September 26, 2005—The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a rule to expand the use of a shortened Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting form for some facilities. The proposal is expected to save 165,000 hours per year, while still ensuring full Form R (long form) reporting on over 99 percent of toxic releases and other waste management activities, according to EPA. The proposal also provides new incentives to facilities to emit less in order to be able to use the shorter form.
In a separate but related action, EPA plans to initiate a rulemaking to reduce the frequency of reporting under the TRI program to every 24 months.
EPA says that alternate year reporting would reduce the burden of TRI reporters, and the money saved would be reinvested to improve TRI software, analyze the reported TRI data, and provide more electronic reporting.
