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Public Meetings on Reassessment of PCB Use Authorizations
EPA issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking related to potential reassessment of PCB use authorization under the Toxic Substance Control Act. Public comments are due on July 6; EPA will also be holding public meetings. Learn more here…
EPA Proposes Adding 16 Chemicals to the TRI Chemical List
On April 6, 2010, EPA took another important step toward providing communities with additional information about toxic chemicals being released to the environment.
EPA is Providing Communities with Additional Information about the Release of Hydrogen Sulfide into the Environment
The Agency is announcing that it is considering lifting the 1994 Administrative Stay of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements for hydrogen sulfide. EPA is now presenting its rationale for why the Stay should be lifted, based on an updated evaluation that includes new information on human health and environmental effects of hydrogen sulfide. Learn more here...
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) from the November 2009 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Webinar
ECOS received numerous questions from attendees during the November 18th 2009 TRI Webinar. Many questions were answered by the Webinar presenters, but many were left unanswered due to time constraints.
The unanswered questions were passed along to the presenters who have provided responses to them. These can be found below in a “Frequently Asked Questions Bank” which has been assembled for this purpose. Additionally, the FAQ Bank also includes responses to some questions that were answered during the Webinar.
- What can each of these databases – TRI Explorer, TRI.NET, and Envirofacts - do?
- Where is the feature allowing a user to search the Form A or R and check the fields they desire?
- After entering a query, do the map icons that are shown reflect all TRI reporting facilities, even those that no longer report? If so, does the user have to select and go into Envirofacts to see if it’s still reporting?
- Where can TRI.NET be downloaded?
- Is TRI.NET available only on the Microsoft platform?
- Are there any plans to make TRI.NET available on any other platforms or via the Web?
- Does TRI.NET have a federal facility layer?
- Is there a User's Manual for TRI.NET?
- Can you give an example of how the regulated community (i.e., industry) can use these tools in a useful manner?
- Can a TRI.NET query map multiple facilities in a defined watershed or river basin?
- Does the public have access to the 2008 Public Data Release (PDR) for TRI.NET?
- TRI Explorer describes the data with a title. I'd like to know if TRI.NET shows the same description (as a header) after building and running a query.
- The Air Quality index does not show air toxics impacts. Would you consider accessing National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) to look at air risk?
- I downloaded the TRI.NET tool as a ZIP file for USB device load. Is this application based on an Excel template with SQL coding?
- Where do you get the compliance information from for these facilities?
- Why would someone use a mobile phone to look up TRI facility data rather than their office or home computer? Who is the TRI mobile application for?
- Does this let you use a rural route address or P.O. Box or county highway/roads?
- How happy are you with the Google geocoder?
- What if I want total release for a specific firm, such as Coca Cola? Is that possible?
- When/how is TRI-CHIP available to the public?
- Who is the intended user for TRI-CHIP? This doesn't seem valuable for the general public. How can people correlate between TRI data (pounds) and these units?
- Regarding TRI-CHIP, given the various sources of toxic data, is there a schedule in place or plans for one to update the data on any regular basis?
What can each of these databases – TRI Explorer, TRI.NET, and Envirofacts - do?
Envirofacts is a U.S. EPA database that includes data from a wide range of offices within the agency, including the Office of Environmental Information’s Toxics Release Inventory. The TRI data within Envirofacts includes information from facilities which have, and/or are currently reporting to TRI. The tool can be used to retrieve facility information within a particular city, zip code, Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code / North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code. It can also produce a report for a particular chemical, and it can be used to view facilities individually with respect to historical reporting information. Output options are limited to either screen captures or printing the entire file.
TRI Explorer is similar in some ways to Envirofacts for retrieving TRI information based on geography, SIC Code / NAICS Code, or chemical. However, users have reported that facility to facility comparisons can be made much easier in TRI Explorer. Another difference is that information in TRI Explorer can be downloaded to a spreadsheet and manipulated according to the user's desires.
TRI.NET is the most versatile of U.S. EPA's three major TRI data bases, but is designed for the more technical user. It combines the informational capabilities of both Envirofacts and TRI-Explorer and adds mapping capabilities. Its use is not as intuitive or as simple as Envirofacts and TRI-Explorer, but with continued use, and experimentation, it becomes easier to use. In the most simple of descriptions, data from TRI can be "sliced and diced" in just about any manner the user desires.
Where is the feature allowing a user to search the Form A or R and check the fields they desire?
The Form R & A Download Query Form is available at the following URL: http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/tris/form_r_download.html.
After entering a query, do the map icons that are shown reflect all TRI reporting facilities, even those that no longer report? If so, does the user have to select and go into Envirofacts to see if it’s still reporting?
In TRI.NET, the map icons represent facilities returned by the query, not necessarily all reporting facilities. These are facilities that reported in the time period defined by the query.
Where can TRI.NET be downloaded?
TRI.NET can be downloaded from the following URL: http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridotnet/
Is TRI.NET available only on the Microsoft platform?
TRI.NET runs on all Windows Platforms natively and in OSX on a Mac by using a virtual machine.
Are there any plans to make TRI.NET available on any other platforms or via the Web?
TRI.NET runs very well in OSX on the Mac using a virtual machine. TRI.NET will probably never be Web-based because the Web does not have the band-width to provide the performance that TRI.NET achieves on the desktop.
Does TRI.NET have a federal facility layer?
Yes, TRI.NET has a facility layer. A user can select this by checking the "Federal Facility" box in FILTERING variables -> Facility
Is there a User's Manual for TRI.NET?
Yes, there are three manuals for TRI.NET.
Users Guide - http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridotnet/guide.html
Quick Start - http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridotnet/quickstart.html
Tutorial - http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridotnet/tutorial.html
Can you give an example of how the regulated community (i.e., industry) can use these tools in a useful manner?
Industry could use the TRI data to search by its sector to find out the types and amounts of releases that other facilities report in their SIC or NAICS Codes. Likewise, TRI information may identify chemical reduction or substitution possibilities.
Can a TRI.NET query map multiple facilities in a defined watershed or river basin?
TRI.NET does not have a watershed layer at this time, but a user can map facilities within a certain number of miles of a watershed by using the Lat/Long centroid in the "My Neighborhood" feature.
Does the public have access to the 2008 Public Data Release (PDR) for TRI.NET?
TRI.NET with the 2008 data is now available.
http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridotnet/
TRI Explorer describes the data with a title. I'd like to know if TRI.NET shows the same description (as a header) after building and running a query.
TRI.NET will create a title when the report is sent to the browser as an html report.
Use File -> Send To -> Browser, or click the browser button on the toolbar.
The Air Quality index does not show air toxics impacts. Would you consider accessing National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) to look at air risk?
TRI.NET handles toxicity by making available the TRI Hazard score (Release x Toxicity) which is facility based.
I downloaded the TRI.NET tool as a ZIP file for USB device load. Is this application based on an Excel template with SQL coding?
TRI.NET is a stand alone Windows application and is not based on Excel.
Where do you get the compliance information from for these facilities?
The compliance information compiled in the TRI Mobile Application is pulled from U.S. EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online Web site that can be accessed at the following URL: http://www.epa-echo.gov/echo.
Why would someone use a mobile phone to look up TRI facility data rather than their office or home computer? Who is the TRI mobile application for?
The TRI Mobile Application is designed for use by someone who is not at their home or office computer, but rather is in a mobile environment and has a smart phone from which they can pull up TRI data.
After you build and run a query on TRI Explorer and the results are displayed, does the query title appear anywhere with the results? Does it show when the results are exported?
Yes, every table displayed by TRI Explorer is immediately preceded with a title that includes the parameters used to generate the table. This title appears both with the online display and with any exported reports. One slight deviation from this rule is if multiple chemicals are selected. In this case the title includes the phrase "...for Chemicals Selected by User (see footnote for list of selected chemicals)..." As of December 2009, the footnotes are not included when the download option is chosen. This is being addressed in a set of enhancements to be available early 2010.
Does this let you use a rural route address or P.O. Box or county highway/roads?
This is related to the address input into the "My Neighborhood" feature of TRI.NET. The geocoder may handle rural routes and P.O. Boxes. If you know your lat/long then that is preferred, otherwise the geocoder will return the P.O. Box centroid, or a route centroid.
How happy are you with the Google geocoder?
This geocoder is very satisfactory. There are others out there such as Bing. But like any other technical database, it is only as good as the input information.
What if I want total release for a specific firm, such as Coca Cola? Is that possible?
There are two approaches that can be taken to obtain the answer to this question.
First, TRI.NET will handle searches for a specific firm such as 'Coca Cola.' In the Ad Hoc box just enter a name like '%COCA%'. The query will return facilities with "COCA" embedded in the name. For example, this query on 2008 data returned four facilities as shown below:
Alternatively, you can also access this information in TRI Explorer.
1st: Access TRI Explorer: http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/
2nd: Under Reports on left side of screen, select "Facility"
3rd: Under Geographic Location, select, for example, zip code, and enter a zip code, e.g., 77590
4th: On the right hand side of screen, beginning with
Total On-site Disposal or Other Releases
ensure you have checked all boxes from there down, to retrieve detailed information.
5th: Click "Generate Report"
In the far right hand column you will have "total releases" for the chemicals listed - this column is labeled, "Total On and Off-Site Disposal or Other Releases". All the columns to the left are the data from the various media which contributed to making up that total.
When/how is TRI-CHIP available to the public?
TRI-CHIP is currently undergoing final quality systems review. It is anticipated that it will be made available to the public sometime in January 2010.
Who is the intended user for TRI-CHIP? This doesn't seem valuable for the general public. How can people correlate between TRI data (pounds) and these units?
For the most part, TRI-CHIP was designed as a chemical hazard assessment tool for parties with, at a minimum, a basic understanding of chemical toxicity. This includes toxicologist and health officials from industry, academia and government. With some basic understanding of chemical health hazards (e.g., cancer, reproductive toxicity, renal toxicity, etc.,), TRI-CHIP can also feed data into TRI.NET and identify geographic locations in the U.S. where industries release chemicals associated with certain health effects into the environment.
Regarding TRI-CHIP, given the various sources of toxic data, is there a schedule in place or plans for one to update the data on any regular basis?
Yes, U.S. EPA is planning on updating the TRI-CHIP database on an annual basis between October and January. These updates will include any changes in source data values.
I have navigated to
I have navigated to http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/ but i am unable to see the explorer button, could you please help me out?
Andrew