Program on the Environment

Mining in the United States is consistently one of the largest contributors of toxic pollution. To give light to these toxic releases, the EPA hosts a database called the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) that collects mandatory self-reports of releases from every manufacturer in the United States. This data is publicly available and is aimed to provide individuals information about the kinds of releases in a particular area. The purpose of this research was to verify the accuracy of TRI reports from mines in Region 10 (Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Idaho). While working with the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Compliance and Enforcement (EPA OCE), I performed a national analysis of the self-reported data from mines to determine reporting behaviors of each mine type. I used this information to evaluate the validity of TRI report from mines in Region 10 in regard to which chemicals were reported and how much. I found that about half of mines in Region 10 may have failed to report a significant chemical for most years. I have created a list of mines that are suspected to have failed to report correctly, which was given to the EPA OCE to be contacted in order to update TRI as needed. This kind of analysis and outreach puts TRI in motion, holds manufacturers accountable to improve reporting, and would be beneficial if performed on a regular basis for all industries.