The EPA released its preliminary data set for 2011 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reports July 30, making the information available less than a month after the reports were due. The preliminary TRI data set covers chemical releases and waste management activity reported by industry during 2011.

According to the agency, the preliminary data set is 99 percent complete and includes all TRI reports processed as of July 18. Agency officials emphasized that the data set is exactly that: raw information, free of evaluation or context. A final report dissecting the data is expected in December, after the agency has had a chance to incorporate late filings and revisions to the data set. The EPA expects to update its results in August and September before finalizing the TRI filing data sometime in October.

The preliminary TRI data set is available for download in several different forms:

• Basic, which contains the most commonly requested data fields from Form R and Form A.
• Basic Plus, which contains all data from the Form R and Form A.
• Dioxin, Dioxin-like Compounds and Toxic Equivalency, which contains the individually reported mass quantity data from the Form R Schedule 1.

Data sets can be downloaded nationally or for individual states. Additionally, the EPA is making the data searchable via its Envirofacts database.

Agency officials added that they were confident with the accuracy of much of the data since most of the reports were submitted via the agency’s TRI-MEweb online filing software, which includes a number of automated data-quality checks.

The July 30 release of the preliminary data is roughly in line with previous years’ releases, with 2011 and 2010 data issued on July 28 of their respective years.

For more information, see the next edition of the Community Right-To-Know Manual.