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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2001
Contact:
Dianne Nielson, Department of Environmental Quality, 801.536.4402
Neil Taylor, Division of Environmental Response and Remediation, 801.536.4102
According to the Utah Toxic Release Inventory 1999 Data Summary, chemicals released to Utah's environment would appear to significantly increase from 581 million pounds in 1998 to nearly 1.2 billion pounds in 1999. In fact, the "increase" actually is due to a change in how waste rock was used at Kennecott Cooper facilities rather than from more chemicals being released to the air or water.
Kennecott Copper facilities reported the largest increase with 615 million pounds. In 1999, the mine discontinued leaching of several large piles of waste rock. Under Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) regulations, material no longer undergoing leaching is considered to be waste, and the metals in the waste are required to be included in TRI reports.
Despite an overall total release increase, chemicals released to the air in Utah decreased 11 million pounds from 1998 to a total of 53 million pounds in 1999. This is the lowest release-to-air total in the 13-year history of the TRI program. The reduction is primarily due to a decrease in chlorine and hydrochloric acid emissions from Magnesium Corporation of America. However, Magcorp continues to be a major source of chemicals released to the air.
Chemicals released to the land totaled approximately 1.1 billion pounds in 1999, a substantial increase from the 507 million pounds reported for 1998. Again, the increase is due to a change in how waste rock was used at Kennecott Copper facilities. Kennecott Copper facilities reported nearly 98 percent of the release-to-land total in the form of copper, manganese, arsenic, zinc, lead and other metal compounds.
Releases to surface water totaled about 1 million pounds. This total is almost entirely nitrate compound releases from Geneva Steel to Utah Lake. Kennecott Copper facilities reported releases of various metals to the Great Salt Lake totaling 28,000 pounds. These discharges are permitted under state and federal law.
The TRI is an annual report used to inform citizens, industries and government regulators about chemicals found in our environment. Data are gathered at year's end and compiled the following year. The report is used to study and identify potential hazards to public health or the environment. TRI data can be used to provide basic information on the types and volumes of waste and emissions at a facility, but the data must be used with other concentration, migration, environmental targets and exposure information to assess a level of human health or environmental risk.
A total of 171 Utah facilities filed TRI reports. Approximately 72 percent of these facilities are located in Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties.
1999 was the second year of reporting for industrial sectors recently added by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These added industrial sectors include coal mining, metal mining, electrical generation facilities combusting coal or oil, hazardous waste disposal, wholesale bulk petroleum distribution, chemical wholesale distribution and solvent recycling.
The TRI report is available on the Utah Department of Environmental Quality's website at http://www.deq.state.ut.us/eqerr/SERC/Trihome.htm.
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