Toxic Emissions Rising, EPA Says
Industry released 5 percent more toxic chemicals into the environment in 2002 than the year before, the Environmental Protection Agency reported yesterday.
The latest statistics, compiled in the agency's annual Toxic Release Inventory, represent a setback: In 2001, according to the inventory, toxic emissions had declined by about 16 percent. Environmental groups, moreover, charged yesterday that polluters were releasing four to five times more toxic material than they reported.
Kim Nelson, who directs the EPA's Environmental Information Office, said much of last year's increase was caused by an Arizona-based copper smelting facility that closed and had to dispose of significant waste material. Without that facility, she said, emissions dropped by 3 percent nationwide.
"This is a very broad and far-reaching effort the agency has implemented to inform the American public about toxics," Nelson said.
Under a 1986 law targeting 650 chemicals, companies must report to the EPA how much of each they release annually, and the agency reports these figures to the public. The federal government does not directly monitor the release of all emissions, though it has recently taken enforcement action against facilities that missed the EPA's July 1 reporting deadline.
The 2002 figures marked the first time since 1997 that reported emissions increased. Releases of lead increased 3.2 percent and mercury jumped by 10 percent, though Nelson attributed the mercury increase to a single gold mine. However, emissions of dioxin, a carcinogenic byproduct of various industrial processes, fell by 5 percent.
Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, disputed the EPA's explanation of the 2002 increase. "The growth in emissions is too big to be explained away by pointing at a smelter here or a factory there," he said. "This is an across-the-board increase in pollution."
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Toxic Emissions Rising, EPA Says
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