This chapter of the National Analysis looks at toxic chemical disposal or other releases that occurred at various geographic levels throughout the United States. The default map display is of total releases by state. The different shades of colors on the map indicate increasing ranges of releases based on which data are selected to display, as described in the map legend.

Note: It may take a moment for the map to load.

To view a summary of Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data, select search parameters within the top two rows or query the map directly. Note that searching for city- or ZIP-code-level information is possible only by specifying the search parameters.

The map displays data for states, counties, metropolitan areas, watersheds and tribes.

In addition to viewing the maps based on air, water, land and total releases, you can also view the maps based on "RSEI Risk-Screening Scores." RSEI risk-screening scores are estimates of potential human risk generated by EPA's publicly available Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model. These unitless scores represent relative chronic human health risk and allow you to compare RSEI scores across locations. RSEI scores consider more than just chemical quantities released; they also account for:

• Location of releases
• Toxicity of the chemical
• Fate and transport
• Human exposure pathway

For more on RSEI, see the Hazard and Risk of TRI Chemicals section.

• States

  States include all U.S. territories for a total of 56 states/territories. All states have facilities that reported releases to the TRI Program for the 2015 reporting year. The states with the greatest number of facilities that reported are Texas, Ohio and California, which together accounted for 20% of total reporting facilities in 2015. Selecting a state on the map will provide a pop-up with:

  • a state level summary of TRI data
  • a link to the state level TRI fact sheet
  • an option to zoom to the counties within the state.

  When zoomed to the state's map of counties, you may click to retrieve county-level summaries of TRI data and link to a county-level TRI fact sheet.

• Metropolitan Areas

  More than 80% of the country’s population and many of the industrial facilities that report to the TRI Program are located in urban areas. This map option shows all metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas (metro and micro areas) in the United States as defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within which TRI-reported releases occurred in 2015. Metro and micro areas consist of one or more socially and economically integrated adjacent counties, cities, or towns. Click on any of these areas on the map for an analysis of TRI data specific to each.

• Watersheds

  A watershed is the land area that drains to a common waterway. Rivers, lakes, estuaries, wetlands, streams, and oceans are catch basins for the land adjacent to them. Ground water aquifers are replenished based on water flowing down through the land area above them. These important water resources are sensitive to chemicals and other pollutants released within or transferred across their boundaries.

  Large aquatic ecosystems (LAEs) comprise multiple small watersheds and water resources within a large geographic area. The Large Aquatic Ecosystems Council was created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2008 to focus on protecting and restoring the health of critical aquatic ecosystems. Currently, there are 10 LAEs in this program. Click on any of the 10 LAEs featured on the map to see an analysis of toxic chemical releases in each LAE.

  Water pollution, surface runoff, contaminated sediment, discharges of toxic chemicals, and air emissions can affect the environmental quality of the land, water, and living resources within an aquatic ecosystem. Persistent toxic pollutants can be especially problematic in aquatic ecosystems because pollutants can accumulate in sediments and may bioaccumulate in aquatic organisms and the tissues of fish and other wildlife within the food chain to concentrations many times higher than in the water or air, causing environmental health problems for humans and wildlife.

   

   
• Indian Country and Alaska Native Villages

  Congress has delegated authority to EPA to ensure that environmental programs designed to protect human health and the environment are carried out throughout the United States, including tribal lands. EPA's policy is to work with tribes on a government-to-government basis to protect the land, air, and water in Indian country and to support tribal assumption of program authority.

  The map presents 2015 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data relating to federally-recognized tribes and Alaska Native Villages (ANVs) as depicted by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska State Office. This analysis shows facilities that believe their facility is in Indian country and reported Bureau of Indian Affairs codes to EPA for 2015.

  The table below lists the Indian tribes and ANVs that had at least one TRI facility reporting 2015 data, and shows which industry sector and chemicals accounted for the majority of disposal or other releases in each area. Click on the number of facilities for more information about those facilities including chemicals released, quantities released, parent company, and facility contacts.

  Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages	State(s)	Number of Facilities	Total On-site and Off-site Disposal or Other Releases (lb)	Primary Industry Sector(s) (% of disposal or other releases)	Primary Chemical(s) (% of disposal or other releases)
  Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona	AZ	1	4,357,668	Metal Mining (100%)	Lead Compounds (91%)
  Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah	AZ, NM	2	3,673,158	Electric Utilities (100%)	Barium Compounds (67%)
  Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah	UT	1	2,255,711	Electric Utilities (100%)	Barium Compounds (77%)
  Puyallup Tribe of the Puyallup Reservation	WA	11	460,549	Hazardous Waste/Solvent Recovery (68%); Petroleum (25%)	Chromium (61%); Ammonia 17%)
  Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation	WA	3	142,024	Plastics and Rubber (100%)	Styrene (84%); Methyl Methacrylate (14%)
  Cherokee Nation	OK	1	118,891	Paper (100%)	Sulfuric Acid (57%); Methanol (35%)
  Coeur D'Alene Tribe	ID	2	111,065	Wood Products (100%)	Methanol (74%); Acetaldehyde (25%)
  Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe of the Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation	WA	2	34,814	Food (93%)	Chlorodifluoromethane (100%)
  Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan	MI	1	2,787	Machinery (100%)	Chromium (62%); Nickel (31%)
  Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation	WY	1	2,650	Chemicals (100%)	Sulfuric Acid (100%)
  Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians	MI	1	478	Fabricated Metals (100%)	Nickel Compounds (38%); Ethylene Glycol (37%); Chromium Compounds (25%)
  Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona	AZ	8	362	Primary Metals (100%)	Copper (70%); Lead (30%)
  Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin	WI	4	334	Chemicals (98%)	Methanol (96%)
  Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona	AZ	1	261	Nonmetallic Mineral Products (100%)	Aluminum (99%)
  Colorado River Indian Tribes of the Colorado River Indian Reservation, Arizona and California	AZ	1	23	Hazardous Waste/Solvent Recovery (100%)	Toluene (43%); n-Hexane (26%); Benzene (25%)
  Tulalip Tribes of Washington	WA	1	23	Primary Metals (100%)	Chromium Compounds (57%); Nickel Compounds (43%)
  Nez Perce Tribe	ID	1	10	Wood Products (100%)	Lead (100%)
  Suquamish Indian Tribe of the Port Madison Reservation	WA	1	0	Nonmetallic Mineral Products (100%)	Lead Compounds (100%)

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This page was published in January 2017 and uses the 2015 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2016.

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