Overall Toxic Releases Down, Hazwaste Up in 2000

WASHINGTON, DC, May 28, 2002 (ENS) – Industries in the United States released about 7.1 billion pounds of toxic wastes into the environment in the year 2000, a decline of about eight percent from the previous year, new data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reveals.

While overall toxic releases are down, quantities of hazardous wastes are up. The report documents a 25 percent jump in the amount of hazardous wastes disposed of through landfills, incinerators and other methods in the year 2000.

Cortez Gold Mine and processing facility near Crescent Valley, Nevada. In 2000, Cortez produced 1,000,000 ounces of gold. (Photo courtesy Kennecott Minerals)

The data, part of the federal Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), established by Congress in 1986 as the nation's community right to know program, shows a continuing decline in the amount of wastes released directly into the nation’s air, land and water.

But conservation groups charge that those gains are offset by the billions of new pounds of so called managed wastes, which often make their way into the environment from leaky landfills, recycling facilities and Superfund sites.

“The Toxics Release Inventory is a powerful tool to help citizens assess local environmental conditions and to help them make decisions about protecting their environment,” said Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

TRI includes information on releases and other waste management methods for more than 650 toxic chemicals and chemical categories.

The data are based on reports from manufacturing industries, metal mines, certain coal mining activities, electrical utilities that burn coal or oil, hazardous waste treatment and disposal facilities, chemical wholesale distributors, petroleum bulk plants and terminals and solvent recovery services.

The TRI program does not include releases from pollution sources like oil wells, airports and waste incinerators, or other sources of exposure to chemicals, such as chemicals placed in consumer products.

Hazardous waste spill is handled by a trained and bonded team. (Photo courtesy Western States Environmental Services)

In 1999, EPA lowered those thresholds to 10 pounds or 100 pounds for 20 persistent, bioaccumulative toxic (PBT) chemicals, such as dioxins, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), requiring several thousand facilities to report on those chemicals for the first time. These chemicals remain in ecosystems for long periods of time, and accumulate in animal and human tissues.

“I am pleased that we are beginning to provide additional data on persistent bioaccumulative toxic chemicals since they can remain in the environment for extended periods and build up in humans and the environment,” Whitman said. “It will be important for us to use these data in conjunction with other environmental information to analyze trends in environmental indicators at both the national and local levels.”

The companies reported generating almost 72 million pounds of waste containing PBT chemicals in 2000, and released at least 12 million pounds of these persistent chemicals into the environment.

For example, industries released about 4.3 million pounds of mercury and mercury compounds to the environment and generated 4.9 million pounds of mercury compounds in toxic waste in 2000. By comparison, a teaspoon of mercury deposited every year can contaminate a 20 acre lake to the point that fish are unsafe to eat.

This incinerator in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is said by critics to be one of the largest sources of dioxin in the country. (Photo courtesy Coalition Against the Incinerator)

The report shows that environmental releases of all Toxic Release Inventory chemicals combined decreased by about 700 million pounds during 2000, the latest year for which data are available, from 7.8 billion pounds in 1999 to 7.1 billion pounds in 2000. Based on past TRI reports, chemical releases have decreased by about 48 percent since 1988.

As in previous years, releases from the metal mining industry in 2000 made up a substantial portion of all chemical releases - 47 percent or about 3.4 billion pounds. This was a decrease of more than 14 percent from their releases in 1999.

Releases from manufacturing industries accounted for 32 percent of all releases or about 2.3 billion pounds - a 2.6 decrease from 1999.

About 16 percent of the releases were from electric utilities - about 1.15 billion pounds – or a three percent decrease from 1999.

About 27 percent of all chemical releases were to the atmosphere, compared to about four percent to water and 69 percent to land.

The Tampa Electric Company's Polk Power Station near Lakeland, Florida is said by the U.S. Energy Department (DOE) to be one of the world's cleanest, most advanced coal power plants. (Photo courtesy DOE)

"The billions of pounds of toxic pollution and toxic waste documented today should show our decision makers why we need a law that phases out the use of the most toxic chemicals," said Baumann.

Instead, Baumann said, the Bush administration is currently considering a number of proposals that could increase the amount of toxic pollutants that industries are permitted to release. President Bush’s "Clear Skies Initiative" would allow three times more mercury pollution than full enforcement of the current Clean Air Act, Baumann said.

The Bush administration has also proposed weakening the new source review provisions of the Clean Air Act, which require aging power plants to install modern emissions control equipment when they upgrade their power output. Earlier this month, the administration proposed relaxing clean water rules to legalize the dumping of coal mining wastes into rivers and streams.

"We see billions of pounds of toxic pollution dumped every year, so it's particularly disappointing that the Bush administration would allow the worst polluters to pollute more," said Baumann.

The latest TRI data are available at: http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/tri00/index.htm