent (465,962 million pounds).

The primary metals and utilities sectors reported the largest increases in disposal or releases. Primary metals' waste increased 39 percent (209 million pounds) and electric utilities increased by 3.5 percent (37 million pounds). Underreporting The June 22 report by the Environmental Integrity Project and Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention, indicates that EPA and state agencies are underreporting toxic air emissions by at least 16 percent, essentially hiding actual levels of emissions from the public. The study compares data from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the EPA and then applies it nationwide. The study examined 10 hydrocarbons covered by TRI that cause rapid ozone formation. Several of these chemicals, like benzene and butadiene, are known carcinogens. The report estimates at least 330 million pounds a year of these emitted toxins are not reported. Additionally, EPA's state pollution rankings change dramatically when the report's finding are applied nationwide. The differences in reporting are largely attributed to the techniques regulated facilities use when reporting emissions -- most estimate releases instead of monitoring them. Furthermore, the estimated releases that facilities calculate can change drastically when different emission factors are used. EPA previously acknowledged that its emission factors are not accurate. Despite this, EPA completed a rulemaking earlier this year rolling back requirements for air monitoring by facilities. The report contains a number of recommendations EPA should adopt, including more stringent regulations for air monitoring, a review of state-issued permits to ensure proper monitoring, and a re-examination of emission factors. Public Data Release While EPA posted the TRI data online, it no longer publishes a full Public Data Release (PDR), which includes easy-to-understand overviews of the data, detailed analysis, and supporting tables and information. Additionally, EPA no longer makes the companion State Fact Sheets report available in hard copy; this tool provides state-by-state data summaries, maps and other information. The PDR serves as the official governmental figures on toxic releases. It is used by a large segment of the public through libraries and other avenues. It has been printed and widely disseminated each year since inception of the TRI program, in compliance with legal requirements to produce an annual report. For the first time ever in the TRI history, EPA is downsizing the PDR from the two-volume report, spanning hundreds of pages, to a six-page report. EPA claims the public can access the same information previously available in PDRs from the online data. Not only is this a complicated and arduous task, but much of the information from the PDR cannot be obtained through the online services offered by EPA. Moreover, given there are updates to the TRI data throughout the year, there will be no "official" figures to use for comparative purposes. Thus, any future analyses will likely be criticized because numbers are unlikely to match in any two research efforts. OMB Watch posted an action alert, urging EPA to continue publishing the full PDR in both online and paper formats.