"Taking Stock Online", released recently by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), provides the latest integrated North American data and most comprehensive picture of industrial pollution across North America, documenting reported releases and transfers of 5.7 billion kilograms of toxic pollutants in 2006 from industrial facilities in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The North American picture is incomplete however, as a combination of national reporting exemptions for certain sectors and pollutants and incomplete reporting by some facilities reveal significant gaps in the portrait of how much pollution is generated and managed by North American industry.
"Regional cooperation on environmental issues depends on comparable and complete data from Canada, Mexico and the United States," said Evan Lloyd, CEC's executive director. "This information is critical for governments, industry and citizens to address pollution and ensure healthy communities and ecosystems."
Taking Stock Online presents the latest integrated data set from North America's pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) and features an integrated, multi-year database covering over 500 toxic substances and almost 100 major industrial sectors reporting to the PRTRs of Canada, Mexico and the United States. The site also features new tools to assist in data analysis, including a tool to explore data on pollutants transferred across national borders.
The CEC's Taking Stock Online site is updated annually and allows users to:
-Explore information on industrial pollutant releases and transfers.
-Generate reports in a variety of formats including pie charts and spreadsheets.
-Create maps and view them using Google Earth.
Different reporting requirements reveal gaps
Top industrial sectors reporting releases and transfers in North America included metal mining and activities related to the oil and gas extraction sector; fossil-fuel power plants; chemicals manufacturing; and primary metals manufacturing.
Reporting requirements vary by country for some sectors and pollutants, revealing important gaps in the tracking of industrial pollution at a North American level -- for example:
-The oil and gas extraction sector is exempt from reporting under the U.S. Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), as is hydrogen sulfide (the pollutant reported in largest proportions by this same sector in Canada). In Mexico, the reporting threshold for this pollutant is lower than in Canada and the United States, but zero hydrogen sulfide emissions were reported by the oil and gas extraction sector in 2006.
-Some of the toxic pollutants reported in the greatest volume in Canada and the United States, such as carbon disulfide, zinc compounds, methanol, and hydrochloric acid, are exempt from the Mexican reporting system (RETC). As a result, once these pollutants are transferred across the border -- for example, when zinc is transferred from the United States to Mexico for disposal or recycling -- they cannot be tracked.
Progress is being made by governments to close these gaps, such as removing exemptions for sectors and adding substances subject to PRTR reporting.
For example, Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory removed the exemption for disposal of mining tailings and waste rock, which should result in an increase in reporting by Canadian mines next year.
For more information, visit www.cec.org/takingstock