The Environment & You: Who Has Released What into the Environment

The Environment & You: Who Has Released What into the Environment

Helena VonVille, MLSLibrary DirectoryUniversity of Texas School of Public

Health at Houston

Harris County Public Library

Who has released what into your community?

Information from the Toxics Release Inventory 1987 to 2002 Sources of data

TOXMAP Provides information on who has released what as well

as links to a database showing health effects TRI Explorer

Only generate TRI reports by industry, trends, for specific chemicals or by facility; no health information available

Information from the National Response Center Online reports from 1990 to present Reports all accidental releases into the environment

Air Emission Event Report

Return to Workshop Agenda

What is TOXMAP?

Produced by the National Library of Medicine Specialized Information Services

Mapped guide to 48,205 facilities that reported to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program between 1987 and 2002

Includes 3,683 facilities in Texas 883 facilities within 100 mile radius of Houston

Chemicals that must be reported are found at the EPA

Take me to TOXMAP

What is TOXMAP? (cont’d)

Links to Hazardous Substances Data Bank Includes health effects such as:

Causes cancer (carcinogenicity)Skin, eye, and respiratory irritationsPeople at special risk

Children, elderly, pregnant women, etc.

Links to Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Reports (ATSDR)

Take me to TOXMAP

How to use TOXMAP

Click on the map to recenter it. For example, click on Houston to view more of east Texas.

Take me to TOXMAP

Zooming In & Out

This is after recentering the map.

Take me to TOXMAP

Click on + to zoom in. You will need to do so a few times.

Recentering your map

Now that we’ve zoomed in, we need to recenter by clicking just to the east of Houston, south of I-10.

Take me to TOXMAP

Identify Facilities on Your Map

Hint: You can use the ZOOM bars to move in more quickly. However, don’t zoom too quickly as you may not end up where you want on the map.

Click on Identify facilities on this map to see the names of the facilities shown in blue on the map.

Take me to TOXMAP

View Summary Reports

The top 10 facilities by release amount are identified on the map. A list appears to the right with links to summary reports for each facility.

Click on the facility name to view the summary report.

Take me to TOXMAP

Elements of a Summary Report

The summary report provides a list of the top 5 chemicals by amount released (in pounds) for all years combined from 1987 to 2002.

To view each TRI report by year and chemical, click on All chemicals reported by this facility.

Take me to TOXMAP

Linking to TRI Reports

The most current reports (2002) will appear first; click on the company name above the chemical you want to view. Take me to

TOXMAP

TRI Report for Mercury Compounds

This report shows amount released and where it is released– air, water, land/landfills.

Take me to TOXMAP

To return to TOXMAP, simply close the report window.

When finished with this report, you can also return to the previous page by clicking on Search Results at the top.

Look up Health Effects from TOXMAP

Take me to TOXMAP

Back at TOXMAP, click on the releases tab to do a search on the chemical you want to investigate.

Search TOXMAP by Chemical Name

Type in the chemical name in the search box and click on Continue.

Take me to TOXMAP

mercury compounds

Search HSDB After Chemical Search

This takes us back to TOXMAP, but now we see only those facilities that released mercury compounds in the area displayed by our map.

Click on Human Health Effects to do a search in the Hazardous Substances Data Bank.

Take me to TOXMAP

HSDB Search Results

A list of various types of mercury compounds is returned, with the chemical we want at the top of the list.

See “The Environment & You: Health Effects” for more information on the HSDB.

Take me to TOXMAP

ATSDR Reports

Take me to TOXMAP

Back at the Chemical Reference Info menu, click on ToxFAQs & Public Health Statements

ATSDR Reports

Take me to TOXMAP

ToxFAQs are briefer than the Public Health Statements. Both are written in a style that is easier to understand than the HSDB.

See “The Environment & You: Health Effects” for more information on both of the ATSDR reports.Return to

Releases Menu

What is the TRI Explorer?

From the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Provides Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data from 1987 to 2002

Interactive site which allows you to create: Chemical Reports Facility Reports Federal Facility Reports Trends Reports Geography Reports Industry Reports

Take me to TRI Explorer

TRI Explorer Home Page

This example will demonstrate how to create a Chemical report.


Setting Up Your Report

Under Geographic Location, choose Select a state or a county

Select Texas, then click the Select from List of Counties button. The actual county selection is the last step.


Setting Up Your Report (cont’d)


Select the type of chemicals you want to view. In this case, we are choosing Select a chemical group (e.g. HAPs). HAP stands for Hazardous Air Pollutants


Select the Chemical Released again. Now we will select all Hazardous air pollutants.


Under Industry, choose Select from list of SIC Code(s).



In the window that pops up, select the industries for which you would like reports. In this example, Chemicals and Petroleum are the two industries selected.




Now select a county. Why wait? If you do it too soon, you lose your county when you make your other selections.

Note: You can change the Year of Data; this example will use 2002.

Click on Generate Report.

The line above the table describes the contents of the report: All TRI on-site and off-site HAP reported releases in pounds for petroleum and chemical companies in Harris County.


Report Results

The top 2 rows of the table show where the pollutants were released– on-site or off-site and into wells, landfills, the air, surface water, etc.

Report Results (cont’d)

Need a definition of any of the release locations?

Click on any of the items in the 2nd line to get a definition of the term.



The up/down triangles sort that column. The triangle in red indicates which column is sorted and if the sort is ascending or descending. The default is alphabetical by chemical name, but you can sort by amount released in any of the columns.


Additional Report Information

Scroll down to Download the data generated in this report to a spreadsheet.

Below that, the Note field provides definitions and other important information.


Other Report TypesChanging the type of report will also change some of the variables (geographic location, chemical released, industry, etc.) from which you can choose. However, it is the same basic process to create the reports. You may have to play with the TRI Explorer some to get exactly what you need, but it is well worth the effort!

Another feature is the ability to create a map. This will look different from the TOXMAP site, but by using it in combination with TOXMAP you can create a very powerful statement!


TRI Dynamic Maps

Just as with the reports, select the variables you want. In this case, the map will show releases of PBT (Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxic) Chemicals in the United States by County for All Industries for 2002.


PBT’s in the United States


Texas Gulf Coast

Click on Texas to zoom in.

PBT’s in Texas

Right click on a county to view a list of reports that are available.

PBT’s in Texas

Amazingly enough, San Patricio County (SE TX) has the highest amount of PBTs released in Texas, almost all in lead compounds from one company.

PBT Report for Harris County

Look familiar?

Selecting TRI Chemicals brings us back to the TRI Explorer. This list has been reordered so the chemical with the largest release (lead) is shown first.

Return to Releases Menu

What is the National Response Center?

Serves as the only national point of contact for reporting all types of environmental dischargesBiologicalChemicalOilRadiological

Query system covers accidental releases, not those allowable by law

Take me to the NRC

Setting up your reportTo search by a date range, enter:

between mm/dd/yyyy mm/dd/yyyy

between 11/01/2004 12/01/2004

between 05/01/2003 07/31/2003

While you do not have to fill in all of the blanks, select at least a County; include the state as well.

brazoria

TX

Take me to the NRC

between 03/01/2005 04/17/2005

Take me

to the NRC

Setting up your report (cont’d)

You can also sort the report. In this case, the report is in order by incident date.

Search Results

To view an individual report, click on the View link.

Each report includes the date of the release, the address of the occurrence, county & city, the company involved (if known), what was affected (water, air, etc.), and the chemical released.

Report


This report shows that 20 pounds of benzene were released on March 23, 2005 into the air. This is one of several reports from the BP plant explosion in Texas City.

What is the Air Remission Event Report?

From the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission

Query system covers accidental releases to the air in Texas, not those allowable by law

Data is available from 1/31/2003 to present

Take me to Air Emission Event Report Database

Search the Air Emission Event Database


You can search for reports by specific customer, by regulated industry, or by data and county or region. The example here will demonstrate by date and county.

Search by Date


Fill in the date where you want to begin searching. You can also specify a range of dates.

Enter the name of the county you would like to look up and click the radio button beside County.Click

Submit.

Search Results


Click on the Tracking Number to view the detailed report.

Release Report


The report tells whoWhere &When

The cause (if known), action that was taken, and how emissions were estimated.

Release Report

The report shows what was released.

It also indicates the permit limits for releases of that chemical.

And how much based on estimates.



Documents

The Environment & You: Who Has Released What into the Environment