INTERPRETING ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
By Bill Kovarik

This web site is a preliminary step in obtaining and interpreting environmental information. Although not yet complete, it may still be useful. For more information please write wkovarik@radford.edu or visit the Society of Environmental Journalists web site at www.sej.org. Thanks.

1. Access to Environmental information in the US

There are four major types of environmental problems -- air pollution, water pollution, solid waste disposal and chemical contamination. Each has its own particular regulatory office on both the state and federal level.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has a number of helpful sources about local pollution, but the chances are that it will be incomplete. Most federal agency work concerning the application of regulations involves oversight of state regulation.

The regulatory action usually takes place at the state level through regional offices of the air and water regulatory agencies. In Virginia, for example, the Department of Environmental Quality has13 regional offices for various segments of the Air Division, the Water Division and the Waste Division.

You have the right to inspect the correspondence and monitoring files for any industry with a discharge permit that is monitored by the agency in question. You also have the right to obtain summary lists of discharge permits in your region. For chemical information, you have a right under the federal "right to know" law to see information about chemicals leaking, discharged and stored in local businesses. This information is kept by a "Local Emergency Planning Committee," which usually consists of the police chief, the fire chief and the mayor. See below for more information.

You may have to request these files and information under a "freedom of information" request. This just means invoking the state FOIA law when you make a very specific request. Usually the best tactic is to ask, under the FOIA, to examine the files at the agency.

Dont be fooled. Politely insist on your rights.

The fact that you have a right to state and local environmental information is not the same as an engraved invitation to obtain it. In many cases, bureaucrats are underpaid and overworked and may not have time for citizen inquiries, no matter how well meaning and sincere. Frequently, inquiries are shunted aside.

In 1994, for example, a journalist in the Roanoke Va. called the regional office of the Air Division to obtain a summary of air discharge permits for his region. He was informed that such information would require the "writing" of a computer program in an office in Richmond. When he called the Richmond office, he was told that the cost of "writing" the program would exceed $300. In fact, database queries such as the one the journalist had in mind require no program "writing" at all. Eventually, the journalist learned to ask for "the monthly regional report of discharge permits of over 100 tons per year." The three pages in the report were copied for 30 cents. Virginia Water Division permit lists are also available by request if you ask for the list of permits with 100,000 gallons or more.

Inspect correspondence and monitoring files
In Air, Water and Waste Division offices, citizens have the right to inspect files. Here's what to ask for:

-- Permits – Technical data and limits set in permits. Some correspondence on issues but most of these letters will be in the correspondence files. Industrial, Municipal, VPA, CAFO, Storm Water, Car Washes, Single Family Homes
-- Correspondence – Communication between DEQ and clients and public on permittee.
-- Inspections – Reports of inspections, stating problems in plants and corrective measures that should be taken.
-- DMRs – Discharge Monitoring Reports - Client has to test systems and report on outfalls, etc. and report monthly to the agency.
-- Water / Air Quality Reports – Required of some facilities in their permits
-- Water / Air Compliance – These files are where the correspondence between DEQ and the permittee during extreme problems with the water or sewage systems.
-- NOVs – Notice of Violations. These are sent to the permittee when there DMR reporting is incorrect and needs correcting to bring into compliance with the permit regulations.

2. Interpreting environmental information

2a. Typical Measurements

2a1. Toxic chemicals

LD50 -- The quantity of material that when ingested, injected, or applied to the skin as a single dose, will cause death of 50% of the test animals. The test conditions should be specified, the value is expressed in g/kg or mg/kg of body weight. A good tactic when trying to explain the hazards of a chemical is to compare it to a known value. For example, a chemical might be one hundred time or one thousand times more hazardous than ethanol (ethyl alcohol). These comparisons can be made through the Merck Index, a chemical encyclopedia found in most reference libraries.

Milligram -- A unit of weight. There are 1,000 milligrams in one gram and about 28 grams in one ounce.

Milligrams/liter (mg/l) -- The measure of concentration used in the measurement of chemicals in fluids. This is the most common way to present a concentration in water and is roughly equivalent to parts per million.

Parts per million (ppm) -- Also micrograms per gram, milligrams per kilogram or milligrams per liter. A part per million is roughly equivalent to:

* one teaspoon of water in a 21 foot diameter, 4 foot deep swimming pool
* one second in a month
* a very slight whiff of skunk

Example: Air that contains 1 part per million formaldehyde contains 1.2 milligrams formaldehyde in 1 million milliliters air, i.e. 1000 liters air.

Parts per billion (ppb) -- One ppb can be compared to:

* a single kernel of corn in a standard, 45-foot high 16 feet diameter corn silo.
* one-thousandth of a teaspoon of water in a 21-foot diameter, 4-foot deep swimming pool.
* one second in 32 years.

2a2. Air pollution terminology

Stationary sources usually measured in tons per year. Mobile sources (cars and trucks) are measured in parts per million (PPM).

TSP -- Total Suspended Particulates
SOx -- Sulfur Oxides (esp. S02, sulfur dioxide)
NOx -- Nitrogen Oxides
VOC -- Volatile Organic Compounds -- Any organic compound which evaporates readily to the atmosphere. VOCs contribute significantly to photochemical smog production and respiratory health problems.
CO -- Carbon monoxide
HC or UBF -- Hydrocarbons or unburned fuel These are usually measured in tons of emissions per year for "stationary sources" such as coal fired power plants and industries.
PM 10 -- Particulate matter below 10 microns in size. Dangerous because it is not readily filtered out of the air.

2a3. Water pollution terminology

Most states issue discharge permits to industries and municipal sewage systems under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), and often permits have state prefixes (e.g. VPDES for Virginia). Major areas of concern are:

BOD -- Biochemical Oxygen Demand
When biodegradable waste material is released into water, bacteria and other microorganisms feed on the wastes. This breaks them down into simpler organic and inorganic substances. The total amount of oxygen needed to completely break down the wastes is one of the most important measures of pollution. The standard practice is to report the oxygen demand during the first five days of degradation: BOD-5 is the measurement.
The BOD-5 test involves adding a sample of a few milliliters (mL) of waste water to water with a known dissolved oxygen (DO) content. The sample is kept out of the light and air tight. After five days, the drop in DO is measured in terms of milligram per liter mg/L or total loading of kilograms or pounds per day. A sewage treatment plant using secondary (but not tertiary) methods might have a BOD-5 level of 1,000 pounds per day in an effluent of 5 million gallons.

COD -- Chemical Oxygen Demand
The amount of oxygen needed to chemically oxidize waste material. This reflects non-biological pollutants.

Pathogens Many contagious diseases are spread through water contamination. Bacteria are responsible for cholera, dysentery, typhoid and other diseases; viruses are responsible for infectious hepatitis and poliomyelitis; protozoa can cause amebic dysentery and giardiasis; and helminths, or parasitic worms, can cause shistosomiasis and dracontiasis. Human waste from a single infected individual, if allowed to enter water untreated, may result in epidemics of major proportions. Waste treatment experimentation began in the U.S. in the 1880s and chlorination of drinking water began around 1908.

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) -- A group of toxic, persistent chemicals used in electrical transformers and capacitors for insulating purposes, and in gas pipeline systems as a lubricant. The sale and new use of PCBs were banned by law in 1979. In some cases PCBs can be filtered from drinking water using active charcoal filtration.

Heavy Metals -- More properly called toxic metals, typcial pollutants are aluminum, arsenic, beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, selenium, strontium, thallium, tin, titanium, and zinc. In sufficient concentrations, toxic metals can cause kidney and nervous system damage, mutations and tumors.

3. Major Laws Concerning Environmental Regulation

Toxics

CERCLA -- Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) -- Superfund -- In 1980, Congress passed Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also called the "Superfund." It was aimed at cleaning up hazardous waste sites on EPA's National Priorities List. CERCLA was a new approach -- companies would be liable for cleanup costs even if they no longer owned the land they contaminated.

EPCRA-- Right to Know -- In 1984, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA). Related bills included Title III Superfund, also passed in 1984. and Title III CERCLA passed 1985 The law required reporting by 1987 These were followed by the Right to Know Act of 1986. Both CERCLA and EPCRA laws were the direct result of citizen lobbying by the Grassroots Movement for Environmental Justice, a coalition of a variety of groups, including: the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes, Environmental Action, Environmental Research Foundation, Environmental Policy Insistute, Greenpeace, the US Public Interest Research Group. The coalition effort resulted in the Working Group on Right to Know law (202-546-9707).

These laws require that companies report four specific groups of chemicals:
* 366 Extremely hazardous chemicals / emergency planning. (Section 301 - 304)
* 720 Hazardous substances (Section 304) . that pose an immediate hazard to a community.
* Hazardous Chemicals (Section 311 - 312 ) chemicals listed with OSHA
* Toxic Chemicals (Section 313) Chronic or long term toxicity.

Air and water pollution

NEPA:  National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA); 42 U.S.C.  established a national policy for the environment  and the Council on Environmental Quality.

CAA   The Clean Air Act (CAA); 42 U.S.C. s/s 7401 et seq. (1970)  regulates air emissions from area, stationary, and mobile sources. This law authorizies the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and the environment.

CWA   The Clean Water Act (CWA); 33 U.S.C. ss/1251 et seq. (1977)  is intended to reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff so that the waterways can support "the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and recreation in and on the water."  To the extent that agencies still enforce the law (and under the Bush administration law enforcement in this area has taken on a frontier mentality)  there has been a shift from a program-by-program, source-by-source, pollutant-by-pollutant approach to more holistic watershed-based strategies.  \

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More information: EPA's Major Environmental Laws page