COLLEGE STATION — Individuals and communities seeking information about toxic chemical wastes released into Texas air, water, land and underground spaces now have access to the data both in a printed book and on the Internet.
The Toxic Release Inventory includes data on more than 1,200 manufacturers in 138 Texas counties as of 1994, the latest year for which information was available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The work, produced by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, reports on some 250 million pounds of toxic waste released and more than 273 million pounds of toxic chemical wastes transferred offsite, according to Dr. John Thomas, Experiment Station environmental sociologist. The report breaks out the Toxic Release Inventory results by county, Thomas noted.
“The report also looks at the change between 1988 (the first reliable year of EPA collected data) and 1994,” Thomas said.
The 1994 figures include more than 340 EPA-tracked chemicals, about half of which are considered carcinogens. “About 50 of those are released in Texas,” Thomas noted.
The rural sociologist said the report could be a valuable research tool for a variety of audiences.
“If a chamber of commerce is interested in expanding its industrial park, for example, they could identify in the Toxic Release Inventory what industries participate in the reporting effort and what chemicals and how much they release into the environment,” Thomas said.
He noted that the manufacturers are producing items in demand by the public, so it is not likely that production will slow. But he said the report shows that “industry is trying to improve because they have found out that it pays to recycle and it’s more efficient to have a production process that minimizes waste.”
“There is a different mindset toward the environment among today’s corporate citizens,” he said.
Among the report’s highlights:
* Counties that had the largest volumes of releases and transfers in 1994 and during the six-year comparison were clustered east of I-35 and along the Texas Gulf Coast.
*The chemical industry was by far the source of the largest volume of releases and transfers of toxic chemicals in Texas, but it experienced the most improvement in the reduction of these wastes.
* In 1994, air emissions totaled 127 million pounds, releases to land were 13.9 million pounds, releases to water were 2.7 million pounds and 106 million pounds were injected into special underground wells. * Since 1988, substantial reductions have occurred in the volumes released to air (-39.5 percent) and land (-60 percent). Releases to water increased, however, by 28 percent since 1988.
* Recycling and energy recovery of toxic chemicals were the most prevalent forms of transfers in 1994 at 47 percent and 27.5 percent, respectively.
The 1995 data, which will be released by EPA to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, will analyze more than 600 chemicals, Thomas said.
To obtain a copy of the report, contact Thomas at (979) 845- 5332, john-thomas@tamu.edu, or write Thomas at the Department of Rural Sociology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843- 2125. On the Web, the report may be found at http://www- txsdc.tamu.edu/tri.html.
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