California, a leader in strong environmental policy, has introduced a bill that would restore reporting requirements for toxic chemicals to pre-U.S. EPA rollback threshold levels. As the federal government weakens toxic waste regulation, states are taking charge of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and prioritizing the protection of their residents. The California Toxic Release Inventory Program Act of 2007 (Assembly Bill 833) maintains the previous level of reporting and prevents the federal changes from impacting the state program.

Assembly member Ira Ruskin introduced the bill. "It is unfortunate that California must once again defend itself from a Bush Administration action that harms the health of people and turns its back on scientific knowledge," said Ruskin in a press release. "In this case, the affected industry did not even clamor for the reporting rollbacks granted by Bush's EPA. My legislation ensures that the people of California maintain the same rights to know despite the efforts of the Bush Administration to curtail that right." The bill passed in the Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials Committee on April 11 and will now be considered by the Appropriations Committee.

In December 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule that increased the annual amount of toxins facilities can emit before substantive reporting is required. Previously, all toxic releases and disposals over 500 pounds required detailed reports on management of the toxin. Effective January 2007, the threshold increased to 5,000 pounds, provided less than 2,000 pounds are released directly to the environment. This tenfold increase will essentially allow releases below the threshold to go unreported. For releases under the threshold, facilities need only file a short form affirming the chemical name and that its quantity is below the reporting requirement — no specific information on the quantity or where the chemical went (air, water, or land) is included.

According to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), in California alone, 600,000 pounds of hazardous waste would essentially vanish from the record books. The EWG report, Stolen Inventory, explains that data on several dangerous carcinogens would be among the missing information, including: 41,000 pounds of ethylbenzene, 10,000 pounds of styrene, 12,000 pounds of benzene and 16,000 pounds of chromium-related compounds. The report estimates that 274 facilities would switch to the relaxed reporting system, with certain areas disproportionately losing data. Los Angeles County alone would account for 107 missing facilities. Passage of AB 833 would ensure that these toxins and facilities remain on the California books.

EPA declared that its December rule change would decrease unnecessary reporting burdens for companies. However, California's actions indicate that the opposite is happening. State governments were vocal in their opposition to the TRI rollback; agencies and officials from 23 states submitted comments in the effort to stop the rule change. Many states have built their toxics programs around the TRI data, sometimes adding to information tracked, but avoiding senseless duplication of federal reporting requirements. Some states, such as Massachusetts and New Jersey, have strong additional toxic reporting programs of their own. Others, such as Minnesota, are concerned about potential health impacts and revenue loss from toxic reporting fees. In the absence of acceptable federal reporting thresholds, such concerned states may choose to follow California's lead and create new toxics reporting standards to compensate for EPA's rollback. Companies operating in multiple states will be compelled to comply with numerous different state programs instead of the singular system that had been in practice for the past twenty years.

Federal legislative efforts are also underway in both the House and Senate to undo much of the damage from EPA's rule change. Similar to California's introduced legislation, these bills simply restore the original TRI reporting thresholds and prevent facilities from avoiding the requirement to report their toxic pollution. On Feb. 14, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Hilda Solis (D-CA) announced companion versions of the Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act, S. 595 and H.R. 1055, respectively. Both bills are currently being considered in committee.