February 7, 1997
Ms. Susan B. Hazen
Director
Environmental Assistance Division
Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, DC 20460
Subject: Inclusion of SIC 5169 (Chemical Wholesalers) in TRI Industry Expansion
Dear Ms. Hazen:
Thanks for the February 5th response to my December 24th letter regarding SIC 5169, and its potential selection for reporting under the expanded Toxics Release Inventory reporting requirements. This is to clarify our previous statements.
I. Advocacy's argument regarding the significance of the correction of the Massachusetts TRI data
Advocacy does not maintain that EPA relied on the size of releases as a "key" factor in the selection process. It is our view, however, that this should be the most important factor in selection of new industries. We believe that the elimination of approximately 70% of the releases (in Massachusetts), resulting in very low releases overall for the industry, should result in the exclusion of the industry from TRI. In our view, the most important factual support for the agency's position has disappeared with this correction of the Massachusetts data.
II. Advocacy's discussion of what is appropriate reporting by a single facility with combined manufacturing and wholesale activities at a single facility
We agree with EPA's current guidance on reporting under TRI that facilities subject to TRI should report the releases of the entire facility. We cited the example of a single facility with relatively large releases and combined manufacturer/wholesale operations to make a point, namely that facilities with joint manufacturing/wholesale operations may have higher releases than facilities that only perform chemical wholesale operations. This comparison raises the inference that the only facilities with potential right-to-know interest would be facilities that combine chemical wholesale activities with another activity, such as manufacturing.
III. Advocacy's comparison of gasoline station emissions to chemical wholesale emissions
Advocacy agrees that TRI releases are not directly comparable in quantity to VOC releases. We are pleased to learn EPA's estimate that, for petroleum products, 20% of the VOCs are TRI chemicals. The sole purpose of the emissions comparison was to illustrate the generally low releases of both gasoline retail facilities and chemical wholesale facilities, and not to make exact comparisons. Thanks to EPA's information, we have now calculated the TRI equivalence for the petroleum distribution plants (reducing the figures by a factor of five). We would welcome your views on our suggestion of substitution of section 311/312 data to achieve the right-to-know objective at substantial cost savings. In view of the clarifications made necessary by this correspondence, we suspect that some discussion between staffs could be helpful here. Sincerely, Jere Glover Chief Counsel for Advocacy