WASHINGTON – The government wants to quit forcing companies to report small releases of toxic pollutants and allow them to submit reports on their pollution less frequently.
Saying it wants to ease its regulatory burden on companies, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed adopting a “short form” that would excuse companies from disclosing spills and other releases of toxic substances if:
* They claim to release fewer than 5,000 pounds of a specific chemical. The current limit is 500 pounds.
* They store on-site but claim to release “zero” amounts of the worst pollutants, such as mercury, DDT and PCBs, that persist in the environment and work up the food chain. However, they must report if they have stored dioxin or dioxin-like compounds, even if none is released.
EPA said it also plans to ask Congress for permission to require the accounting every other year instead of annually.
Reducing information on more than 600 chemicals put in the air, water and land will make it harder for officials, communities and interest groups to help protect public health, said Meghan Purvis, an environmental health advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
The looser reporting requirements are intended to let off the hook as many as a third of the 23,000 companies that now report their pollution to the government, according to the EPA.
Kimberly Nelson, the EPA’s assistant administrator for environmental information estimated the shorter forms would save businesses about 165,000 hours a year in paperwork.
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