More than 4.34 billion pounds of toxic materials were released into the environment in 2005, an increase of about 3 percent from the previous year, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a report released March 22.

As in 2004, the metal mining sector continued to reflect the largest portion of releases, according to the Toxics Release Inventory, which is released annually. The industry reported 1.17 billion pounds of emissions for 2005, about a 9 percent increase from 2004, the report said.

Lead and lead compounds were the most prevalent toxics produced by the mining sector.

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a database containing detailed information on nearly 650 chemical categories managed by more than 23,000 industrial and federal facilities, according to EPA.

It was established under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986, which requires industrial facilities to publicly disclose their toxics releases annually. The main intent of the law is to inform communities and citizens of chemical hazards in their areas.

Electric utilities reported the second largest portion of disposal or other releases in 2005: 1.10 billion pounds, the report said. The figure is about 39 million pounds, or 4 percent, more than was reported for 2004, EPA said.

The chemical manufacturing sector reported 531 million pounds in 2005, a decrease of 23 million pounds from 2004, the report said.

Reasons for the 3 percent increase from 2004 are complicated, EPA said. Factors can include production increases, changes in raw materials used, or changes in releases at a few large facilities which affect national figures, the agency said.

In presenting TRI data for 2004, in April 2006, EPA said there was a 4 percent reduction in releases from 2003 and a 45 percent decrease from 1998 (30 CRR 389, 04/17/06).

Less Dioxin, Mercury.

Other data in the inventory show that progress is being made in reducing releases of several chemicals of particular concern, such as dioxin and mercury, EPA said. For example, in 2005, 23 percent less dioxin (a decrease of 57 pounds) and 9 percent less mercury (a decrease of more than 420,000 pounds) were released than in the previous year, the agency said.

EPA also said it released the information from the inventory to the public earlier than in previous years.

“EPA is getting quality data out to the public faster through electronic reporting, which is good for the environment, good for states, and good for our partners in industry,” Molly O'Neill, assistant EPA administrator for the Office of Environmental Information, said in a statement.

'Last Complete Picture'?

In response to EPA's release of the TRI data, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said in a March 22 statement that the release of 1.5 billion pounds of toxic pollutants in 2005 threatened the health of communities across the United States.

In 2004 alone, U.S. industrial facilities released more than 70 million pounds of known carcinogens and 826 million pounds of neurotoxins to the air and water, according to PIRG.

U.S. PIRG released its own report the same day, Toxic Pollution and Health, which uses information from the federal TRI to analyze toxic pollution linked to serious health problems such as cancer, birth defects, or neurological damage.

PIRG said its report may provide “one of the last complete pictures of toxic pollution” because of a “recent EPA action restricting the public's right to know.”

The organization was referring to a rule EPA issued in December 2006 that is expected to expand the use of shorter, less-detailed reports on releases of toxic chemicals under the Toxics Release Inventory.

Companion bills (H.R. 1055, S. 595) that would overturn EPA's rule were introduced in the House and Senate Feb. 14 by Reps. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) and Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Boxer, who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said she hoped to hold hearings on the legislation, the Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act (31 CRR 181, 02/19/07).

Bowing to criticism from Democratic lawmakers and others, EPA in December 2006 dropped plans to change the TRI reporting requirements from every year to every two years.

By Patricia Ware

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EPA's Toxics Release Inventory data for 2005 can be found at http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/tri05/index.htm. U.S. PIRG's report, Toxic Pollution and Health, is available at http://uspirg.org/news-releases/healthy-communities/healthy-communities/new-report-links-toxic-pollution-and-health-hazards-as-epa-acts-to-restrict-pollution-data.