Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)

EPA's Pollution Right-to-Know Program Revived From 10-year Coma

Apr 19, 2010 by Brian Turnbaugh*

After more than ten years in deep freeze, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now proposing steps to revitalize the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) – the bedrock public right-to-know program that tracks toxic pollution from thousands of businesses. Two recent EPA proposals would expand the number of chemicals reported to the program. This would be the first expansion since 1999. The proposals are small but important steps forward. However, EPA must do much more to boost the usefulness of this vital program.

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U.S. Waters Still Toxic Dump Sites

A new report from Environment America uncovers a dirty truth in publicly available government databases about the country’s waterways – widespread toxic pollution dumped by industrial facilities. More than 230 million pounds of toxics were discharged into 1,900 waterways across all 50 states in 2007, including chemicals known to cause cancer and birth defects.

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EPA Releases Toxics Data Early

Aug 19, 2009 by Brian Turnbaugh*

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the most recent Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data several months earlier than usual. The early release of 2008 data represents a concrete action taken by the new EPA leadership to improve transparency following numerous pronouncements calling for such actions. The TRI database tracks releases and transfers of more than 650 toxic chemicals by facilities nationwide.

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Redesigned Right-to-Know Website Now Live

May 5, 2009 by Brian Turnbaugh*

The newly redesigned Right-to-Know Network (RTK NET) website is up and running.

Interested in what toxic chemicals are being released into your town's air and water? Need information on how much hazardous waste is generated at the plant down the street? Want to know what events are impacting your right to know about environmental threats?

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Takin’ TRI to the Next Level: First Path - Expanding Information Tracked

Apr 10, 2009 by Sean Moulton

On April 9 I introduced the need for improving the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and suggested three broad paths for achieving this. Here I discuss one path – expanding information. We always want more information. And for a while TRI was a program regularly searching for new data to report with new industries being added, new chemicals, lowering the threshold for some chemicals, and adding federal facilities. But recently we have gone backwards with an effort by the agency to raise the reporting thresholds and have fewer detailed reports filed.

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Takin' TRI to the Next Level

Apr 9, 2009 by Sean Moulton

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) invited me to speak at the National TRI Conference about my ideas for where the new administration might take the Toxic Releases Inventory (TRI) program. I thought some people who missed the conference might be interested in the ideas so I’m posting them here in a series of blog posts.

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The Toxics Release Inventory is Back

On March 11, President Barack Obama signed into law a restoration of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), reversing changes made by the Bush administration that had weakened the program. The measure was included deep within the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 and restored the rules that existed before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) weakened them in December 2006.

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TRI Fix is Already Here

Mar 17, 2009 by Brian Turnbaugh*

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will begin immediately implementing the restored rules for companies to report toxic pollution through the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). According to an announcement on the EPA website, "These changes affect TRI reports due July 1, 2009," thus covering toxic release data from 2008.

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TRI Restored

Mar 11, 2009 by Brian Turnbaugh*

The weakening of the cornerstone of environmental right-to-know laws by former President Bush was finally reversed today. The omnibus spending bill signed by Obama includes language that restores the previous reporting rules for the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), the highly successful program that provides the public with information on pollution released in communities nationwide.

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Hundreds Call on EPA to Restore Public Access to Toxic Pollution Information

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2009—Hundreds of national, state, and local groups and individual signers today called on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to reverse a 2006 Environmental Protection Agency rule that limits public access to information about toxic chemical releases. The rule, finalized in December 2006, allows industries to withhold information on the quantities and locations of toxic chemical releases previously reported to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).

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