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In 1984 a deadly cloud of methyl isocyanate killed
thousands of people in Bhopal, India. Shortly thereafter,
there was a serious chemical release at a sister plant
in West Virginia. These incidents underscored demands
by industrial workers and communities in several states
for information on hazardous materials. Public interest
and environmental organizations around the country
accelerated demands for information on toxic chemicals
being released "beyond the fence line" -- outside
of the facility. Against this background, the Emergency
Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) was
enacted in 1986.
EPCRA's primary purpose is to inform communities and
citizens of chemical hazards in their areas. Sections
311 and 312 of EPCRA require businesses to report
the locations and quantities of chemicals stored on-site
to state and local governments in order to help communities
prepare to respond to chemical spills and similar
emergencies. EPCRA Section 313 requires EPA and the
States to annually collect data on releases and transfers
of certain toxic chemicals from industrial facilities,
and make the data available to the public in the Toxics
Release Inventory (TRI). In 1990 Congress passed the
Pollution Prevention Act which required that additional
data on waste management and source reduction activities
be reported under TRI. The goal of TRI is to empower
citizens, through information, to hold companies and
local governments accountable in terms of how toxic
chemicals are managed.
EPA compiles the TRI data each year and makes it available
through several data access tools, including the TRI
Explorer and Envirofacts. There are other organizations
which also make the data available to the public through
their own data access tools, including Unison Institute
which puts out a tool called "RTKNet" and Environmental
Defense which has developed a tool called "Scorecard."
The TRI program has expanded significantly since its
inception in 1987. The Agency has issued rules to
roughly double the number of chemicals included in
the TRI to approximately 650. Seven new industry sectors
have been added to expand coverage significantly beyond
the original covered industries, i.e. manufacturing
industries. Most recently, the Agency has reduced
the reporting thresholds for certain persistent, bioaccumulative,
and toxic (PBT) chemicals in order to be able to provide
additional information to the public on these chemicals.
Armed with TRI data, communities have more power to
hold companies accountable and make informed decisions
about how toxic chemicals are to be managed. The data
often spurs companies to focus on their chemical management
practices since they are being measured and made public.
In addition, the data serves as a rough indicator
of environmental progress over time.
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