EPA Data Show 25% Of Auto, Petroleum, Pulp, Steel, And Non-Ferrous Metal Industries Currently Violating Clean Air Act

An analysis released today by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new Sector Facility Indexing database shows that a quarter of the industries listed in the sector database are in “significant non-compliance” with the Clean Air Act. The user-friendly database (www.epa.gov/oeca/sfi) enables the public to compare enforcement, environmental release, and spill data for facilities within and between five industrial sectors: automobile assembly, petroleum refining, pulp manufacturing, iron and steel mills, and the smelting and refining of non-ferrous metal (i.e., aluminum, copper, lead, and zinc).

“It is astounding that 25% of the types of major facilities covered by the Sector Facility Indexing database currently are in significant non-compliance with the Clean Air Act,” said EDF senior engineer Lois Epstein. Integrated iron and steel mills have the worst current Clean Air Act violation record (63%) of the facilities in the database. “Now that the public, including lending institutions and other interested parties, can get state and federal enforcement information easily for particular facilities, those firms with violations should be better motivated to comply with environmental laws.” Additional information on these facilities, including their cancer and non-cancer hazards, is available through EDF’s new chemical scorecard at www.scorecard.org.

The EDF data analysis released today also showed that over 40% of the facilities covered by the database had a spill large enough to require reporting in the past two years, with the worst record again at integrated iron and steel mills (70%). In contrast, iron and steel “mini-mills” have the best spill record, with only 16.5% reporting spills in the past two years. Petroleum refineries have the second worst current Clean Air Act compliance and spill records.

The Sector Facility Indexing database covers 653 facilities, representing 3% of the approximately 23,000 manufacturers reporting to EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and 24% of the total releases reported to TRI. It includes enforcement data under three federal environmental statutes: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act which covers solid and hazardous wastes. Because several industries and states opposed placing Sector Facility Indexing information on-line (raising concerns with data quality), EPA undertook an extensive data quality control effort. After both facilities and states reviewed and commented upon the data, EPA and states made changes on less than 5%.

“This new database tool provides the public with an excellent means to identify, for example, facilities with the greatest population density and environmental justice concerns, facilities with the best and worst enforcement, and spill records federally or within a particular state, and the states performing the most inspections,” said Epstein.

“The Sector Facility Indexing (SFI) database is a model of government responsiveness to the public’s need for accessible, facility-specific, environmental protection information. The SFI database should be expanded immediately to cover additional industrial sectors,” said EDF senior attorney Kevin Mills.