[Corporations] Stop EPA from Weakening Toxics Right-to-Know

[Mike Ewall]

Since 1987, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has required 
certain industries to report certain toxic chemical releases into 
communities.  It's not perfect, but it's one of the best 
right-to-know tools we have.  It enables us to learn about some of 
air and solid waste pollution released from power plants.  It also 
enables us to learn about some of the toxic chemicals sent to 
landfills, incinerators and sent down the drain to sewage treatment 
plants, where the toxic sludge often ends up on farm fields as fertilizer.

Now, Bush's EPA wants to dramatically weaken this law, denying 
communities the rights to know what toxic chemicals they're being exposed to.

EPA just extended the comment period to January 13, 2006 and we're 
working to try to get as many comments in as possible.

EPA's proposal would:
* Eliminate every other year of TRI data by switching from annual 
reporting to biennial;
* Allow companies to pollute ten times as much (raising thresholds 
from 500 to 5,000 lbs.) before requiring them to report the details 
on the quantity and media;
* Permit facilities to withhold details on low-level production of 
persistent bioacculuative toxins (PBTs).

Please use the links below to read up and act to protect our rights:

Fact Sheets and links to various groups' action alerts
http://www.ombwatch.org/tricenter/TRIaction.html

New Report: "Dismantling the Public's Right to Know: EPA's Systematic 
Weakening of the Toxics Release Inventory"
http://www.ombwatch.org/pdfs/TRI_Report.pdf

OMB Watch's Toxics Release Inventory Resource Center
http://www.ombwatch.org/tricenter/

Use the TRI database here:
http://www.rtknet.org/new/tri/

Some info on the limitations of the TRI database:
http://www.actionpa.org/tri/#what

Here are some excerpts from a recent LA Times article on the matter:

Thousands of Firms Could Stop Reporting Emissions
By Marla Cone, LA Times Staff Writer
December 2, 2005

Thousands of companies throughout the nation, including many in the 
Los Angeles region, would no longer have to provide the public with 
details of toxic chemicals they release into the environment under a 
Bush administration proposal to streamline the nation's environmental 
right-to-know law.

For nearly 20 years, the national Toxics Release Inventory has 
allowed people to access detailed data about chemicals that are used 
and released in their neighborhoods. In about 9,000 communities, the 
annual reports identify which industrial plants emit the most toxic 
substances, whether their emissions are increasing and what compounds 
may be contaminating their air and water.

Seeking to ease the financial burden on industry, the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency has proposed eliminating some 
requirements for smaller facilities that must monitor their emissions 
and file the complex annual reports. The EPA will make a final 
decision on the proposal next year, after a public comment period.

Under the agency's proposal, 922 communities would lose all 
information from the inventory detailing emissions...

Under existing rules, facilities that release 500 or more pounds of 
toxic substances each year must reveal how much of each chemical is 
emitted into the air, discharged into waterways and taken to 
landfills or other disposal sites.

But under the EPA proposal, unveiled in September, that threshold 
would be raised to 5,000 pounds. The smaller emitters would be 
required only to list chemical names without any data on 
environmental releases, such as amounts discharged into the air. 
Among the industries that could benefit are metal-plating plants, 
electronics firms, pharmaceutical companies, foam manufacturers, food 
processors and petrochemical and oil facilities.

Read the full article here: http://tinyurl.com/dykh2


Mike Ewall
215-743-4884
catalyst at actionpa.org
ActionPA http://www.actionpa.org
Energy Justice Network http://www.energyjustice.net