Petitioning EPA to Add New Chemicals to the Toxics Release Inventory

An Effective Practice

Description

Communities for a Better Environment in Oakland, California, joined a coalition of other community and environmental groups to form the Zero Dioxin Coalition. The coalition was concerned about dioxins, a group of highly toxic chemicals that are formed and released into the environment from certain industrial processes. In the 1980s and 1990s, dioxins were not in included on the list of chemicals reportable under the Toxics Release Inventory. Communities for a Better Environment identified this gap and, in coordination with the Zero Dioxin Coalition, petitioned EPA to include dioxins in the list of reportable chemicals.

Goal / Mission

The goal of the Coalition was to encourage the EPA to add dioxins as reportable chemicals unter the Toxics Release Inventory

Results / Accomplishments

EPA agreed that dioxins should be added to the reporting list and issued a new rule that required facilities producing more than 0.1 grams of dioxins to report annually on their releases. The new rule became effective on January 1, 2000. In May of 2002, the first of the dioxins data collected under the new rule was released to the public.

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
Communities for a Better Environment and Zero Dioxin Coalition
Primary Contact
Greg Karras
Communities for a Better Environment
1611 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 450
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 302-0430
gkarras@cbecal.org
http://www.cbecal.org/
Topics
Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants
Community / Governance
Organization(s)
Communities for a Better Environment and Zero Dioxin Coalition
Source
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9
Date of publication
2002
Geographic Type
Urban
Location
Oakland, CA
For more details
http://www.rtknet.org/node/150

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Related Content for: Petitioning EPA to Add New Chemicals to the Toxics Release Inventory

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success and/or promise in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures of improvement in outcome of interest (i.e. increase in voter registration, not just delivery of voter registration drive) and/ or the outcome measure is increased or improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant.