EPA Cites a Rise in Toxic Chemicals Emissions

28 June 2004 00:01  [Source: ICB Americas]

The amount of toxic chemicals released into the environment by US industries rose 5 percent in 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said last week, the biggest increase since the government began tracking industrial emissions in 1987.

The latest statistics, compiled in the agency’s annual Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), show that a total of 4.79 billion pounds of hazardous substances entered the nation’s air, water and land during the 2002 reporting year.

However, Kimberly Nelson, the EPA’s chief information officer, says problems at copper and gold mines and other unusual events caused the “extraordinarily large change” in pollution trends. The only other time the EPA’s tally of toxic emissions increased was in 1996-1997, when emissions rose 2.2 percent.

Much of the increase in 2002, says Ms. Nelson, was caused by the closure of BHP Copper Company’s San Manuel copper smelting facility in Tucson, Ariz. Dismantling a plant turns components and product into waste material. Discounting that facility, emissions would have declined by 3 percent nationwide.

According to the report, releases of lead increased 3.2 percent and mercury jumped by 10 percent, though Ms. Nelson attributes the mercury increase to a single gold mine. How-ever, emissions of dioxin, a by-product of various industrial processes, fell by 5 percent.

Under a 1986 community right-to-know law targeting 650 chemicals, companies must report to the EPA how much of each chemical they release annually. The federal government does not directly monitor the release of all emissions, though it has recently taken enforcement action against facilities that missed the EPA’s July 1 reporting deadline.

The EPA issued the TRI report shortly after two environmental groups charged the agency was vastly underestimating the amount of toxics being emitted into the air.

The EPA-sanctioned practices for refineries and chemical plants miss a “startling” amount of health-threatening chemicals, assert the Rockefeller Family Fund’s Environ-mental Integrity Project and the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention.

The groups cite findings by the Texas Commission on Environmen-tal Quality, which found that the concentration of toxic substances in the air around petrochemicals complexes was far higher than the figures reported to state and federal authorities.

Extrapolating the Texas data to other states, the groups concluded that industry was underestimating releases of carcinogens such as benzene and butadiene by as much as 400 to 500 percent.

“The bottom line here is that the public is being exposed to far more toxic air pollution than the EPA acknowledges,” says Kelly Haragan, an EIP attorney. “The EPA has known for a long time its numbers are inaccurate.”

The EPA officials defended their re-quirements for emissions calculations and said that most toxic releases have declined significantly nationwide since the reporting program began.

Ms. Nelson says the agency has “no evidence of significant trends” in underreporting, adding that critics have unrealistic standards. “The law doesn’t require precise monitoring of every single chemical at every single facility in the country,” she notes.

An EPA spokesperson adds that Congress never intended the TRI to be inclusive of all types of emissions and chemicals. The annual TRI “is one of just several tools we have to provide the public with data on chemical emissions and releases,” she says.

Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, says actual air toxics monitoring data shows that nationwide emissions of benzene and other compounds have steadily decreased.

“Toxic emissions have declined, in part, because of actions taken by the refining industry,” says Mr. Slaughter. “First, advanced technology and ma-nagement systems at refineries and petrochemicals facilities have lowered emissions. And second, the introduction of new refinery products—namely cleaner gasolines—has reduced the toxics profile of cars and trucks.”

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