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What does the US EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program disclose -- and not disclose -- to the public about industrial uses of toxic chemicals?

The federal TRI program is a database of information on more than 650 toxic chemicals generated as waste and released into the environment by approximately 23,000 industrial plants in the US. Facilities required to report to the TRI must be in an industrial category targeted by the EPA, must have at least 10 full-time employees, and must manufacture or process at least 25,000 pounds (or “otherwise use” 10,000 pounds) of at least one TRI chemical in a calendar year.

Lower reporting thresholds were recently established for 19 substances classified by the EPA as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals (PBTs). These thresholds range from 0.1 gram/year for dioxins, to 10 pounds/year for mercury, to 100 pounds/year for lead and pendimethalin (an herbicide commonly used on golf courses). For more information on the new PBT reporting requirements, which apply to reporting year 2000, see http://www.epa.gov/tri/lawsandregs/pbt/pbtrule-sum.pdf. (Note: this source does not address lead, which was given a separate reporting threshold that applies to reporting year 2001. For more information on EPA’s “Lead Rule,” see http://www.epa.gov/tri/lawsandregs/tri_pb_rule.htm.)

Through the TRI, the public has access to information about some of the ways in which the nation’s largest manufacturing facilities ­ as well as power plants, mining operations, hazardous waste disposal sites, and federal facilities ­ may be adversely impacting the environment and public health. For each reported chemical, facilities must detail the annual amount that is:

• Released into the air from stacks and nonpoint sources such as leaky pipes and accidental releases.
• Discharged into rivers, streams, and other surface waters.
• Sent to sewage treatment plants (also know as publicly owned treatment works, or POTWs).
• Pumped into underground injection wells (these are now illegal in 33 states).
• Landfilled either on the plant site or off-site.
• Incinerated, recycled, and treated.

The TRI does not require industrial facilities to report the quantities of toxic chemicals that are:

• Used on an annual basis.
• Transported into the facility as industrial feedstocks.
• Incorporated into consumer and industrial products.

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