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Executive Summary
As the new home of NCPIRG's environmental work,
Environment North Carolina can be contacted with any questions regarding this report.
Since 1987, the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program has been the nation’s premiere pollution
disclosure program. By requiring companies to disclose the pollution they release to our air,
water, and land, transfer off site, or dispose in a waste dump, the TRI program has ensured the
public’s right-to-know about toxic pollution in communities.
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:
• 140 facilities in North Carolina would no longer be required to report their releases to the
TRI.
• North Carolina would lose 100 percent of the reporting for arsenic. This
chemical is a known carcinogen and developmental toxicant.
• Many communities in North Carolina would be severely affected. For example, people
living in 30 zip codes would lose 100 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.
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