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Fact Sheet: EPA Proposes to Modify Toxics Release Inventory Reporting Requirements
Summary
- Today EPA is announcing the first of two proposed rules which are intended to reduce the time and resources needed to submit annual reports to the U.S. EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program. The data and information are currently provided to EPA by nearly 23,000 industrial and federal facilities nationwide.
- These rulemakings are being proposed as a follow-up to the EPA TRI Stakeholder Dialogue that was convened both on-line and via in-person meetings with a variety of stakeholders between November, 2002 and March, 2004.
- Today’s proposal sets forth various options that aim to reduce the amount of time that affected facility owners and operators collectively spend responding to TRI reporting requirements each year by an estimated 45,000 hours.
- The proposed changes to the TRI Reporting Forms are not anticipated to affect human health or environmental quality.
- At the same time, EPA will continue to provide valuable TRI information to the public regarding toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities in their communities.
More Information
- Today’s proposal seeks comment on several options for streamlining EPA’s reporting requirements associated with submitting annual TRI Form Rs and Form A Certification Statements.
- This proposed rule is the first phase of a burden reduction effort that EPA anticipates proposing over the next year. The second proposal, which can be expected in late summer of 2005, will focus on more far-reaching options.
- This proposal would eliminate some Form R and Form A redundant or seldom-used data elements, and modify others that can be shortened, simplified, or otherwise improved to reduce the time and costs involved in completing and submitting annual TRI Form Rs and Form As.
- EPA is proposing to no longer ask TRI facilities to submit latitude and longitude information and several facility identification codes for other EPA programs. Instead, EPA is proposing to obtain those important data elements from existing EPA databases that already collect the information. Such program identification codes include those for the EPA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Program, Underground Injection Control Program and others. The proposed rule describes how these data would be obtained from EPA’s Facility Registry System (http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/facility.html) in the future.
- The proposal also includes a number of other minor changes relating to waste management information, a change to ease reporting of pollution prevention activities, and improved access to information about source reduction and pollution control activities undertaken by some facilities.
- EPA believes that these changes will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the TRI program, while continuing to provide communities and other data users with the same high level of information about toxic chemical releases and waste management.
- The changes proposed in this rulemaking effort provide several relatively simple ways to reduce the time, cost and complexity of reporting requirements imposed on covered facilities. They are thus expected to result in a modest, but important, amount of cost and time savings.
Contact
- •For further information on this proposed rulemaking or ways to submit comments on EPA’s proposal, please visit the TRI Web site: http://www.epa.gov/tri or the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Hotline, Washington, DC (tollfree): 1-800-424-9346. In Virginia or Alaska: 703-412-9810 or Toll free TDD: 1-800-553-7672.