EPA’s Recent Rule Could Reduce Availability of Toxic Chemical Information

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Although making significantly less information available to communities, GAO

estimated that the rule would save companies little—an average of less than

$900 per facility.

Since 1995, facilities may submit a brief statement (Form A) in lieu of the

more detailed Form R if releases of a chemical do not exceed 500 pounds a

year. In January 2007, EPA finalized the TRI Burden Reduction Rule, quadrupling

to 2,000 pounds what facilities can release before having to disclose details

using Form R.

ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHT-TO-KNOW

EPA’s Recent Rule Could Reduce Availability of Toxic Chemical Information

Used to Assess Environmental Justice

Highlights of GAO-08-115T, a testimony before the Subcommittee on

Environment and Hazardous Materials, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of

Representatives

A 1994 Executive Order sought to ensure that minority and low-income

populations are not subjected to disproportionately high and adverse health or

environ-mental effects from agency activities. In a July 2005 report, GAO made

several recommendations to improve the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)

adherence to these environmental justice principles.

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA)

requires certain facilities that use toxic chemicals to report their releases to

EPA, which makes the information available in the Toxics Release Inventory

(TRI). Since 1995, facilities may submit a brief statement (Form A) in lieu of

the more detailed Form R if releases of a chemical do not exceed 500 pounds a

year. In January 2007, EPA finalized the TRI Burden Reduction Rule,

quadrupling to 2,000 pounds what facilities can release before having to

disclose

details using Form R.

Congress is considering codifying the Executive Order and requiring EPA to

implement GAO’s environ-mental justice recommendations. Other legislation

would

amend EPCRA to, among other things, revert the Form A threshold to 500

pounds or less. In this testimony, GAO discusses (1) EPA’s response to

GAO’s

environmental justice recommendations, (2) the extent to which EPA followed

internal guidelines when developing the TRI rule and (3) the impact of the rule

on

communities and facilities.

EPA initially disagreed with GAO’s July 2005 environmental justice

recommendations, saying it was already paying appropriate attention to the

issue. GAO

called on EPA to improve the way it addresses environmental justice in its

economic reviews and to better explain its rationale by providing data to

support the agency’s decisions. A year later, EPA responded more positively to

the

recommendations and committed to a number of actions. However, based on

information that EPA has subsequently provided, GAO concluded in a July 2007

testimony that EPA’s actions to date were incomplete and that measurable

benchmarks were needed to hold agency officials accountable for achieving

environmental justice goals.

In developing the TRI rule, EPA did not follow key aspects of its internal

guidelines, including some related to environmental justice. EPA did not

follow guidelines to ensure that scientific, economic, and policy issues are

addressed at appropriate stages of rule development. For example, EPA asserted

that the rule would not have environmental justice impacts; however, it did not

support this assertion with adequate analysis. The omission is significant

because many TRI facilities that no longer have to submit Form R reports are

located in minority and low-income communities; and the reduction in toxic

chemical information could disproportionately affect them.

EPA’s TRI rule will reduce the amount of information about toxic chemical

releases without providing significant savings to facilities. A total of nearly

22,200 Form R reports from some 3,500 facilities are eligible to convert to

Form A under the rule. While EPA says the aggregate impact of these

conversions will be minimal, the effect on individual states and communities

may be

significant, as illustrated below. Although making significantly less

information available to communities, GAO estimated that the rule would save

companies

little—an average of less than $900 per facility.

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