FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 23, 2000
CONTACTS:
Neil Taylor, Environmental Response & Remediation, (801) 536-4102
Carol Sisco, DEQ Public Information, (801) 536-4484
Overall chemical releases to Utah's environment, as reported in the Toxic Release Inventory, have increased during the past year. However, most of the increase comes from new reporting requirements rather than from more chemicals being released to the air, land and water.
Total chemical releases increased from just less than 97 million pounds in 1997 to 577 million pounds in 1998. Data is gathered at year's end and compiled the following year. However, 448 million pounds were from the mining industry that wasn't required to report in the past. Additional industries involved in Toxic Release Inventory reporting this year include coal mining, metal mining, electrical generation facilities which burn coal or oil, hazardous waste disposal, wholesale bulk petroleum distribution, chemical wholesale distribution and solvent recycling.
The industries have been regulated and inspected for many years. However, waste they generate was not previously noted in the annual report that is used to inform citizens, industry and government regulators about chemicals found in our environment. It is used to study and identify potential hazards to public health or the environment. The report alone cannot explain environmental risk.
Information on Utah's national ranking is not available yet from the Environmental Protection Agency. But Utah Department of Environmental Quality has gathered information on chemical releases to Utah's air, land and water.
Magnesium Corporation of America continues to be the major source of chemical releases to the air. The company, however, reduced its chlorine and hydrochloric acid emissions by 4.6 million pounds in 1998, going from 62 million to 58 million pounds.
Land releases showed the greatest increase, from 27 million pounds in 1997 to 507 million in 1998. But 448 million pounds were attributed to mining data that was not previously reported. Nearly 476 million pounds of the land releases were reported by Kennecott facilities in the form of copper, manganese, arsenic, zinc, lead and other metal compounds.
The report is available on the Department of Environmental Quality's web site at: http://www.deq.state.ut.us/eqerr/SERC/Trihome.htm.