Toxic Emissions Drop in West Virginia

OK, I admit it, I'm cleaning out my email inbox. But one piece of news I was remiss in reporting a month ago is the drop in the amount of toxic chemicals released to the environment in WV in 2007. Each year industry is required under to report to EPA the amount of certain substances that it emits to the air or water. For 2007, the total tonnage dropped. The following is a report by the Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward.



CHARLESTON , W.Va. -- Toxic pollution of West Virginia 's air and water decreased in 2007, according to the latest emissions data made public Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Air emissions in West Virginia dropped by nearly 23 percent, to 53 million pounds, according to the new data from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory. Water discharges dropped by more than 12 percent, to 3 million pounds, according to the EPA data. The West Virginia pollution reductions were better than those reported nationwide in the EPA's annual publication of emissions information filed by thousands of chemical makers, steel mills, power plants and other industrial facilities.
Air pollution nationwide dropped by about 7 percent and water discharges about 4 percent, according to the EPA. Total toxic pollution nationwide dropped by 5 percent. The EPA published the annual toxic scorecard little more than a week after President Obama signed legislation that reversed a Bush administration rule that reduced the amount of information companies file under the TRI program.
"This information underscores the need for fundamental transparency and provides a powerful tool for protecting public health and the environment," said EPA administrator Lisa Jackson. "Serving the public's right to know is the crucial first step in reducing toxic chemicals in the places where we live, work and raise children. "I am also pleased," Jackson added, "that Congress ... took action to restore the rigorous reporting standards of this vital program."
The Bush changes were in effect for the 2007 emissions reports, but EPA officials said few companies took advantage of the ability to file less-detailed pollution disclosures. "The upshot is we don't see that this made that big a difference in the numbers," said Mike Flynn, acting deputy administrator for the EPA's Office of Environmental Information. Although the overall numbers showed pollution reductions, the EPA said industry reports showed increases in the release of persistent, bio-accumulative, and toxic chemicals like lead, dioxin, mercury and PCBs.
In West Virginia , electrical power plants - mostly coal-fired facilities - accounted for more than two-thirds of total toxic pollution, by far the largest polluting industry, according to EPA data, but, the sector cut toxic pollution by nearly 20 percent over 2006 figures, EPA said. Primary-metals production accounted for more than 13 percent, and chemical manufacturing about 9 percent, according to the EPA. Also, this year's EPA report continued the trend toward providing less easy-to-access information from the TRI data. For example, EPA state-level fact sheets - used by most media outlets to prepare stories - used to include a list of each state's top polluting facilities. Now, that information must be pulled out of an online database or calculated from complicated computer files.
The EPA started the pollution inventory and public reporting of toxic chemical emissions in 1987. The figures released publicly always lag two years behind because companies report annual releases the following July, and the EPA then compiles the data into various reports. The EPA kicked off the program in response to a congressional mandate following the 1984 chemical disaster at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal , India , and a smaller leak the following year at Carbide's plant in Institute.
The EPA TRI information is available online at www.epa.gov/tri.