The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board (SAB) recently sent a letter to the agency expressing concerns over its plans to reduce information collected under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The SAB maintains that the proposed cuts would "hinder the advances of environmental research used to protect public health and the environment." SBA sent the letter detailing its concerns to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on July 12.

The SAB's Environmental Economics Advisory Committee (EEAC) drafted the letter to protest the cuts because of the importance it believes maintaining comparability and validity in TRI data holds. The EEAC rated "the maintenance of the integrity of TRI data as a high priority for EPA and the research community at large." The letter was co-signed by the chair of the SAB and the chair of the EEAC.

The letter cites several of the proposals' harmful outcomes for the research community, including:

• Making toxic release data incomparable over time and across facilities;

   

• Impairing researchers' ability to use TRI data to assess spatial health impacts of toxic chemical releases;

   

• Hindering the identification of epidemiological relationships between releases and health; and

   

• Limiting the national picture of the effect of toxic chemicals in the environment.

Congress established the SAB in 1978 to advise EPA on technical matters. The SAB, composed of roughly 50 scientists from across the country, among other things, reviews the quality and relevance of the scientific and technical information being used for regulations, and advises the agency on broad scientific matters in science, technology, social and economic issues.

The SAB letter is the latest in a series of protests from lawmakers and government officials. On May 18, the House of Representatives passed an amendment to the FY 2007 Interior appropriations bill that prohibits EPA from spending any money to finalize its proposals. On July 10, two senators placed a hold on Molly O'Neill, the administration's nominee to direct EPA's Office of Environmental Information, which runs the TRI program, in protest of EPA's proposed cuts to the TRI.

In addition, EPA has received more that 122,000 public comments expressing strong opposition to the proposals. Officials and agencies from 23 states have also weighed in with the agency claiming that the TRI proposals would damage the ability of states to track pollution, set environmental priorities, and protect public health and the environment.