WASHINGTON — Companies will have to provide more detailed disclosure of toxic chemicals they release into the air under a little-noticed provision of the massive spending bill President Barack Obama signed into law Wednesday.
The measure — which affects chemical manufacturers, oil refineries, automakers and electronics manufacturers nationwide — reverses a 2006 regulation enacted by former President George W. Bush that eased the reporting requirements for nearly 600 chemicals, including arsenic, benzene and cadmium. The legislation restores the standard established by law in 1986, compelling all facilities to inform the public of any chemical releases that total 500 pounds a year or more, lowering the 2,000-pound threshold Bush adopted.
The 2006 rule change did not lower the threshold for identifying releases of what the EPA calls “persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals,” but it did ease rules for reporting how such chemicals are managed.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who authored the 1986 law establishing the federal Toxics Release Inventory program as well as the provision rolling back the Bush rule, said Wednesday the change will ensure that Americans are informed “about chemicals in their air and water. The Bush administration watered down this law and let facilities hide critical data about their toxic chemical emissions.”
Officials from industries affected by the rule, who estimate they spend $650 million a year complying with the current reporting requirements, said the changes adopted under Bush lightened their regulatory burden without jeopardizing public health.
