Washington,
DC – For the first time ever, the Environmental Protection Agency
finalized two rollbacks to the nation’s premier toxic pollution
disclosure program, the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). The changes
announced today enable facilities to withhold currently reported
information about toxic chemicals and restricts public access to
information about toxic pollution.
“EPA’s actions take us
back to the dark ages when the public knew nothing about toxic releases
and when companies couldn’t be held accountable for pollution that
threatened public health,” said U.S. PIRG staff attorney Alex Fidis.
“EPA is substituting a don’t ask, don’t tell policy for a program that
works to protect public health and the environment.”
The TRI
is one of the most successful federal environmental programs, and has
been praised by environmental organizations, industry, and state and
local governments. While the TRI requires companies only to publicly
disclose toxic chemical use and pollution, EPA credits the program with
contributing to a 40 percent reduction in toxic pollution over an
18-year period. In addition to encouraging voluntary toxic reductions,
the TRI provides valuable data that is used by the public, firefighters
and emergency responders, investors, researchers, and state and local
governments.
EPA’s first change to the TRI will limit the
amount of data disclosed by authorizing companies to use or release
four to ten times more toxic chemicals before they are required to
submit a report. The second part of the rule enables companies to
withhold information about the use and production of dangerous
persistent bioaccumulative toxics. EPA had also planned to change the
frequency of submission of reports from once a year to once every two
years, but abandoned this proposal in response to intense opposition.
The
final rule announced today is opposed by public health and
environmental organizations, governmental agencies in 23 states, the
U.S. Conference of Mayors, and more than 122,000 individual public
commentors. In May 2005, the House of Representatives voted to block
EPA from implementing the TRI rollbacks, but the Senate was unable to
consider a similar measure before EPA finalized the changes.
“The
fundamental purpose of TRI is to inform the public about toxic
pollution and to drive voluntary toxic reductions that protect public
health by putting polluting companies under a public microscope,” said
Fidis. “Restricting public access to toxic data undermines the purpose
and effectiveness of TRI and is contrary to the best interests of the
public.”
