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Toxic and Hazardous Substance Data Released
Enforcement and Permit Review Underway
(03/81) TRENTON – To increase
public awareness, Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP) Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell today released new
data quantifying releases of toxic substances to New Jersey's
air, land, and water by the state's largest industrial facilities.
DEP is using the data to better identify possible environmental
violations and community impacts.
DEP collected data from 500 New Jersey
facilities that submitted reports for 229 substances used
during 2001. Facilities required to report under the state's
Community Right to Know and Pollution Prevention programs
include manufacturing companies, power plants, hazardous
waste treatment and disposal facilities, and chemical and
petroleum plants.
"The data that New Jersey facilities
reported will help our scientists and investigators identify
where enforcement actions and permit reviews can bring greater
health protections for New Jersey's residents and their
environment," said Commissioner Campbell.
In the past year, DEP updated all toxic
substance release data for reporting years 1998 through
2001, which includes additional information about materials
used in products and recycled by industry not reported by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. All data is now
available for the reporting years 1994 through 2001.
"Although raw data do not directly
translate into risks to public health or the environment,
the information does provide a starting point," said
Commissioner Campbell. "Determining potential health
and ecological risks requires further scrutiny and evaluation
of many factors, including location of a release, toxicity
of a substance, where a chemical goes after release and
proximity to residents."
The 2001 data includes 2,306 reports on
substances covered by New Jersey's Right to Know law that
were manufactured, brought into facilities, consumed in
processes, shipped off site in products, released directly
into the environment, managed as waste on site, or shipped
off site for further management (recycling, energy recovery,
or treatment or disposal). DEP also is reviewing hazardous
substance use and waste management to accelerate pollution
prevention measures that improve operational processes and
efficiencies at these industrial facilities.
Total releases into the environment decreased
statewide from 23.1 million pounds in 2000 to 18.1 million
pounds in 2001. Of the total for 2001, approximately 78.1
percent were releases to air, 20.2 percent to water and
1.7 percent to on-site land.
The total amount of materials used by industries
reporting decreased from 29.8 billion pounds in 2000 to
26.8 billion pounds in 2001. For reporting year 2001, the
amount shipped in products is 87.8 percent of total usage,
consumption is 11.2 percent and non-product output is one
percent. Non-product output is defined as all hazardous
substances that are generated during processing, but not
released to the environment or shipped out as a product.
Releases for industries that have been
reporting since the Right to Know program began in 1987
decreased by 2.9 million pounds from 2000 to 2001, while
hazardous substance use by these original industries decreased
by 3.4 billion pounds. Releases for industries that began
reporting for 1999 when additional companies were added
to the Right to Know program decreased by 2.2 million pounds
from 2000 to 2001, and during the same time hazardous substance
use by these industries increased by 142 million pounds.
The DEP's materials accounting program
was initially established under the New Jersey Worker and
Community Right To Know Act (CRTK) signed into law in 1983.
The first data collection coincided with industry reporting
under the federal Toxic Chemical Release Inventory in 1988
for reporting year 1987. At that time materials accounting
was limited to the 155 substances on the CRTK Environmental
Hazardous Substance List. The passage of the New Jersey
Pollution Prevention Act in 1991 and enhancements to the
Toxic Release Inventory have resulted in reporting changes
that included expansion of the list to more than 600 substances
in 1995, and adding industries in 1998 and persistent bioaccumulative
toxics in 2000.
The 2001 summary report, background information
and individual county and facility summary reports can be
accessed using the link below. Please follow these steps:
At the Online Reports web page, click the
blue log-in button in the right column.
At the prompt for User Name enter: dep, do not enter
a password. Click OK.
When the report page displays, click the link "Release
and Pollution Prevention Report (RPPR)" to access the
reports.
Access the Online Reports
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