Takin' TRI to the Next Level

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) invited me to speak at the National TRI Conference [1] 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.

First it is important to acknowledge that the TRI program is EPA’s premier information program, clearly demonstrating the power that information holds to promote change that benefits everyone’s environment, health and safety. Established in the late 1980’s following the Bhopal, India disaster, the program database of environmental information, collects information on the releases and transfers of toxic pollution and makes that information available to the public.

The database enables the public to learn about the environmental risks in our workplaces and communities. And by arming the public with information, the program empowers them to participate and take action about these risks. Simply put, the TRI program has served as a constant example of the vital role information plays in a democracy, and the importance of the public’s right to know.

The easy access to pollution information provided by TRI has empowered citizens to push for improvements, and facilities have acted to reduce releases. Since facilities began reporting in 1988, there has been a nearly 60 percent reduction in total releases of the 299 core chemicals that the program began tracking. This is a significant drop, one that was fueled by merely making information publicly available. As new chemicals have been added to the TRI program, those releases have also dropped.

But despite this overall success of the program, as of late TRI has stagnated and is long overdue from some significant improvements and upgrades. Other than the rise and fall of the so-called Burden Reduction Rule, the TRI program has experienced no major changes for years.

But up to about 2001, regular enhancements and expansions to the program were a common occurrence --- lower threshold for lead and PBTs; new industries in 1997; and addition of hundreds of chemicals in 1994. The developments during this dynamic period, especially in the 1990s, kept TRI at the cutting edge of pollution reduction efforts. For the program to regain its position as an example in community right to know, the program must consider several paths to expand and reinvigorate the program.

• Increasing the information provided under TRI
• Close the connection between TRI and other data
• Reinvigorate EPA’s role as pollution prevention advocate.

These are broad paths available to the new administration, and they contain many options within them. There are also numerous specific fixes and minor improvements we will suggest to EPA but for this exercise we focus on bigger and bolder changes for the program. I should also note that we do not see these paths as mutually exclusive, in fact since any significant effort in any of these tracks would likely take time to implement the agency would be wise to start working on several options as soon as possible.

Tomorrow's blog: Increasing the information tracked under TRI