Through a cooperative agreement with the United States Environmental Protection (U.S. EPA), the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) has developed the ChemicalRight2Know.org collaborative forum. The main mission of the collaborative forum is to provide access for communities, industry and all interested stakeholders on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and other environmental data to:

• Vet their analyses,
• Share success stories and best practices, and
• collaborate on solving community chemical-related problems.

Among other things, the website is designed to:

• Increase access to a broad range of TRI and other toxic chemical data and information;
• Help the public, government officials, and industry identify opportunities to reduce toxic chemical releases; and
• Share analyses of TRI data and related risks concerning human health and the environment.

As noted above, the website is designed to help facilitate discussion among parties interested in TRI and other environmental data and is not a venue where U.S. EPA or ECOS state official policy or endorse specific content.

As mentioned in the website’s Disclaimer policy, the U.S. EPA and ECOS staff oversee and administer the ChemicalRight2Know.org website. Staff review suggested (or recommended) postings (such as documents, links, reports, events, etc.) that are submitted via e-mail and the Contact tab on the website. Posted items may include (but are not limited to) reports, analyses, links to webinars, websites, mashups, success stories, news items, event information, and deadline reminders. ECOS and U.S. EPA review the submissions to make sure they comply with the Comment policy. In addition, the following broad criteria are also used mainly as a “relevance” test:

•  Ensure they are of broad interest to non-federal TRI stakeholders.
• Ensure they are not intended primarily for commercial purposes.
• To the greatest extent possible, to ensure they do not duplicate content on the EPA TRI Website.

As long as the documents, links, etc. meet the criteria above, ECOS and U.S. EPA will post the suggested material to the appropriate section(s) on the website – Resources, Use of TRI Information, Events, etc.

Below is more information about other features on this collaborative forum:

TRI In the News Feature: The news articles shown on the left hand side of this website under the heading “TRI in the News” is an automatic feed from Google news. Since the TRI phrase is often misspelled, articles with the terms “Toxics Release Inventory” and “Toxic Release Inventory” are searched for and automatically posted on this part of the website. The news articles are archived on the website here. This is an automatic feed which means that U.S. EPA and ECOS do not edit or filter the articles that are pulled and posted.

Blog: At this time, only U.S. EPA and ECOS can initiate a blog entry. If you have comments or ideas that you’d like to share in the blog section that do not fit in any of the other previously posted blog entries, please send them to ECOS through the Contact tab on the website and we will post them for you after a relevance review (as discussed above). Also, please see the Comment and Disclaimer policies regarding the website when submitting and posting comments or blog ideas. The views and opinions expressed in this section of the website do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions held by the U.S. EPA or ECOS and posting of blogs and comments are not an endorsement or statement of official policy of U.S. EPA or ECOS.

Events Tab: Upcoming and past events related to TRI (such as conferences, workshops, webinars, etc.) are posted in the Events section of the website. If you have a TRI-related event that you’d like posted in this section please send the details of the event to ECOS through the Contact tab on the website and ECOS will post it for you after a “relevance” review (as discussed above). Please note events posted in this section are not endorsed by U.S. EPA or ECOS.

Use of TRI Information and Resources Tabs: TRI-related documents, articles, links, and other information are posted in the Use of TRI Information and Resources sections of the website. If you have a TRI-related document, web link, mashup, success story, article, etc. that you’d like posted in one of these sections please send the details to ECOS through the Contact tab on the website and ECOS will post them for you after a “relevance” review (as discussed above). The content, views and opinions expressed in Use of TRI Information and Resources sections of the website do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions held by the U.S. EPA or ECOS and their posting is not an endorsement or statement of official policy by U.S. EPA or ECOS.

Inquiries about this website can be submitted through the Contact tab or directly to: 

Kelley Ann Lovelace, ECOS, e-mail: klovelace@sso.org

Learn more about ECOS...