In the first year, DoD's toxic releases went down 30 percent. We issued the TRI last year, and the next report is due in May. Norfolk purchased new equipment that uses water instead of chemicals to clean equipment and ship parts. The shipyard also replaced a number of paints that gave off fumes with lower-emission paints to greatly reduce the number of TRI chemicals emitted. The shipyard achieved significant reductions in TRI releases through its consistent use of the Consolidated Hazardous Material Reutilization and Inventory Management Program.
Unused material is returned to collection centers for redistribution.
These simple management steps greatly reduce the use of hazardous material and worker exposure to the material. That's just the beginning. We hope to have even greater reductions as the program progresses. By using safer alternatives to certain chemicals, we can better protect communities near our installations. In addition, many DoD installations are the last bastions for several endangered species and plants.