Toxic Discharges Rise in W.Va., Nationwide

By Ken Ward Jr.

kward@wvgazette.com Toxic emissions into West Virginias air, land and water increased by 3 percent in 2005, according to the latest yearly federal report. Chemical plants, steel mills and coal-fired power plants discharged 87.4 million pounds of toxic wastes directly into the environment in 2005. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported the numbers Thursday in its latest Toxics Release Inventory. The EPA downplayed the 3 percent nationwide increase in toxic releases between 2004 and 2005, saying annual changes are not unusual. A number of possible reasons for the increase include: production increases, fluctuations in the content of raw materials used in particular industries or changes in releases at large facilities that impact the national data, said a news release from EPA headquarters in Washington. In a similar release, the EPA regional officials in Philadelphia cautioned that the chemical emissions reported by companies in the inventory generally reflect legal discharges of pollutants to the environment. It is also important to review the full data in context, since in many cases, changes from one year to the next are less important than longer term trends, said the EPA regional release. Nationally and in the EPA Mid-Atlantic region, officials said that total toxic emissions have dropped over the last five years. But in West Virginia, toxic emissions to both the air and water increased in 2005 compared to five years ago, according to EPA data. During the most recent reporting period, from 2004 to 2005, toxic discharges to West Virginias river and streams increased the most. In 2005, statewide water discharges totaled nearly 4.4 million pounds, an increase of 44 percent compared with 2004, according to EPAs report. Direct emissions to the air by plant pollution stacks increased by 3.8 percent, while fugitive air discharges from leaky pipes, valves and other equipment dropped by about 3.5 percent. Total air emissions increased by 8 percent, to 7.1 million pounds of toxic chemicals, according to the EPA data. Coal-fired power plants accounted for nine of the states top 10 air polluters, with the PPG Industries chlor-alkali plant in Marshall County rounding out the list. In the Kanawha Valley, total emissions in both Kanawha and Putnam counties increased between 2004 and 2005 by 31 percent and 15 percent, respectively. EPA started the inventory and public reporting of toxic 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. When the EPA kicked off the program, the agency was responding to a congressional mandate for such a program following the 1984 chemical disaster at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, and a smaller leak the following year at Carbides plant in Institute. The TRI program has been widely credited with pushing chemical companies and other industries to greatly reduce toxic emissions. In its news releases, the EPA touted a new early record for releasing the TRI data to the public. EPA is getting quality data out to the public faster through electronic reporting which is good for the environment, good for states and good for our partners in industry, said Molly ONeill, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Environmental Information. In January, the EPA finalized a rule to increase the detailed reporting threshold for TRI chemicals from 500 pounds to 2,000 pounds. Last month, the Government Accountability Office reported this could allow 22,000 facilities nationwide to avoid filing the more comprehensive TRI data to the EPA. Also, GAO investigators found that the EPA had violated some of its own rulemaking guidelines when it wrote that rule and related proposals to further reduce the amount of data reported to the TRI program. The latest TRI information is available online at www. epa.gov/tri/tridata/tri05/index.htm.

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