E.P.A. Reports Toxic Delivers to Air, Water and Land in New Mexico in 2007

(Dallas, Texas - March 19, 2009) The E.P.A. (EPA) today issued its report of the most recent data accessible for the amount of toxic chemicals released into the environment in New Mexico by industrial and other facilities. The data made accessible today are for delivers that took place during 2007. Since 1988, the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) has been released by E.P.A. every year to help the public know more about the chemicals present in their local environment and track environmental trends over time.

"This yearly report was created to provide American families with the information they need to make informed decisions about environmental issues affecting their neighborhoods," said Larry Starfield, E.P.A. Region six Acting Regional Administrator. "The TRI report also serves as a strong incentive for businesses to find innovative ways to reduce or prevent pollution."

New Mexico facilities reported 18,342,054 pounds of toxic chemicals released into the environment in 2007, with 98 percent, or 18,102,075 pounds, released on site. On-site delivers include chemicals released to the air, water and land at the facility. Chemicals that are transferred to other sites for disposal are not included in the on-site total.

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986, as well as the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, required E.P.A. to establish the TRI. The TRI is an on-line, computerized database that contains toxic chemical release and other waste management information covering in excess of 650 chemicals and chemical categories. The information is collected from reports submitted to E.P.A. and the states by manufacturing companies, coal and metal mines, electric utilities, hazardous waste treatment sites, chemical distributors and Federal facilities.

In excess of 22,000 facilities nationwide provide details on their delivers of chemicals into the environment. Included in the report is a listing of individual states and the amounts of toxic chemicals delivers into the environment within their borders. Individual cities and zip codes can also be selected from the TRI database and have delivers within their confines broken out by type of chemical and quantity releases. The database provides a comprehensive overview of toxic chemical delivers in the United States.

TRI 2007 Public Data Release: http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/tri07/index.htm

More information on TRI: http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/ and http://www.epa.gov/enviro/

State fact sheets are accessible at: http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/statefactsheet.htm

More information about activities in E.P.A. Region 6: http://www.epa.gov/region6

The top 10 facilities in New Mexico for total on-site and off-site delivers of all chemicals (in pounds) are:

Name of Facility City Total Delivers

Freeport McMoran, Incorporated - Tyrone Tyrone 5,816,993
San Juan Generating Station Waterflow 3,992,117
San Juan Coal Co. - San Juan Mine Waterflow 3,746,490
4 Corners Steam Electric Station Fruitland 3,529,712
BHP Navajo Coal Co. Fruitland 1,532,930
Chino Mines Co. Hurley 1,287,247
Southwest Cheese LLC Clovis 929,678
Dairiconcepts, LLC Portales 544,500
Tri-State Generation & Transmssion - Escalante Station Prewitt 475,072
U.S. Army Garrison - White Sands Missile Range White Sands 465,248

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