PLEASE SIGN ON: Support Toxic Right-to-Know!

[Mike Ewall]

** PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE **

Organizational sign-on for disclosure of toxic incinerator emissions data: www.energyjustice.net/tri

Not getting the full story on toxic chemicals you're breathing and drinking? There's a reason. One of the most toxic industries -- waste incinerators -- have been exempt from reporting to the nation's main database tracking toxic chemical releases.

Help us petition EPA to make waste incinerators have to report to this important right-to-know tool!

** PLEASE SIGN ON by 3/28: www.energyjustice.net/tri (for groups only) **

If you represent any organizations, please sign on. We have 160 groups signed on so far. Is yours one?

SHARE! If you can share this with any organizations you think would be interested, please do. You can also share via these Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram links!


PROGRESS!

We're making progress in moving EPA away from their long-standing support for waste incineration. Last July, we got EPA to put a disclaimer on their pro-incineration waste hierarchy as they revisit it after admitting to us that they have no evidence to back up prioritizing incineration. We also got EPA to commission the first ever peer review of their flawed "WARM" model that, if fixed, would stop promoting trash incineration as a climate solution. We'll be needing to comment on it later this year.

Last October, many of you signed onto the 274-group letter we sent to the White House, calling for changes at EPA regarding their support for waste incineration, catching the industry's attention and landing coverage in some national trade press.

One of the other demands in the letter was to make the nation's 400 waste incinerators have to start reporting their toxic emissions to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). About that...

BACKGROUND ON THE PETITION:

Following major chemical accidents in the 1980s, people fought for Congressional passage of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986. This included the creation of a Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) database managed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Since 1988, for hundreds of toxic chemicals, we've had data reported by chemical plants, oil refineries, and many other industries disclosing the amounts of each emitted into our air, waters, land, and even the amounts transferred to other sites.  Reporters, public officials, researchers, community groups and others have used this data for years to draw attention to toxic polluters.

However, one of the most toxic industries has always been exempt from this reporting requirement. Waste incinerators are often among the top industrial air polluters in their counties, but maps and data based on TRI, like ProPublica's ToxMap have gaping holes in their map where incinerator pollution should be showing up.

This petition would require EPA to make the following types of waste incinerators start reporting their toxic releases, including toxic chemicals in their ash that ends up in landfills and other uses.

• 68 Large and Small Municipal Waste Combustors (trash incinerators)
• 15-30 Hospital, Medical, and Infectious Waste Incinerators
• 60-70 Sewage Sludge Incinerators
• 148 Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incinerators
• 63 Other Solid Waste Incinerators
• 40 Pyrolysis and Gasification Units

If you like, you're welcome to read the full 47-page formal petition. This petition is being filed by Energy Justice Network and the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

---

Mike Ewall
Executive Director
Energy Justice Network
215-436-9511
mi...@energyjustice.net
http://www.energyjustice.net
Donate | Join
Facebook: Me (friend) | Energy Justice (like)