Fewer Companies May Have to Report Toxic Emissions

Thousands of companies throughout the nation may no longer have to provide the public with details about the toxic chemicals they release into the environment. Such a move would simplify the data-gathering automation components of many smaller chemical producers and mid-level users of toxic substances.

According a Los Angeles Times report, the Bush administration is proposing to streamline the nation's environmental right-to-know law to save industry money. For nearly 20 years, the national Toxics Release Inventory has allowed people to access detailed data about chemicals in use and that emanate from local facilities into 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 (EPA) 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, according to a report released by the environmental group National Environmental Trust. Top EPA officials laud the inventory program as an essential public tool but say its reporting requirements have doubled over the last decade, with U.S. industry now spending $650 million a year to comply.

Kim Nelson, an assistant administrator at the EPA, said the companies that would benefit from the proposal are "tiny, tiny businesses, mom-and-pop shops operating on Main Street that, in an aggregate, amount to less than 1% of the emissions in this country."

Under existing rules, facilities that release 500 or more pounds of toxic substances each year must reveal how much of each chemical wafts into the air, is discharged into waterways, and is taken to landfills or other disposal sites. Under the EPA proposal, 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. Community activists and experts on hazardous materials said eliminating data from small plants would weaken a powerful tool that communities use to make people aware of risks and persuade businesses to reduce their chemical use.