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EPA Reports Toxic Releases to Air, Water and Land in New Mexico in 2007

Release Date: 03/19/2009
Contact Information: Dave Bary or Anthony Suttice at 214-665-2200 or [email protected]

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

“This annual 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, EPA Region 6 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 releases 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 EPA to establish the TRI. The TRI is an on-line, computerized database that contains toxic chemical release and other waste management information covering more than 650 chemicals and chemical categories. The information is collected from reports submitted to EPA and the states by manufacturing companies, coal and metal mines, electric utilities, hazardous waste treatment sites, chemical distributors and Federal facilities.

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

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

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

State fact sheets are available at: https://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/statefactsheet.htm

More information about activities in EPA Region 6: https://www.epa.gov/region6

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

Name of Facility City Total Releases

Freeport McMoran, Inc. – Tyrone Tyrone 5,816,993
San Juan Generating Station Waterflow 3,992,117
San Juan Coal Co. – San Juan Mine Waterflow 3,746,490
Four 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