New Toxics Release Inventory Products to Enhance

Community Awareness and Capacity Building:

Lessons Learned from Pilot Projects
in Four EJ Communities

US Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Environmental Information

The Toxics Release Inventory:

EPAs premier Right-to-Know program

TRI is an EPA information resource that can help communities learn about toxic
chemical releases from certain industrial facilities in their neighborhood.

TRI includes information about:

Releases

Waste transfers

Recycling

Pollution prevention

TRI includes data about approximately 20,000 facilities across the country
and covers more than 675 toxic chemicals.
Authorized under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community
Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA).
Right-to-Know (RTK): We have the right to know about the chemicals to
which we may be exposed in our daily lives.

Which facilities must report to TRI?

Facility must be in a TRI-covered industry sector or category, including:

Manufacturing

Coal/Oil
Electricity
Generation

Certain Mining
Facilities

Hazardous
Waste
Management

Federal Facilities

Facility must have the equivalent of at least 10 full-time employees.

Facility must manufacture, process or use more than a certain amount
of a TRI-listed toxic chemical per year.
Also note that facilities are required to report TRI data annually directly to
US EPA.
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TRI can help EJ communities:

Identify how many TRI facilities operate in the community and

where they are located.

Identify which chemicals are being released by TRI facilities.

Track increases or reductions of toxic chemical releases from

facilities located in the community over time.

Compare the toxic chemical releases and pollution

prevention efforts of facilities in one location with similar
facilities across the country.

Prioritize efforts to reduce pollution from facilities located in

the area.
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TRI Community Engagement Pilot Projects

Goal: To test out new community-oriented approaches to help communities access,
understand and use TRI.

Conducted pilot projects in four very different EJ communities:

Tonawanda, NY
South Philadelphia, PA
North Birmingham, AL
Jurupa Valley, CA

Created new TRI for Communities section of TRI website:

www.epa.gov/tri/communities

TRI Community Engagement Pilot Hands-on Workshops

Held hands-on workshops that allowed community members to access and use
raw TRI data and customize it for their individual needs.
Provided EPA opportunity to solicit input in each of the four pilot communities to
improve TRI outreach and educational efforts.
Community members enthusiastic
about hands-on ability to
access and use the data:
This is the first time in all the many months of holding
community meetings that we got concrete, useful
information that I could understand and use.
I had no idea I could do this myself.
(i.e., access and use online TRI data tools)
This makes me want to investigate
environmental problems further.

TRI Community Snapshots

Two-page handouts for four pilot communities

Created new community-oriented TRI products

Introduction to TRI for Communities

TRI Fotonovela

Community-oriented slide presentation for

Educating communities about TRI

Latino/Hispanic novella style introduction to

TRI in Spanish and English

Community-Scale Analysis of North Birmingham, Alabama

Pollution Prevention Activities
Comparison of P2/waste management activities by TRI facilities in top three
N. Birmingham industry sectors with other TRI facilities elsewhere in similar sectors

Comparison of Local vs. National TRI Waste

Management Data for Reporting Year 2011

Released

Treated

Energy Recovery

Recycled

TRI Community Engagement Pilot Projects

Lessons Learned

Enthusiasm about TRIs unique hands-on access to toxics release data that
allows everyone to access and use raw data & various analytic tools.

Community members are hungry for more user-friendly, interactive products,

mapping and other visualization tools, and community-scale analyses.

Digital divide still persists Hardcopy handouts are still in demand.

Communities want tools to understand the potential health impacts of toxic
releases.

TRI data can help communities prioritize local environmental problems, land
use planning and sustainable development decision-making.

TRI can be used to highlight and increase local pollution prevention

activities.
See new TRI Pollution Prevention Search Tool at: www.epa.gov/tri/p2.

Growing diverse communities seek more multi-lingual products.

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

Live Demo
To start the live demo, go to:
http://www2.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program/tri-community-scale-mapping-project

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

A Web-based, non-static map that displays the geospatial relationship

between EPA-regulated facilities and sites where youth & aging adults
congregate (schools, nursing homes, parks, hospitals, etc.) in South
Philadelphia, one of the four TRI community engagement pilot projects.

Raises awareness of TRI at the community level.

Illustrates how TRI data can be visualized in a map.

Shows communities how they can combine EPAs various environmental

data resources with publicly available, non-EPA data.

Displays locational information -- not information pertaining to public

health or potential environmental health hazards.

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

EPA Map Layers (FRS):

2012 Toxics Release Inventory Facilities

Toxics Release Inventory Facilities (Historical)
Air Permitted Facilities
Water Discharge Permitted Facilities
Identified Brownfield Activities
Hazardous Waste Management Sites
Superfund Sites

Map Layers for Older Adults:

Nursing Homes
Older Adult Centers

Map Layers for Youth:

Schools
PAL (Police Athletic League) Centers for Youth
Playgrounds

Map Layers for Both Older Adults and Youth:

Parks
Hospitals
Health Centers
Recreation Centers

Additional Map Layer:

USA Zip Codes

Light Blue Squares = 2012 TRI

Facilities
Yellow Circles = Nursing Homes
Orange Circles = Schools
Purple Circles = Playgrounds
Blue Circles = Hospitals

Web-based, non-static map allows users to turn on and off any

layer of interest, and drill down with clicks to get more
information about a particular point of interest.
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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

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TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project

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A tale of South Philadelphia

South Philadelphia West
Point Breeze and Greys Ferry lie next to an
oil refinery along with other industrial sites.
Residents have been experiencing
disproportionate exposure to environmental
health hazards for decades.
45,000 residents live within 1.6 km from the
refinery, 59% are black, 29% white, 8%
Asian and 4% Latino.
32 % live below the federal poverty level
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Collaboration is KEY

Over the last 2 years, Region 3 has collaborated with and leveraged resources:
EPA/Office of Research and Development (ORD)
EPA/Office of Environmental Information (OEI)
toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
City of Philadelphia
Department of Health, Air Management Services (AMS)
Parks and recreation Services
Philadelphia housing Authority
University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University
US Forest Service

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Place-based stressors associated with

industry and air pollution study in point
Breeze and Greys Ferry
Michelle C. Kondo, Carol Ann Gross-Davis, Katlyn May, Lauren O. Davis, Tyiesha
Johnson, Mable Mallard, Alice Gabbadon, Claudia Sherrod, Charles C. Branas,
Place-based stressors associated with industry and air pollution, Health & Place,
Volume 28, July 2014, Pages 31-37, ISSN 1353-8292,

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Focus Group Questions

Focus groups lasted 60 to 90 minutes and
covered the following questions:

(If air pollution is not discussed) How

about air pollution?

What are the sources of pollution here?

How does your neighborhood

support / harm your health?

(If the refinery is not discussed) What are

your thoughts on the refinery?

What are the main health issues in your

neighborhood?

Are you concerned about pollution

in the neighborhood?

Has a physician treated you or any

member of your family for asthma?

What do you consider to be your

neighborhood?

What do like and dislike about

your neighborhood?

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Materials for Focus Groups

Environmental Concerns
Theme
SOCIAL/CULTURAL
ISSUES
TRASH
INADEQUATE
SERVICES
POLLUTION & SMELLS
BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Initiated
Comment

Indicated
Agreement

Disagreed
Provided Example

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19

13
11

19
11

1
4

17
17
13

10
9
7

14
4
6

0
0
2

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Follow-up to TRI Community Engagement Pilot

Projects Initiative in South Philadelphia

EPA Region 3 talking to other Programs in EPA

about utilizing this mapping tool around
community engagement (Superfund)
EPA Region 3 has incorporated TRI into regions
Innovation Warriors Project

Building cross-divisional collaboration working with

communities on topics of interest to them while working
toward a sustainable future

University of Pennsylvania has a 3 yr

contract with the City of Philadelphia
Purpose: To integrate the gathered data from expanded air
monitoring capabilities of Philadelphia AMS into ongoing
academic initiatives @Girard Academic Music Program
(Philadelphia Public School in 19145 zipcode) , and to provide
outreach to affected populations that may experience adverse
human health effects from local and regional fugitive air
emissions.
Products to be produced include:

City of Philadelphia to expand upon S. Philly TRI

pilot project:

TRI Snapshots provide a template for other

Philadelphia neighborhoods
S. Philadelphia TRI community-scale mapping project
can be used for additional community engagement
efforts throughout Philadelphia
Excited about Web-based, non-static mapping
aspect that allows users to turn on and off various
layers of interest to communicate with specific
communities
Useful for identifying various environmental
locational data

Digital database to record monitoring

analysis, Social Media accounts for
information sharing, Student generated
distributable pamphlet explaining the
importance of air monitoring and a breakdown
of the toxins being monitoring.

Social Media accounts on

Twitter/Facebook/Instagram for data and
information sharing, 45 minute presentation
for school assembly and community
presentation, Infographic Posters to be
displayed both in school and in the
community

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A study proposal to US EPA, Region III, Office of Brownfields and Land

Revitalization for community-based awareness and engagement.
Proposed Project
To assist in the building of community capacity to participate in policy decisions to reduce exposure to
environmental hazards in their community.
To build capacity by following up with the community and provide the results of EPAs efforts including
providing training to improve access and utility of the mapping tool, and provide the community the
findings of the focus groups that were conducted in their neighborhood.
These activities include:

Training community members to use the TRI Community-Scale Mapping Project to improve their
understanding of the risks associated with environmental exposure, and to create community awareness of potential adverse public
health outcomes they may experience;

Hosting a participatory process aimed at providing community access to TRI and City of Philadelphia,
Air Management Services (AMS) data, and other EPA data and the opportunity to provide input on its collection and analysis;

Supporting the community in using the data to ensure compliance with all appropriate and relevant federal, state and
local laws;

Hold community meetings to discuss the findings of the focus group to help build community capacity
and to enable the community members to really engage and participate in decisions that directly affect their community.

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Lessons Learned
Communities want more:
Community-oriented TRI outreach/educational materials
More visual and storytelling-oriented
Hardcopy handouts, not just online tools (digital divide still persists)

Spanish and other foreign language materials

Community-scale visualization tools must be sensitive to power dynamics and fears
that go along with neighborhood research and improvement.
For example, place-based programs to improve environments, such as cleaning and
greening of vacant lots, improving housing or solid waste management could reduce
vulnerability to effects of air pollution exposure.
It may be possible to reduce impacts of pollution through mitigation of other related social
and physical stressors.

Look for Collaborations to build on:

Collaborative efforts must seek and provide funding for outreach and
education about local air quality with and among neighborhood
residents.

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For more information about TRI

Contact your EPA Regional TRI Coordinator:
www2.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program/tri-regionalcoordinators.
Call EPAs TRI Information Center: 1-800-424-9346. Select
menu option #3 for TRI.
Visit the TRI Programs website: www.epa.gov/tri and
www.epa.gov/tri/communities.
Contact the TRI Help Desk by email: tri.help@epa.gov.

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For more information about:

The TRI Community Engagement Initiative:
Contact Shelley Fudge EPA Office of Environmental Information
fudge.shelley@epa.gov or 202-566-0674

The TRI Community Mapping Project:

Contact Amanda Hauff EPA Office of Environmental Information
hauff.Amanda@epa.gov or 202-566-0603

The TRI South Philadelphia

Community Engagement Pilot Project:
Contact Carol Ann Gross-Davis, PhD, MS EPA Reg. 3/Air Protection Division
gross-davis.carolann@epa.gov or 215-814-5738
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