Chemical Emissions Are Down In North America

Industrial chemical releases fell by 20% in North America between 1998 and 2003, including a 21% reduction in emissions of air toxics, according to a July 27 report by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).

The report finds that 23,816 facilities in the U.S. and Canada released or transferred 2.99 million metric tons of chemicals in 2003, the most recent reporting year of data analyzed by CEC, which was established to oversee the environmental side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Total releases and transfers of industrial chemicals from U.S. facilities declined 9% in 2003 after virtually no change the previous year, and total releases and t.ransfers from Canadian facilities decreased less than 1% in 2003 after a 7% increase the previous year. Across the continent, total releases and transfers fell 8% from 2002 to 2003.

The annual report compiles data from the Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory and the U.S. Toxics Release Inventory to provide a North American picture of industrial chemicals in the environment.

The report indicates that the U.S. has made more progress than Canada in reducing chemical emissions. Manufacturing facilities in the U.S. cut their releases by 21% between 1998 and 2003, while Canadian manufacturers cut releases by 10%.

The report also suggests that increasing efforts to prevent pollution are having a positive impact. Facilities in the U.S. and Canada that reported pollution prevention activities, ranging from equipment modifications to process changes and materials substitution, showed reductions from 2002 to 2003 in releases and transfers (11% in the U.S. and 4% in Canada).

Conversely, facilities in Canada not reporting pollution prevention activities showed a 7% net increase in releases and transfers. The facilities in the U.S. without pollution prevention activities had a 7% decrease than their counterparts.

"It is encouraging to see the reductions in releases and transfers of chemicals in our environment, and that pollution prevention efforts offer the promise of even further reductions," says William V. Kennedy, executive director of CEC. "We hope this evidence will prompt more industrial facilities to embrace pollution prevention activities over end-of-pipe solutions."

The next CEC report will include data from Mexico's new pollutant release and transfer register, which will list industrial plants and their emissions of 104 chemicals to the air, water, and land. The initial data are to be posted this summer on a publicly accessible government website, with annual updates.

"This is hugely important," says Tom Natan, research director at the National Environmental Trust in Washington, D.C. "People in Mexico have never had any idea what kind of emissions come from industrial facilities. It's a real step forward for the whole country for the people to get that information."