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decreased by 45% between 1998 and 2004. Ms Linda Travers (Acting Administrator for the EPA's Office of Environmental Information) commented: "This latest TRI report demonstrates that economic growth and effective environmental protection can go hand in hand. The reporting process has been significantly streamlined because about 90% of the 23,000 facilities reported their data electronically."
However, Mr Tom Natan (Research Director for the National Environmental Trust) said: "The latest TRI data is more troubling than reassuring. Nearly the entire reduction in overall dioxin emissions to air last year came from a single lumber facility in North Carolina (indicating that there has been relatively little change at other dioxinemitting sites). More than one-half of all facilities reported a change in their total TRI releases of less than 10% year-onyear. Emissions by the paper industry increased by 7%; emissions by the food industry increased by 10%; and emissions by petroleum refineries increased by 15%. The chemical industry is still responsible for more than 228,000 tonnes of TRI releases, though the figure increased by only 0.4% from 2003 to 2004."
The EPA has proposed that the rules on TRI data should be revised, so that companies would be obliged to report their data on a 2-year cycle, instead of every year. Another proposed change would be to raise the reporting threshold from 500 pounds (227 kilos) to 5000 pounds (2.27 tonnes) per year. In the House of Representatives, Rep Frank Pallone (of New Jersey) and Rep Hilda Solis (of California) are leading a campaign to reject these proposed changes. In Congress, Senators Frank Lautenberg (of New Jersey), Jim Jeffords (of Vermont) and Olympia Snowe (of Maine) have requested that the Government Accountability Office should examine how the changes proposed by the EPA would affect State and Federal programmes that rely on TRI data to carry out public health and safety initiatives.
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