Polluting Emissions Register uropean Community policy makers are turning an envious eye to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI),the site-by-site record of industrial pollution established under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986. A parallel to the TRI is now under consideration in the EC. In part, it is aimed at drawing together fledgling schemes already launched by three of the 1 2 EC states into a coherent EC-wide database. But another goal is for a common EC-U.S. standard on emissions reporting, perhaps paving the way for a global map of pollution sources. Consistent international data would allow public policies to be adjusted to give priority to the areas of greatest need. In particular, the EC suffers from a lack of baseline data; an industrial emissions inventory could feed into the Community’s planned database of both point-source and diffuse emissions, which will also cover natural sources. (In fact, the body charged with preparing this database-the European Environment Agency-though established under EC law in 1990, has yet to start work, thanks to a squabble between member states over the location of its headquarters. 1 The European Commission, the EC’s executive body, is keen to expose companies’ environmental impacts, allowing comparisons to be drawn with the best performers in any member state and, if international standards can be agreed on, anywhere in the world. The Commission’s proposal, called the Polluting Emissions Register (PER), is outlined in an internal document. Meanwhile, the European Chemical Industry Council (French abbreviation CEFIC), has drafted its own standards for emissions reporting, to be launched in June. CEFIC supports the principle of environmental openness, but argues that a voluntary, industry-led program will avoid the need for any new legislation (a sensitive issue for the Commission which, after 15 years of frenzied environmental lawmaking, is now under pressure from member states to ease its legislative pace). Nonetheless, emissions reporting-and the ability to harness the 1012 Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 27, No. 6, 1993
BY JULIAN ROSE power of public opinion-fit well into current thinking in the EC. “The success of the drive towards sustainability will depend to a very considerable extent on the decisions, actions, and involvement of the general public,” the Commission said in its latest policy bible, the Fifth Environmental Action Program. The PER document notes that, “It is difficult to over-emphasize the impact the TRI has had on environmental culture in the U S ” In discussions with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Commission was told that, before the TRI, only 5% of requests for environmental information (under the Freedom of Information Act) came from the public. The remaining 95% of requests were from companies asking for information about other companies. Under the TRI, the figures are roughly 50-50%. The Commission argues that the PER would aIso benefit companies. It would encourage companies to look outside their own organizations, at the performance of their competitors. Comparable plants may be shown to have different levels of emissions. The revelation may prompt discussions as to the reasons for those differences, the PER report says. Sensitive to complaints that the U.S. TRI is unnecessarily bureaucratic, the Commission proposes that the EC register should focus on the major polluters only. Thresholds based on emission levels, rather than the volume of chemicals processed, would allow emitters of negligible quantities of chemicals to be excluded from the register. The Commission says more than 50,000 sites would be covered by the PER, roughly double the number reporting in the United States. And governments would have to find new resources to launch the initiative; EPA spent $10 million in 1991 on TRI administration. The PER would be compiled by national governments, in line with EC guidelines. Member states would be left considerable freedom to decide how to present the data for public access and the scope of any background reports.
Three EC countries have already devised emissions registers, which would have to be revised to fit into the new program. In 1 9 8 7 the French government decided to establish a centralized inventory covering about 1500 facilities. An annual booklet is produced showing the main sources of industrial pollution, with figures in tons per year for each location. In Britain, emissions from many industrial processes have to be reported on public registers. The government recently announced that these data will now be compiled onto a centralized Chemical Release Inventory that handles about 300 substances. The only other significant EC scheme is i n the Netherlands, which has a voluntary reporting program covering some 2000 facilities. However, site-specific data are kept confidential. Outside the EC, Sweden is also planning a Toxic Release Inventory, to start up later this year, and Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory will issue its first report by the end of 1994. At CEFIC, technical director Louis Jourdan says the EC is under pressure from EPA to prepare inventory guidelines that are close to the TRI. But he says he has received assurances from the EC Commission that CEFIC’s voluntary initiative to standardize emissions reporting m a y fulfill EC p o l i c y requirements. One chemical firm, France’s Atochem, has already produced an environmental report using the new CEFIC guidelines, and Jourdan believes that.a good proportion of member companies will follow in 1994. Because many chemical companies have plants on both sides of the Atlantic, CEFIC’s new guidelines are heavily influenced by U.S. practice under the TRI. But the chemical industry is opposed to an EC emissions inventory because of bad experiences at the hands of U S . pressure groups. For example, DuPont has been branded the worst U.S. polluter, simply because it has the largest emissions-an unremarkable fact, considering DuPont has the largest output of chemical products. CEFIC wants to present emissions data alongside an explanation
001 3-936X/93/0927-1012$04.00/0 0 1993 American Chemical Society
of what the numbers mean. “Presenting these data in the form of a report could facilitate public understanding ,” Jourdan argues. However, Commission sources point out that CEFIC’s scheme could complement, rather than replace, the proposed EC emissions inventory. A principal drawback of the CEFIC scheme is that many of the smaller chemical producers are not member companies. And, in any case, two-thirds of emissions reported to the TRI come from other industrial sectors. The existence of an EC emissions inventory would make it easier to persuade East European governments to draw up pollution databases-a key EC objective for tackling transfrontier and marine pollution. “Simple, accessible emission inventories could be one of the ways in which environmental information, for so long difficult or impossible to obtain in Eastern Europe, is made available,” the Commission says.
Transuranium Elements: A Half Century
D
eveloped from an international symposium commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the discovery of transuranium elements, this volume honors the chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and engineers who were the pioneers of transuranium research in the 1940s.
Opening with a comprehensive review by Glenn T. Seaborg of the discovery of transuranium elements and his perspective on the future of the field, the volume offers an outline of the discoveries of transuranium elements and of the chemical foundations of transuranium research, written by the pioneers themselves. The volume also emphasizes contemporary research with articles on nuclear chemistry and physics: spectroscopy, photophysics, and photochemistry: inorganic and analytical chemistry: materials physics and chemistry: and solution and environmental chemistry of the transuranium elements. Contents 0 Historical Viewpoints 0 Materials Physics 0 Nuclear Physics and Chemistry 0 Materials Chemistry 0 Chemistry 0 Analytical Chemistry 0 Separations, Thermodynamics Lester R. Morss, Argonne National Laboratory, Editor Jean Fuger, European Institute for Transuranium Elements, Editor 700 pages (1992) Clothbound ISBN 0-8412-2219-3 $99.95
Julian Rose i s a London-based freelance writer specializing in environmental and technological issues. He was previously editor of Environmental News.
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