The right to know
Patrick CrowTwo of the hallmarks of the Clinton administration's Environmental Protection Agency have been its support of community right-to-know programs and use of the Internet to disperse information.
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The combination of the two can be cause for concern.
EPA recently launched the Sector Facility Indexing Project, a pilot program that will provide data through the Internet on the environmental performance of 653 facilities in five major industries, including petroleum refining.
The agency pledged the database would provide "public access to more environmental information than has ever before been available to the public in one location."
The program will provide environmental data about each facility, such as the number of inspections, compliance with federal regulations, enforcement actions taken, chemical releases, and spills.
It also includes background information on the location and production capacity of each facility, as well as information on the population of the surrounding area.
It remains to be seen if the public will get heartburn when it digests this information.
Risk assessments
Earlier, for Earth Day-EPA always tries to get in the newspaper headlines on Earth Day-the agency declared industries must release more health information about thousands of commonly used chemicals.The agency said it has complete health effects data for only 7% of the 3,000 chemicals most widely used in the U.S. and no data at all for more than 50%.
EPA noted its Toxic Release Inventory program requires manufacturers to report the volumes of chemicals they release into the environment but said the public needs a better understanding of what those chemicals do.
Vice Pres. Al Gore said that, if industry does not speed its voluntary testing of chemicals, then EPA would require it within 2 years.
The Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) replied, saying it already was working to hurry the standard testing of the chemicals, which will cost industry $26 million for about 100 chemicals/year.
Targeting data
Meanwhile, CMA has a major complaint about yet another EPA initiative.The agency has a rule pending that would require 66,000 chemical and industry facilities operated by industry and the government to evaluate how a range of accidental release scenarios would affect the public and the environment-including a "worst-case scenario."
EPA proposed putting all the information on the Internet.
CMA said that, by doing so, EPA would simply be providing "targeting information" for terrorists.
The association stressed it does not object to the data being available to the public-just not that widely available.
EPA had planned to issue a final rule soon, but one observer said "all hell broke loose" when the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency discovered what EPA was doing.
The disclosure plans are now on hold, and Congress is itching to get involved.
A CMA official said, "It's hard to believe that EPA could not see that this is not just an environmental issue. It is a national security issue."
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