Toxic Chemical Releases and Transfers by Media statistics

[In pounds, except number of facilities. Based on reports filed as required by section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA, or Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986), Public Law 99-499. Owners and operators of facilities that are classified within Standard Classification Code groups 20 through 39, have 10 or more full-time employees, and that manufacture, process, or otherwise uses any listed toxic chemical in quantities greater than the established threshold in the course of a calendar year are covered and required to report]


	1988 Core set of chemicals ¹			1988 Core set of chemicals ¹		Expanded chemical list ²


Media	1988	1995	1996	1997	1998	1995	1996	1997	1998


Total facilities reporting.	20,470	20,783	20,380	19,999	19,610	22,859	22,340	21,927	21,517

Total releases	3,396,383,483	1,977,172,480	1,918,521,434	1,953,979,254	1,856,935,191	2,637,533,086	2,545,283,447	2,586,972,184	2,496,759,865
On-site releases	2,968,374,148	1,687,767,775	1,597,587,809	1,521,193,415	1,426,950,963	2,321,117,938	2,197,956,442	2,131,187,663	2,046,631,469
Total air emissions..	2,182,565,290	1,201,484,542	1,104,879,205	986,118,909	920,705,030	1,585,156,840	1,470,214,042	1,336,600,706	1,256,951,444
Fugitive air..	681,200,525	306,608,931	270,369,623	242,048,463	216,215,438	392,706,983	351,331,196	318,148,917	292,504,215
Point source air..	1,501,364,765	894,875,611	834,509,582	744,070,446	704,489,592	1,192,449,857	1,118,882,846	1,018,451,789	964,447,229
Surface water..	164,566,331	37,178,869	44,607,289	61,601,861	44,660,053	180,516,139	184,739,434	222,302,322	223,365,762
Underground injection..	161,969,122	142,514,672	122,769,454	131,462,206	114,554,014	236,194,397	209,317,311	221,732,690	210,639,389
Releases to land..	459,273,405	306,589,692	325,331,861	342,010,439	347,031,866	319,250,562	333,685,655	350,551,945	355,674,874
Off-site releases	428,009,335	289,404,705	320,933,625	432,785,839	429,984,228	316,415,148	347,327,005	455,784,521	450,128,396

Total transfers off-site for
further waste management.	(NA)	3,056,975,930	2,927,210,018	2,989,447,471	2,739,455,686	3,287,001,668	3,151,265,293	3,231,845,812	2,987,836,818
Tranfers to recycling..	(NA)	2,212,526,603	2,154,377,003	2,144,323,655	1,945,915,206	2,264,288,077	2,200,626,637	2,189,348,418	1,989,546,130
Transfers to energy recovery..	(NA)	489,574,529	447,276,376	469,573,955	435,696,242	518,969,202	478,301,979	507,689,578	478,821,401
Transfers to treatment..	334,988,922	201,332,079	185,703,380	218,630,560	210,813,755	250,844,541	226,781,151	262,423,782	251,823,538
Transfers to POTW's ³..	245,419,292	151,319,024	139,035,489	156,884,773	146,112,643	250,389,543	244,511,023	272,349,506	266,724,175
Other off-site transfers..	43,502,294	2,223,695	817,770	34,528	917,840	2,510,305	1,044,503	34,528	921,574

Other on-site waste management
Recycled on-site.	(NA)	6,266,433,735	6,439,784,593	6,776,028,076	7,808,090,655	11,663,554,919	7,533,569,188	8,232,956,364	9,646,825,222
Energy recovery on-site..	(NA)	2,590,813,050	2,550,169,039	2,553,304,855	2,618,126,725	2,740,388,125	2,727,639,231	2,794,347,219	2,851,489,429
Treated on-site.	(NA)	4,521,301,770	4,222,748,199	4,345,880,640	4,457,491,546	6,794,862,115	5,943,643,124	6,020,549,126	6,012,991,050

Other off-site waste management
Recycled off-site.	(NA)	2,296,479,187	2,196,624,726	2,155,792,100	2,016,895,662	2,350,533,667	2,243,302,912	2,202,661,577	2,059,419,896
Energy recovery off-site	(NA)	477,437,950	486,036,596	483,997,508	443,030,841	503,968,089	512,680,522	521,798,706	485,373,723
Treated off-site	(NA)	399,276,776	364,182,972	377,251,019	387,845,187	569,710,695	511,458,178	530,911,878	547,355,031

[tbf]1 Excludes chemicals removed from the list, those added in 1990, 1991, 1994, and 1995, and aluminum oxide, ammonia, hydrochloric acid, and sulfuric acid. Chemicals covered for all reporting years.
2 The Environmental Protection Agency added 286 chemicals and chemical categories to the EPCRA section list of 313 list of toxic chemicals. EPCRA section list of 313 list of toxic chemicals.
3 POTW (Publicly Owned Treatment Work) is a wastewater treatment facility that is owned by a state or municipality.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1998 Toxic Release Inventory, EPA report 745-R-00-007. Note: The original document was changed by EPA on 11/9/2000. Those changes are not reflected here.

http://www.epa.gov/tri/

* The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) site is designed to provide information on toxic chemical releases including collected data, guidance documents, program planning, background, history, and, program contacts, among other things. The data included in this homepage have been submitted to U.S. EPA under the Emergency Planning and Community Right- to-Know Act for chemicals and chemical categories listed by the Agency. Submitted data include chemical identity, amount of on-site uses, releases and off-site transfers (including publicly-owned treatment works), on-site treatment, and minimization/prevention actions. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, Environmental Assistance Division, Toxics Release Inventory Branch

* Releases. A release is an on-site discharge of a toxic chemical to the environment. This includes emissions to the air, discharges to bodies of water, releases at the facility to land, as well as contained disposal into underground injection wells. Releases are reported to TRI by media type.

Releases to Air. Releases to air are reported either as stack or fugitive emissions. Stack emissions are releases to air that occur through confined air streams, such as stacks, vents, ducts, or pipes. Fugitive emissions are all releases to air that are not released through a confined air stream. Fugitive emissions include equipment leaks, evaporative losses from surface impoundments and spills, and releases from building ventilation systems.

Releases to Water. Releases to water include discharges to streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, and other bodies of water. This includes releases from contained sources, such as industrial process outflow pipes or open trenches. Releases due to runoff, including stormwater runoff, are also reportable to TRI.

Underground Injection. Underground injection is a contained release of a fluid into a subsurface well for the purpose of waste disposal. Wastes containing TRI chemicals are injected into either Class I wells or Class V wells. Class I wells are used to inject liquid hazardous wastes or dispose of industrial and municipal wastewaters beneath the lowermost underground source of drinking water. Class V wells are generally used to inject non- hazardous fluid into or above an underground source of drinking water. TRI reporting does not currently distinguish between these two types of wells, although there are important differences in environmental impact between these two methods of injection. However, 1996 reports will provide this distinction.

Releases to Land. Releases to land occur within the boundaries of the reporting facility. Releases to land include disposal of toxic chemicals in landfills (in which wastes are buried), land treatment/application farming (in which a waste containing a listed chemical is applied to or incorporated into soil), surface impoundments (which are uncovered holding areas used to volatilize and/or settle waste materials), and other land disposal methods (such as spills, leaks, or waste piles). For the 1996 reporting year, reporters will be requested to distinguish between RCRA subtitle C landfills and all other landfills.

*

http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/399_toxic_chemical_releases_and_transfers_by.html

These tables are based on figures supplied by the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce and are subject to revision by the Census Bureau.

Copyright © 2006 Photius Coutsoukis and Information Technology Associates, all rights reserved.