Fed lawmakers challenge EPA dilution of TRI reporting rule

[Guest guest]

Weakening the TRI rules helps some business owners and injures people in

communities affected by the release of toxic chemicals. Allowing those

business to hide those releases is akin to providing ski masks to the

individuals about to rob a local bank. Autism is associated with

pollutants (D'Amelio; Palmer RF; Windham). Thus, the EPA's stance is a

deliberate assault on individuals would would become parents and an

assault on pregnant women and on parents with infants and toddlers.

Would that the 82nd Airborne Division could invade EPA headquarters and

arrest its head honchos. How long should industry's war against human

health be allowed to continue?

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To check out Toxics Release Inventory data for your area and to find out

who the heavy polluters are, visit

http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/statefactsheet.htm Click on California

and then click on San Joaquin County.

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Feds challenge EPA emissions reporting rule

By Breitler

Record Staff Writer

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080105/A_NEWS/801050319

If you've wondered what's spewing from that smokestack across town, your

odds of finding out may be lower under a recent rule that cuts emissions

reporting from thousands of facilities across the country.

Federal lawmakers, however, are challenging the Environmental Protection

Agency rule, which came under fire last month in a report by the

watchdog Government Accountability Office.

San Joaquin County in 2005 ranked in the top one-third of all California

counties in terms of the amount of reportable pollution. Our total:

394,000 pounds from 47 facilities that year.

About one-third of the so-called Toxics Release Inventory reports in

California may be reduced or eliminated under the new rule, according to

one estimate.

" The public has a right to know about toxic pollution in local

communities, " said U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a sponsor of

legislation pending in Congress that would repeal the EPA's rule.

The TRI, as it's known, has been available for more than 20 years. The

database can be used by families deciding where they want to live or by

businesses looking for ways to reduce their own pollution, as two examples.

The new rule allows companies to use " short forms " to report emissions

if they eliminate releases of certain toxic chemicals and release no

more than 2,000 pounds; in the past, that threshold has been 500 pounds

per year.

This gives businesses an incentive to cut down on emissions so they can

use the shorter form, supporters say.

A manager at the power plant Stockton CoGen Co., which reports its

emissions yearly to the EPA, said that's part of the job.

" I'll be honest: it does take time. But I don't look at it as a major

issue. It's what keeps us in business, " said Glenn Sizemore, whose plant

emits too much pollution to use the short forms.

The database says how much of each chemical is discharged; it doesn't

evaluate whether the discharges are dangerous to human health.

The recent GAO report concluded that the EPA hurried through its new

rule and understated the amount of pollution information that would be

slashed.

Boxer's bill narrowly passed a committee vote in July. Supporters hope

to take it before the full Senate in the coming months.

A minority group of senators in late December filed their own response

to the bill, saying the EPA rule does not harm the public's right to know.

" Everyone must still report " emissions, they wrote. " The public will

still receive the same detailed data on more than 99 percent of the

releases. "

Contact reporter Breitler at or abreitler@....

On the Web

To check out Toxics Release Inventory data for your area and to find out

who the heavy polluters are, visit

http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/statefactsheet.htm Click on California

and then click on San Joaquin County.

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