Hundreds of national, state, and local groups and individual signers today called on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to reverse a 2006 Environmental Protection Agency rule that limits public access to information about toxic chemical releases. The rule, finalized in December 2006, allows industries to withhold information on the quantities and locations of toxic chemical releases previously reported to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).
Delivering a letter (PDF; 96 KB) signed by 238 state, local, and national organizations, along with nearly 1,300 individual signers, the groups urged the EPA to settle an ongoing lawsuit with 13 states and invalidate the Toxics Release Inventory Burden Reduction Final Rule (71 Federal Register 76932-45).
"The Bush Administration’s rollbacks set a dangerous precedent undermining two decades of public access to toxic pollution data," said U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock. "Congress established the TRI program to serve the public by providing information about toxic releases in our communities, and we urge the Obama Administration to restore the public’s right to know."
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