EPA Report Falsely Elevates Impression of Risk

For Immediate Release: March 3, 2022
Contact: Laura Achee, 907-465-5009

Juneau, AK — Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released analysis of the annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2020. The inventory catalogs required reports on the movement of chemicals that may be harmful to human health if handled improperly. Unfortunately, it does not differentiate between permitted, regulated releases and illegal, unauthorized releases.

"By not specifying the manner of release year after year, the TRI fuels public misperception and undermines the critical work regulators do to ensure permitted releases are protective of public health and the environment," said Jason Brune, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). "Because the TRI report does not distinguish between authorized and regulated releases and unauthorized discharges, it does little to convey actual risk to the public."

The TRI program collects information on certain releases to air, water, and land as well as information on waste management and pollution prevention by facilities across the country. Facilities in industry sectors such as manufacturing, metal mining, electric utilities, and commercial hazardous waste facilities submit annual TRI data to the EPA, states, and tribes. Toxic chemical release reports are required under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 also requires information on waste management activities related to TRI chemicals.

The vast majority of the Alaska reports are from the mining industry, and 99.95 percent of those reported volumes are permitted and regulated - moving waste rock to regulated treatment or waste storage areas. Mining operations must file reports because of the naturally occurring trace minerals in overburden, spent rock, and tailings excavated from mines when these materials are transferred to state-permitted, engineered, and monitored sites.

"The EPA should highlight the entities that are actually causing adverse impacts to human health and the environment and the environmental justice implications such releases have," said Brune. "One place to start might be for the EPA to contact the Department of Interior about their toxic releases and contamination on Alaska Native Corporation lands."