The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is committed to improving the quality of data being collected as part of its Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting, according to Maria Doa, TRI Branch Chief. Each year, EPA releases annual data on TRI emissions for seven major industrial sectors – original manufacturing industries, metal mining, coal mining, electric generating facilities, and solid and hazardous waste treatment and solvent recovery facilities. TRI data include chemicals released as waste into the air, water or land, and other types of waste management, such as the chemicals that are recycled, burned for energy recovery, or treated, both on- and off-site. Depending on whether they use TRI-listed chemicals and compounds, some ILMA Members are subject to TRI reporting each July on Form R.
In published reports, Doa has stated that, in the coming months, her office will be looking for ways to improve the quality of data that are collected and get the information out to the public in a more timely fashion. EPA had planned to release 2000 TRI data last summer, but that information will not be published until later this year.
As part of the improvement plan, EPA hopes to make its “TRI-Made Easy” software to all regulated facilities later this year. The software, which is user-friendly, was distributed as a pilot program in 2001, and the results were encouraging. It is expected to be particularly useful for small businesses. Doa also announced that EPA plans to begin a rulemaking proceeding that will require reporting facilities to be classified under new North American industry codes, rather than the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.
