The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the 2006 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data on Feb. 21. This is the fastest data release in the history of the program, although it still constitutes more than a year of lag time from the period the data refers to, and it still takes four months longer than Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory. The 2006 data, which marks the first year that facilities are allowed to stop detailed reporting on chemical waste of less than 5,000 pounds, indicates that nationwide, 4.25 billion pounds of toxic pollution were released, which was a two percent decrease from 2005.

TRI Program

TRI is a database that tracks the release and management of over 650 toxic chemicals by industry, including manufacturing, waste handling, mining, and electric utility facilities. Facilities report to EPA on an annual basis, and EPA provides public electronic access to this information so that users can determine where, how, and in what amounts chemicals are released or managed in their communities and who is responsible for them. Pollution is divided into "releases," in which chemicals are discharged directly into the environment, and "waste," which adds waste management processes such as treatment, recycling, and energy recovery to the releases. Both can be on or off site of the reporting facility.

Facilities can opt out of providing such specific information — using the short Form A — if releases or total waste fall beneath a certain threshold, which was recently raised from 500 to up to 5,000 pounds, so long as less than 2,000 pounds are released directly to the environment. This sparked a controversy that is still unresolved: congressional legislation is pending to return the thresholds to the original 500 pounds, and 12 states are suing EPA over the change.

The 2006 data is the first year of the new threshold levels, and there is concern that a reduction of releases and/or waste management might be partially a consequence of the policy change rather than actual pollution reduction. Facilities filed 12,365 Form A reports in 2006, which was a 13 percent increase (1,435 more) from 2005. However, the overall reduction figures underscore that U.S. pollution in the TRI industrial sectors has steadily declined over the past 20 years. When considering chemicals and industries that have reported to the program since it began in 1988, annual releases are down are 59 percent.

2006 Releases and Waste

EPA has not provided a definitive cause for the two percent decrease in releases from 2005, but the three percent fewer facilities reporting for 2006 could be a factor. Electric utilities had the largest decrease in chemical releases, with a drop of 1.02 billion pounds from 2005. Metal mining remained the largest polluting industry, claiming all top five polluting facilities, and had the largest increase in releases and disposal (47 million pounds).

Of the 4.25 billion pounds of releases in 2006, 88 percent of the releases were on site of the facility, and 12 percent were off site. Of on-site pollution:

• 49 percent was released into land
• 33 percent was released into air
• Six percent was released into water

Of the 24.4 billion pounds of total waste produced:

• One-third was recycled
• One-third was treated
• 13 percent was burned for energy recovery

2006 PBTs

A total of 455 million pounds of persistent bioaccumulative toxics (PBTs) were released in 2006, accounting for 11 percent of total releases. These included:

• 446 million pounds of lead and lead compounds, a five percent decrease from 2005
• 5.1 million pounds of mercury and mercury compounds, a 17 percent increase
• 130,277 grams (287 pounds) of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, a 52 percent increase

Dioxin and related compounds are extremely toxic and have a reporting threshold of 0.1 grams. Three chemical manufacturers account for almost two-thirds of the reported releases.

2006 Carcinogens

The TRI program tracks 179 known or suspected carcinogens, including many of the PBTs. In 2006, approximately 820 million pounds of carcinogens were released, mostly to land. Ninety-one percent of them were on-site releases. Lead and arsenic were the largest contributors, and both of them decreased since 2005. Overall, carcinogens decreased by 11 percent in 2006.

In the last five years, releases reported by TRI facilities have decreased by 24 percent, sustaining the reduction trend since the program's inception. As previously mentioned, EPA has not provided an explanation for this significant progression, and the public is left to wonder whether it is predominantly due to increased efficiency, alternative practices, reduced production, fewer reporting facilities, and/or less detailed reporting. Such an analysis could be useful for determining how to decrease pollution even more.

The Next New Chemicals for TRI?

A recent analysis by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) proposed adding nanomaterials to the list of toxic chemicals tracked under the TRI program. The PEN report considered TRI only a possible avenue for advancing nanotechnology disclosure and acknowledges that more toxicological research needs to be done to determine whether or not nanomaterials constitute a health hazard. The last major overhaul to the TRI chemical list was in 1995, and PBTs were added in 2000. The new use of nanotechnology raises the question of how EPA can increase an older pollution program's relevancy in the face of current and emerging technologies.

2006 Data Available on RTK NET

Just one day after EPA released the 2006 TRI data, OMB Watch made the new information available on the Right-to-Know Network (RTKNET.org), which provides the public with search capabilities for a number of environmental databases. OMB Watch also launched new formats for presenting TRI data, such a new summary page that provides a concise snapshot of a search, including release/waste breakdown graphs, trend charts, and Top 5 lists of polluting companies, industries, and chemicals. Improved low- and medium-detail views allow users to easily sort results by releases or waste amounts, facility names, parent companies, chemicals, industry sectors, and geographic locations. The core chemical option in searches provides meaningful chemical comparisons by isolating chemicals consistently reported across any range of years being searched. Additional new features include links to street maps for facility addresses, an XML output, updated industry codes, and estimate amounts for the new Form A thresholds.