The November Chemical Engineering magazine had an article on the EPA plan to increase the number of facilities required to do TRI reporting. Currently, only about 23000 facilities file Form R reports (0.4% of the facilities in the US). EPA estimates that only 5% of toxic releases to the environment are reported under SARA 313. Therefore, EPA proposed to add metal mining, solvent recovery services, coal mining, electrical utilities, petroleum bulk stations - wholesale, commercial hazardous waste treatment, and chemicals & allied products - wholesale. The text of the article follows: "The U.S. Congress has put the brakes on EPA's plan (CE, August, p. 25) to expand the number of facilities required to provide data for the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), and annual database of chemicals released to the air, water, and land. The hOuse-Senate Conference Committee on EPA Appropriations has ordered the General Accounting Office (GAO) to study the plan and identify ways EPA can use information it wlready has, instead of requesting more. In a report, the committee says EPA has increased the paperwork burden on businesses and state and local governments in the past year, despite an initiative to reduce paperwork. "EPA has neither an integrated program to manage information, nor an inventory of correct reporting requirements on the regulated community," says the report. The GAO study will evaluate EPA's information management practices; recommen ways to increase accountability among federal agencies in complying with existing TRI reporting requirements; and examine how information is provided to, and used by, the public at the local level. Scheduled to start about year-end, the study will take six to nine months." Sorry about typing errors, but you get the gist of the message. Where in the world can we get some clout like those industries have?!? I think that the direction that EPA will go down will be similar to the Facilities Identification Initiative for their information systems. IPC is commenting on this initiative, and would like to have any comments by Monday, November 25th. Please send your comments to Holly Lynch at [log in to unmask] by email, or to IPC at FAX - - 847-509-9798, or Holly Lynch (FAX - 202-638-0145). John Sharp Merix Corporation Forest Grove, OR 503-359-9300 (ext. 5-4351) 503-359-1040 FAX [log in to unmask] ************************************************************************** * The mail list is provided as a service by IPC using SmartList v3.05 * ************************************************************************** * To unsubscribe from this list at any time, send a message to: * * [log in to unmask] with <subject: unsubscribe> and no text. * **************************************************************************