The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) is a one-of-a-kind resource, in which industrial facilities annually report the type and amount of toxic chemicals they release to the land, air, water, and landfills. The information is high quality, comprehensive, and posted online for free. It can be searched by various ways, such as location of facility or type of industry.
Communities, regulators, and industries have found the inventory to be very useful. For example, if a community finds out that a certain company wants to build a facility in their town, they can look at the company’s toxic releases in other towns, compare the same types of facilities, and make well-informed decisions with this information.
Almost every large industry has to report to the TRI, but the oil and gas extraction industry, from the well pad to the processing plant, has been exempt from the TRI for decades.
The Environmental Integrity Project has asked EPA to end this exemption through proposed federal rulemaking and is looking for public support. Here’s what you can do:
Send an email to: turk.david@epa.gov by March 7. In the subject line include: EPA–HQ–TRI–2016–0390; FRL–9953–68, Addition of Natural Gas Processing Facilities to the TRI
In your email, tell the EPA why you support the proposal requiring the addition of Natural Gas Processing facilities (NGP) to report to the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). Share personal stories or concerns about what it’s like living near these operations, and include photos of compressor stations, processing plants, etc. if you have them. Tell them how the processing infrastructure has changed your lives, farms, homes, or health, and why full transparency of exactly what is being released from these polluting facilities is important to you.
EIP has provided the information above as well as this fact sheet that you might wish to review as you write your comments. Thank you to Lisa Marcucci and Adam Kron at EIP for this information, and thank you to you for sharing your comments on this important issue!