**GAO-08-128**                      Published: Nov 30, 2007. Publicly Released: Dec 12, 2007.                  

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## Highlights

Federal law requires certain facilities that manufacture, process, or use any of 581 toxic chemicals to report annually to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and their state on the amount of those chemicals released into the air, water, or soil. It also requires EPA to make this information available to the public electronically through the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) database. Facilities must either (1) submit a detailed TRI Form R for each designated chemical that they use in excess of certain thresholds or (2) file a simpler Form A certifying that they need not do so. To reduce companies' burden, EPA issued a rule in December 2006 intended to expand Form A eligibility for certain facilities and chemicals. GAO was asked to analyze (1) how EPA and others use TRI data, (2) whether EPA followed internal guidelines in developing its rule, (3) the rule's impact on information available to the public, and (4) the extent of burden reduction that is likely to result from EPA's changes.

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## Topics

Natural Resources and Environment

Agency proceedingsData collectionEnvironmental lawEnvironmental monitoringEnvironmental policiesFederal facilitiesFeesGovernment information disseminationInternal controlsPollutionPollution controlPollution preventionProgram managementRegulatory agenciesReporting requirementsToxic substancesWaste managementBenefit-cost trackingCost estimates