90% of toxic pollutants released in North America can be traced to 30 substances in 15 industries, and the U.S. petroleum industry is responsible for 25% of the toxic pollutants, according to a report released by the environmental watchdog Commission for Environmental Cooperation.
The report, Taking Stock 2005, covers industrial pollution in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, and represents the most complete picture of pollution reporting from North American industrial facilities ever assembled.
According to the report, “Ninety percent of the 5.5 billion kilograms of toxic pollutant releases and transfers reported in North America in 2005 can be traced to just 30 substances from 15 industrial sectors across the United States, Canada and Mexico.”
Principal contributors to pollutant releases and transfers reported in each country were:
- Oil and gas extraction activities, primary metals and wastewater treatment in Canada
- Metal mines, electric utilities and electrical equipment manufacturing in Mexico
- Chemicals manufacturing, primary metals and mines in the United States.
“Analysis of 2002-2005 reporting by Canadian and US petroleum refineries and bulk storage terminals discloses that, on average, about 7 million kilograms of carcinogens and developmental or reproductive toxicants were released annually. Most of these pollutants were released to air and water.”
Adrián Vázquez-Gálvez, CEC’s executive director, said that report was “the clearest view ever of industrial pollution in North America”, but that it revealed some major blind spots.
For instance, hydrogen sulfide gas, a common byproduct of oil and gas extraction and processing, is required to be reported in both Canada and Mexico. In Canada, the oil and gas industry accounted for 90% of all toxics reported by the Canadian petroleum industry in 2005. However, in Mexico, no data on this substance was reported by the petroleum industry. In the U.S., hydrogen sulfide is not subject to Toxics Release Inventory reporting requirements, and therefore no data on the toxin in the U.S. was available for the report.
Taking Stock 2005 uses data from three pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) in North America: U.S. Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), and Mexico’s Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC).
The report is available at the CEC website, and has a searchable database to create and download your own reports.
The CEC also has a map layer for Google Earth which plots over 33,000 North American industrial facilities that reported releases and transfers of pollutants in 2004 (the most recent data available from all three countries).
Image: L. Lew at Flickr under CC License
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This type of research and data analysis is critical for us to understand the root cause of pollution and effect changes that will turn the tide. It’s a very complex subject, but one that needs continuous monitoring.
Waste water from industries is a serious problem in my country.
Most Industries discharge their effluent directly without treatment into our water ways