New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte and Department of Environmental Services (DES) Commissioner Thomas S. Burack announced today that New Hampshire has joined with eleven other states in a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for adopting rules that sharply reduce public access to information on toxic releases from industry.

In December 2006, EPA adopted a rule that increased the threshold for triggering the reporting of toxic chemical releases. Under EPA's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program, companies that use and dispose of a wide variety of toxic chemicals in excess of certain reporting thresholds must file annual reports with EPA and the home state, which then make the information available to the public. The new rule increased the threshold for reporting from 500 pounds to 2,000 pounds, which means that thousands of facilities that release toxic chemicals into the air, water and land will no longer need to report those releases to the government.

In New Hampshire alone, the new rule exempts 75% of the facilities that used to submit detailed information to the state on their toxic releases. Even though New Hampshire and other states had opposed the rule when it was proposed in 2005, EPA finalized the rule in 2006, citing the benefits to industry from reduced reporting burdens.

Attorney General Ayotte commented: "Today, I am joining with my counterparts from other states in asking a federal court to throw out a rule that is illegal and counterproductive to full public disclosure of toxic releases. The rule would hinder state and local efforts to protect New Hampshire's citizens from toxic releases. I will vigorously oppose EPA's efforts to reduce public access to this critical information."

DES Commissioner Burack commented: "For the past 18 years, TRI reporting has given New Hampshire an important tool for tracking and controlling releases of toxic chemicals. Because under the new rule companies must still gather the information to determine if they have exceeded the new reporting thresholds and must then maintain that information in their files, raising the reporting thresholds does not meaningfully reduce the regulatory burden. However, it does place DES and other agencies responsible for protecting the public health at a disadvantage. I fully support the Attorney General's decision to seek judicial review."

For further information, please contact Maureen D. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, at (603) 271-3679.

View the States' Complaint 

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