EPA seeks to ease toxics reporting rules.

Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard

The federal government is retreating from a right-to-know program that allowed residents in neighborhoods all across the country to look up the pollutants emitted by nearby factories.

About one-third of 20,000 major industrial plants nationwide will get relief from paperwork if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency adopts the proposed rules.

Instead of requiring companies to report their chemical releases to the federal government annually, the schedule would be changed to every other year.

Also, companies would be allowed to emit 10 times more chemicals - up to 5,000 pounds per year - before they reach the threshold where detailed reports are required, compared with 500 pounds under the current rules.

As a result, the federal Toxics Release Inventory - which is available online in an easy-to-use form - would have less detail and more out-of-date information.

EPA officials say the "Burden Reduction Rule" was spurred by business complaints that the reporting requirement was too cumbersome.

Environmentalists say it's more likely that companies don't want nearby residents to know what they're putting in the air and water.

"This is a brazen attempt to stop the flow of information to the public, because industry feels threatened by our increasing knowledge," said Barbara Allen, a retired Springfield teacher and activist.

The start

Congress adopted the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act in 1986 as a response to a chemical plant mass poisoning that shocked the world.

A half-million people living near a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, didn't know what chemicals were in their midst until December 1994, when the factory leaked the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. Thousands died instantly. Many others were sickened.

Congress decided "you ought to know if you're living near a facility that's storing a huge quantity of chemicals and releasing a lot," said Andy Ginsburg, air quality administrator for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Beginning in 1988, Congress began requiring major industrial plants to report the chemicals they release in the air, ground and water.

EPA analysts loaded the information into an easy-to-use, Internet-accessible database, which allows anyone to analyze chemical use by industry, by geography - as small an area as a ZIP code - and by individual factory.

In an instant, a deft database user can get a list of the top-10 polluters by volume by county.

Just publishing the pollution data drove emissions-levels down, Ginsburg said.

"(Companies) made some voluntary reductions. In some cases, the public focused on the data and used that data to engage with a certain industry," he said.

State regulators sort the data to figure out what companies to inspect, to offer technical help to a company lagging behind industry norms, and to double check the emissions data they collected independently. Businesses use the data to compare their performance with their competitors.

Environmental groups nationally regularly dig into the data when researching pollution problems.

Local activists, for instance, have used the data in challenges to the J.H. Baxter creosoting plant in Eugene and the Kingsford charcoal-making facility in Springfield.

Health researchers are finding a "boundless" number of links between environmental toxins and health, said Lisa Arkin, executive director of the Eugene-based Oregon Toxics Alliance.

The EPA's bid to reduce the frequency and detail of that information is "shameful," she said.

"It's a disservice to the citizens of this country. Humans have the right to clean air and clean water. that's the basis of healthy living," she said.

"Part of that right is to understand what is in our air and our water so we can move to improve our living conditions. Without facts, we have less ability to take a better course of action," she said.

How much relief?

The proposed change would affect 304 Oregon business, including 36 in Lane County, that are required to report numbers annually to the federal Toxics Release Inventory program.

Just how much of a burden the proposal would lift is unclear. The federal government is just one agency demanding numbers on industrial chemical use.

Paint manufacturer Forrest Paint in Eugene, for instance, reports its numbers to the state Department of Environmental Quality, the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority, the state Fire Marshal - in addition to the EPA.

Also, 40 businesses in Eugene face a city toxics right-to-know ordinance and must to submit annual reports to the city, which residents can also find on the Web.

Forrest Paint employs one full-time worker to generate the reports, and proposed federal rule would mean a "tiny reduction" in her work load, Mark Forrest said.

"Other than that, I don't think it will have any substantial impact on the tracking and reporting we do on the materials we use," he said.

Computer chip maker Hynix in west Eugene, meanwhile, expends 10 days worth of an employee's work to complete the federal report, spokesman Bobby Lee said.

"In the big picture, the relief will be minor at best," he said.

J.H. Baxter in Eugene will get no relief at all from the Burden Reduction Rule because companies that produce chemicals that accumulate and persist in the environment will be held to the current, stricter, reporting rules.

But Plant Manager Gary Hunt is fine with the existing schedule.

"Anytime you have to keep track of any of it, it's complicated," he said. "It's certainly something we're well versed in and know how to do. It's not anything that's beyond our means."

SEE FOR YOURSELF

Go online: The computerized Toxics Release Inventory allows anyone to look up pollutants and polluters in their neighborhood. Try it online at www.epa.gov/tri or www.scorecard.org.

To comment: The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on its proposed relaxation of the reporting rules. You can e-mail your thoughts to oie.docket@ epa.gov or write to Office of Environmental Information Docket, Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20460. Attention Docket ID No. TRI-2005-0073.

MAJOR POLLUTERS

A pollution scorecard produced by the national group Environmental Defense is based on the federal "Toxics Release Inventory." The scorecard lists these as the top industrial contributors of chemicals to Lane County's air and water in 2002:

Weyerhaeuser, Springfield: 1.3 million pounds, total all chemicals

Borden Chemical, Springfield: 255,324 pounds

Weyerhaeuser, Eugene: 241,763 pounds

SierraPine, Springfield: 170,467

J.H. Baxter, Eugene: 101,393

Monaco Coach, Coburg: 58,289

Monaco Coach, Springfield: 49,036

Dynea USA, Springfield: 34,345

Polymer Sealing Solutions, Eugene: 32,981

Forrest Paint, Eugene: 18,920

LOCAL HAZARDS

These are the top four chemicals that major industrial plants release into Lane County's air and water, according to the federal Toxics Release Data processed by Environmental Defense:

Methanol: 1.4 million pounds. Toxic to kidneys, stomach and lungs.

Formaldehyde: 247,485 pounds. Recognized carcinogen.

Ammonia: 166,825 pounds. Toxic to the lungs, liver and nervous system.

Acetaldehyde: 18,920. Recognized carcinogen.