Undisclosed Pollution: Local Impacts of the Bush Administration’s Attack on the Toxics Release Inventory Program

12/1/2005

Executive Summary

The TRI program is under attack. The Bush Administration has issued a series of proposed changes over the past few years, some of which would weaken the program by reducing the amount or quality of information available to the public. In the fall of 2005, however, the Bush Administration proposed the most significant changes yet. These changes to the TRI are threefold:

• A rule to allow companies to release 10 times as much toxic pollution before they are required to report their releases;
• A rule to allow companies to withhold information about some of the most dangerous chemicals, such as lead and mercury;
• A notification to Congress that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson intends to release a rule changing the frequency of reporting to the program from every year to every other year.

Local communities would feel the greatest impact of these proposed changes. Grassroots Connection analyzed the local impact of these proposed rules and found the following:

• 3,849 facilities across the country would no longer be required to report their releases to the TRI.
• Many communities would be severely affected. For example, people living in 922 zip codes would lose one hundred percent of the pollution information reported in their area.

In order to protect the publics right-to-know about pollution in their neighborhoods, the Toxics Release Inventory should be strengthened, not weakened. The Bush Administration should drop this proposed rule, and instead look for ways to strengthen and expand this successful pollution disclosure program.