Three of Baltimore?s 10 biggest polluters will no longer have to report how much pollutants they pour into water or discharge onto land under new rules announced Thursday.
The rules enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency will increase the minimum amount of pollutants requiring a detailed report from 500 to 5,000 pounds.
According to data compiled by Maryland Public Interest Research Group from federal disclosure forms, Lesaffre Yeast Corporation will no longer have to release water or ground contamination numbers under the new rule. Grace Division Curtis Bay will no longer need to detail on-site ground pollution levels and Motiva Baltimore Terminal will be exempted from telling how many pounds of toxins they release into the Patapsco.
The Maryland PIRG report “confirms that communities across Maryland are routinely put at risk by toxic pollution linked to serious health impacts,” policy advocate Johanna Neumann said. “These toxic pollutants are the worst of the worst and pose tangible threats to public health that must be addressed.”
The report, Toxic Pollution and Health, uses information from the EPA?s Toxic Release Inventory to analyze pollutants linked to serious health problems such as cancer, birth defects or neurological damage, Neumann said. Due to the EPA action this report may provide one of the last complete pictures of toxic pollution in Maryland.
Nurse Brenda Afzal, community health specialist with the University of Maryland Medical Center, said the EPA decision didn?t surprise her.
“I find the information disturbing, perhaps even startling, but not surprising,” she said
The law requiring pollutant reporting from many industries passed in 1988 after a major chemical explosion in Bhopal India killed an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 people, she said.
Since its passage, the EPA reports a 57 percent reduction in the releases of toxic chemicals by industries required to report them, Neumann said, despite the fact that no requirements were made in that law to cut emissions.
According to the report, Baltimore leads the nation, along with Texas, in the amount of pollutants released into the atmosphere, water and soil.
“The incidence of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson disease and Alzheimer?s are increasing in our population,” said Dr. Michael Trush, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Deputy Director of the Center in Urban Environmental Health. “These diseases may be caused in part by neurotoxicants in the air we breathe and that?s why it is important to know what?s out there.”
Rollback challenged
Environmental and health advocates are fighting an administration “rollback” in reporting of toxic emissions.
“A reduction in the public?s right-to-know is never a good thing,” said Nurse Brenda Afzal of the University of Maryland School of Nursing?s Environmental Health Education Center. “It means that Maryland communities and the health care providers serving those communities will be left in the dark about toxic pollution.”
Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., challenged the EPA?s reporting rollbacks by introducing the Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act (H.R. 1055 and S. 595). This would ensure communities complete access to toxic pollution information.
