Paying the toxics tab.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Eugene's Toxics Right to Know law is so hemmed in by the City charter, court decisions and state legislation that it's almost impossible to find a fair means of financing the reporting system the law requires. The latest idea, adding gas stations to the reporting program, wouldn't bring the city any closer to the goal of fairness. Only the voters can fix this problem, and the Eugene City Council should give them the chance.

Voters approved the Toxics Right to Know law in 1996. It requires manufacturers that use more than 2,640 pounds of toxic chemicals a year to file reports with the city, detailing the materials' use or disposal. The $100,000-a-year program was intended to be supported by fees paid by the reporting companies, with those using the largest amounts of toxics paying the most.

A lawsuit, however, ended with a ruling that prevents the use of a volume-based fee system. Eugene subsequently switched to a fee system based on the number of employees. In 2003, the Legislature passed a law limiting the fees to $2,000 per business. The cap limited the reporting program's revenues, while also creating an inequity - large manufacturers pay proportionately less to support the program than smaller ones, whether measured by the volume of toxics they use or by the number of people they employ.

These problems have led to a search for ways to broaden the toxics reporting program. Fees are already collected from about 40 manufacturers that use hazardous materials but fall below the 2,640-pound threshold - they pay to support the program but are not required to file reports. And this year, the Toxics Right to Know program began studying whether the fee and reporting requirements might be extended to non-manufacturing enterprises that use toxic chemicals.

The search has been fruitless. Auto body shops? The biggest one uses less than 2,000 pounds of toxic chemicals a year. Roofers and painters? Tracking their use of hazardous chemicals would be hard, and even if it could be done the volumes would be less than 2,640 pounds a year. Dry cleaners? Way below the reporting threshold. Swimming pools? The biggest ones are operated by the city of Eugene. Dental and medical clinics? Crematories? Photo processors? No, no and no.

Gas stations are the only plausible remaining candidates for inclusion in the reporting program - they receive and distribute hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline every year. But the Toxics Board concluded that the fees collected from gas stations would have a negligible effect on the program's finances, and made no recommendation to the City Council that they be included.

Increasing fee revenues would be a poor reason for targeting gas stations, or any other type of business. Gas stations should be brought under the reporting program only if doing so yields public benefits. No such benefits are apparent. Gas stations could file reports each year stating that they received and sold certain quantities of petroleum products, but that information falls into the realm of the obvious. Some gas stations could undoubtedly do more to reduce spillage and control vapors, but neither paying fees nor filling out reports would help them achieve those goals.

The City Council needs to recognize that the Toxics Right to Know program's inequities and revenue problems can be solved only by stretching the fee system beyond what the voters of 1996 would recognize. The city needs to approve a broader system, allow the use of general funds to support the reporting program, or withdraw support altogether. Because the voters created the toxics reporting system, it is they who should decide its future.