Re: Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know

[Vernon Brechin <vbrechin@igc.org>]

[NOTE: This was forwarded to us in response to the Emergency
Planning & Community Right-to-Know posting. --Aimee Houghton]

I have been doing a bit of snooping around to find out some of
the regulations that are behind this Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)
topic. Refer to the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 372--Toxic
Chemical Release Reporting: Community Right-To-Know. A question
was raised about "reporting exemptions." Section 372.38 covers
certain exemptions. Most of the environmental laws that I have
looked at have exemptions. I understand that over 600 chemicals
plus chemical categories are contained on the Toxic Release
Inventory (TRI) List. At first glance most folks would think this
list is quite comprehensive. A closer inspection will show that
many hazardous materials are not included on the list. It does
not include uranium which presents both a toxic and radiological
hazard. It does not include radioactive materials. In fact, many
of this nations primary environmental laws, such as CERCLA, RCRA
and TSCA, contain specific provisions that exclude the reporting
of Special Nuclear Material, a term that serves as a handy
euphemism for the extremely hazardous nuclear material plutonium.
Below is a citation from the CERCLA (Superfund) code.

 United States Code Annotated (USCA)
 Title 42
 Chapter 103 CERCLA/SARA
 Section 9601 Definitions
 Subsection 10 Federally permitted release
 (K) permitted release of plutonium

I believe such provisions are more likely to be challenged if
the regulators were motivated to help make the public aware of
such exemptions.

I would appreciate some feedback on this issue.

Vernon Brechin
vbrechin@igc.org