Court Asked To NIx Right-To-Know Changes

A dozen states last week filed suit against EPA's December 2006 rule allowing companies to provide less right-to-know information about toxic releases. The rule allows about a third of the 24,000 facilities that file Toxics Release Inventory reports to submit less information about their releases of one or more chemicals. It also permits companies to provide less data on wastes containing substances categorized as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic, such as lead and mercury (C&EN, Jan. 1, page 10). The states want a federal court to reinstate the TRI rules that were in effect before the new one kicked in this year. New York filed the suit and was joined by Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.