[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 191 (Tuesday, October 4, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57871-57872]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-19709]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL-7532-9]
Toxics Release Inventory 2006 Burden Reduction
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: EPA's Toxics Release Inventory Program is today announcing its
intent to explore potential approaches for modification of the
reporting frequency of facilities that report to TRI. Among the options
to be considered is alternate year reporting, which would require
Congressional notification as discussed in section 313(i) of the
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know-Act (EPCRA). EPA has
notified Congress, as required by this provision, of its intent to
initiate a rulemaking to modify TRI reporting frequency. Today's notice
is in addition to the Agency's recent proposal, Toxics Release
Inventory Burden Reduction Proposed Rule elsewhere in Today's Federal
Register, designed to reduce reporting burden on facilities reporting
to TRI by increasing eligibility for the Form A Certification
Statement.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Suzanne Ackerman,
[email protected], 202-564-4355, Office of Public Affairs.
Details and additional information will also be posted on EPA's TRI Web
site, http://www.epa.gov/tri, as they become available.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In the coming months, the Agency will give
consideration to additional measures that would provide burden relief
to TRI reporting facilities on an every other year basis. These options
may include a modification in reporting frequency as discussed in EPCRA
section 313(i). 42 U.S.C. 11023(i). In order to modify TRI reporting
frequency, section 313(i) of EPCRA requires EPA to make a finding that
modifying the reporting frequency is consistent with the purposes of
the TRI as listed in section 313(h) of EPCRA. See, 42 U.S.C. 11023(h).
This finding must be based on previous experience gained from past TRI
reporting, the extent to which the public has used TRI data, the extent
to which information is readily available from other sources and the
extent to which the change would impose additional and unreasonable
burdens on reporting facilities. 42 U.S.C. 11023(i)(2)-(3). As outlined
in EPCRA, the Agency must first notify Congress of its intent to
initiate a rulemaking to modify the reporting frequency. After
notifying Congress, EPA must delay initiating the rulemaking for 12
months but no more than 24 months. In following the process described
in EPCRA to make such a change, the Agency recently notified Congress
of its intent to initiate a rulemaking to modify the reporting
frequency. EPA's Assistant Administrator Kimberly T. Nelson mailed the
letter below to the following individuals: The Honorable Richard B.
Cheney, President, United States Senate, The Honorable William H.
Frist, Majority Leader, United States Senate, The Honorable Harry Reid,
Minority Leader, United States Senate, The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert,
Speaker, United States House of Representatives, The Honorable Tom
DeLay, Majority Leader, United States House of Representatives, The
Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader, United States House of
Representatives, and The Honorable David M. Walker, Comptroller General
of the United States, Government Accountability Office.
Since the late 1980s, the United States (U.S.) Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program has been
an important source of public information on releases of toxic
chemicals and a successful tool in our efforts at promoting pollution
prevention. Under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community
Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986, facilities annually report data to
EPA on releases and transfers of certain listed toxic chemicals, which
EPA compiles and makes available to the public. The Pollution
Prevention Act (PPA) of 1990
[[Page 57872]]
expanded the program to include information on other waste management
activities such as recycling of chemicals. In addition, EPA has several
times expanded the scope of the program by rulemaking by doubling the
number of covered chemicals, adding seven industrial sectors, and
significantly lowering reporting thresholds for chemicals identified as
persistent, bioaccumlative and toxic (PBT). EPA believes that each of
these expansions has increased the usefulness of the TRI data to the
public and furthered the statutory goals of the program.
Over the years, EPA has been mindful of the reporting burden this
program imposes on covered facilities. In 1994, EPA introduced ``Form
A'' to streamline reporting for small dischargers. In July of this
year, we finalized a rule that would revise the TRI reporting forms to
eliminate information not used, simplify reporting codes and improve
the accuracy of facility identification and location data by using the
data already available in EPA's information systems. In addition, EPA
will soon publish a proposed rule to expand the use of Form A to allow
more facilities to use the short form while retaining the full Form R
reporting on over 99% of releases and other waste management
activities. Both of these efforts involved extensive consultations with
all program stakeholders and help address the concerns expressed about
the reporting burden under TRI.
The purpose of this letter is to inform you of the third and final
phase of our current efforts to reduce burden and streamline program
operations. Specifically, we believe a rulemaking to modify the
reporting frequency from annual to biennial deserves further
consideration. Not only would alternate year reporting result in
significant burden reduction for covered facilities, citizens would
benefit from the redirection of federal and state taxpayer dollars to
improve the quality, clarity, usefulness and accessibility of TRI
information products and services. EPCRA Sec 313(i) authorizes EPA to
make such a modification, but only after providing at least one-year's
advance notification to Congress before initiating a rulemaking and
only after making several specific findings, which we address below.
Accordingly, we are notifying you that we plan to initiate a rulemaking
to consider modifications to the reporting frequency for the TRI
program within 12 to 24 months after the date of this letter. Over the
next 12 months, EPA plans to continue its consultations with
stakeholders in order to gather the data necessary to support the
statutory determinations required under the law and to ensure the
rulemaking appropriately balances the needs of data users with the
concerns of data reporters and states.
We are taking this step because we believe that alternate year
reporting not only offers burden reduction, but also offers other
potential advantages that merit consideration. First, EPA and states
would be able to use the saved resources from the non-reporting years
to improve the TRI database and conduct additional analyses that would
enhance the value of the data to the public. For example, EPA could
enhance its TRI reporting software, TRI-Made Easy, thereby improving
data quality and consistency; conduct analyses of data trends, sector
or chemical specific patterns of waste management, innovations in
pollution prevention, and risk implications of toxic chemical releases
thereby making the TRI data more useful to citizens, communities,
researchers and government agencies; and improve its web-based software
to make the data more accessible and user friendly and to improve
opportunities for Internet-based reporting. Internet reporting provides
savings not only to reporters, but also to taxpayers as it reduces EPA
and State processing costs and allows us to meet Paperwork Reduction
and Electronic Government requirements. It also provides greater
confidence to both reporters and data users in the integrity of the
data by increasing the use of electronic data quality checks.
Alternate year reporting would provide more simplified burden
reduction to TRI reporters than many options previously considered. For
instance, a common complaint about Form A is that it requires a
significant amount of time to track and calculate data to determine
eligibility. Alternate year reporting, in contrast, would eliminate in
non-reporting years all burden for eligible reporters. Although EPA
believes that a carefully structured alternate year reporting provision
could provide substantial benefits to both data users and data
reporters, EPA also recognizes that there will be legitimate concerns
about data loss during the non-reporting years and will carefully
consider those concerns as we develop any proposals for public comment
and consideration.
EPA will be examining the impact on data users carefully as it
addresses the statutory requirements for modifying reporting frequency.
Specifically, EPCRA requires one finding and three determinations
before changing the reporting frequency. The required finding is that
any modification is consistent with the intended uses of the TRI data
as described in Sec 313(h), while the determinations are designed to
ensure that EPA give full consideration to: (1) The impact of the
modifications on data users, including State and local governments,
health professionals, the general public, other federal agencies and
EPA itself; (2) the availability of the data from other sources; and
(3) the impact of the modifications on data reporters. EPA intends to
gather data related to these issues during the next 12 months, prior to
initiating a rulemaking.
EPA believes that this action will enhance data quality and user
friendliness by supplementing existing data with additional analysis.
EPA looks forward to working with all stakeholders in the coming year
to gather the necessary information to ensure that any modification of
TRI reporting frequency considers the needs of TRI data users and will
consider a range of options to minimize impacts.
Enclosed for your benefit is a fact sheet with more details about
the TRI program. Should you have any questions or would like to provide
your views, please contact me at 202-564-6665 or your staff may contact
James Blizzard in EPA's Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental
Relations.
Dated: September 21, 2005.
Kimberly T. Nelson,
Assistant Administrator for Office of Environmental Information and,
Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 05-19709 Filed 10-3-05; 8:45 am]
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