Pollutant
Release
and
Transfer
Registers
(PRTRS)
and
Multi-
Media
Emission
Inventories
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The United State's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is
one of several similar programs established, or being
established, by countries around the world. The term
used internationally for these TRI-like systems is
Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR).
Basic Characteristics of a PRTR
- Facility specific data
- Standardized data
- Chemical specific data
- Annual reporting
- Public Access of the data
- Mandatory reporting
- Limited trade secrecy
- For each chemical, data on releases
to air, water and land
- For each chemical, data on transfers
of the chemical in waste
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Above are some of the basic characteristics for a PRTR.
PRTRs are the most comprehensive of a type of environmental
program called emission inventories. Nations with
emission inventories collect data on releases to one
or more environmental media (air, water, land), thus
gathering a subset of the data that is gathered under
a PRTR system.
A multi-stakeholder group from Canada, the United States and
Mexico designed a user-friendly brochure that describes
a PRTR, its benefits and uses. The brochure is available
in English [PDF Format 283KB] and in Spanish [PDF
Format 314KB].
Each government that develops a PRTR often expands
on these basic elements. The U.S. TRI, for example,
provides the public with data for on-site waste management
of chemicals. The Japanese PRTR, for which facilities
are reporting for the first time in 2001, will include
data on diffuse sources (e.g., automobiles). The Canadian
PRTR, called the National Pollutant Release Inventory
(NPRI)
collects data on the number of employees at each facility.
Mexico has designed a national PRTR, but it is voluntary. Thus,
few facilities have submitted PRTR reports. However, at a
meeting with his counterparts from Canada and the U.S., the
Mexican environment minister has committed to introducing
legislation to make the Mexican PRTR mandatory. Since that
meeting, the Mexican Congress has passed the legislation.
Next steps for the Mexican government include developing the
regulations to implement the mandatory PRTR.
The Czech Republic
(the web site language is Czech)
also plans to introduce legislation for a mandatory
PRTR. The Czech Republic has been active in the international
arena on PRTR issues.
Australia's National Pollutant Inventory
(NPI) ,
which has collected on-site release data for several years, is having
internal discussions on expanding its system to include data on
transfers off-site. Norway (the
web site language is Norwegian) collects
on-site release data and transfer data, although the transfer data
is for total waste rather than chemical specific.
The United Kingdom has collected on-site release data for certain
processes within facilities, which it provides on its Pollutant
Inventory website.
In addition, an environmental organization (Friends of the Earth)
has obtained the data from the government
and created its own website, called
Factory Watch.
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North
American
PRTRs |
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In North America, the governments of the U.S., Canada
and Mexico are working together to improve the ability
to compare data from their three PRTR systems. This
work is coordinated by the North American
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) ,
an organization created with the North American Free
Trade Association (NAFTA). The NACEC's work includes
helping Mexico establish a PRTR comparable to t he
U.S. and Canadian PRTRs, publishing an annual report
titled Taking Stock that compiles and compares the
PRTR data, and operating a searchable website of comparable
North American PRTR data.
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PRTR Work
by
International
Organizations
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The United States is working with other countries and
with international organizations to facilitate PRTR
development. The international efforts on PRTRs originated
with the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development (UNCED), commonly known as the Earth
Summit. At this meeting, the governments of the world
charted an environmental action plan for the 21st
century. The action plan, titled Agenda 21, included
a chapter on policies to improve the sound management
of the chemicals. This,
Chapter 19,
called on nations to establish emission inventories
and to make the resulting information available to
the public.
In 1993, the U.S., along with other nations, international
organizations, industry groups, and environmental
organizations, met to chart a course for the development
of these emission inventories. They coined the name
PRTR to reflect the goal of collecting comprehensive
information on the releases and transfers of pollutants
from facilities.
In subsequent years, the nations of the world have
met to assess progress on the Earth Summit's goals
on chemicals management issues, which includes PRTRs.
At the most recent of these Intergovernmental Forum
on Chemical Safety
(IFCS)
meetings, there was a special session on PRTRs. The
final document from this meeting, Forum III, stresses
the importance of public access and public participation
and emphasizes the characteristics that are essential
for a successful PRTR.
Forum III
Priorities for Action Beyond 2000
[PRTRs/emission inventories] are recognized
… as an important tool to raise public
awareness about potential chemical risks
and as an effective environmental management
tool to stimulate chemical risk reduction.
Although PRTRs are designed to be country-specific,
there are commonalities between national
systems. Common characteristics of many
successful PRTR programmes include: a
listing of pollutants; environmental multi-media
and/or integrated reporting of releases
and transfers (i.e., to air, water, and
land); reporting of data by source; reporting
of data periodically (normally annually);
and making data and information available
to the public.
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A number of international organizations have ongoing
PRTR programs. The Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development OECD
coordinated PRTR activities between the industrialized
nations of Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
The U.S. presently is the chair of an OECD task force
to improve information about the techniques used to
estimate releases. The goal is to enable the OECD
governments to provide effective guidance to its reporting
industries.
Two United Nations organizations are working with developing
nations to design and implement PRTR systems. The
United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) is
working with countries in the former Soviet Union,
while the United
Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
has focused on nations in Latin America, Africa, and
Central Europe.
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