17% of people live near toxic release facilities—here’s how it breaks down by state.
The Supreme Court on June 30 reduced the capability of the EPA to regulate carbon emissions of state power plants in its ruling on West Virginia vs. EPA. Beyond the ruling’s impact on U.S. climate goals, it will also have ramifications for the people who live near power plants. Electricity generation is the second largest contributor to carbon emissions in the U.S., and exposure to pollutants from power plants heightens the risk of respiratory and cardiac health conditions.
Corporate sites across the U.S. are releasing toxins into the surrounding land, air, and water—with many people living in affected communities unaware of the damage being caused. After an accidental release from a chemical plant in West Virginia chemical plant in 1985, Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. The act established the EPA Toxic Release Inventory, which provides citizens with crucial information on what toxins are being emitted in their areas and which companies are doing the emitting. The TRI has allowed certain states to put emission-curbing legislation in place to safeguard public health, such as when Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker passed legislation in 2019 allocating $2.4 billion to climate change resilience.
The EPA’s TRI program currently recognizes 770 chemicals; any site that manufactures or uses these chemicals at above-average levels qualifies for listing in the TRI. Chemicals described by the TRI as “toxic” are known to cause cancer or other negative health issues, as well as adverse effects on the environment. Facilities report the amounts of chemicals they release annually to the TRI, with the “release” of a chemical meaning it is “emitted to the air or water, or placed in some type of land disposal.”
The facilities in the TRI are usually quite large and deal in electricity, metals, mining, chemicals, or hazardous waste. However, not all toxic chemicals used by corporations are listed in the TRI, meaning its inventory of toxin-emitting sites is not exhaustive.
Stacker analyzed data from the EPA Toxic Release Inventory and the U.S. Census Bureau’s five-year American Community Survey to identify the percent of each state’s population living in census tracts with toxic release sites, as well as the corporations and facilities responsible for emitting the highest amounts of toxins annually. These results reflect the last full year of data, 2020, from the 2020 National Analysis Dataset released in October 2021.
Read on to discover where the most toxins are being released in the Four States, what part of your environment they may be polluting, and who is being affected.
4. Oklahoma
- Population living near toxic release sites: 20.3%
— 18.3% of state’s white population
— 21.0% of state’s Hispanic population
— 18.4% of state’s Black population
— 22.4% of state’s Native American population
— 15.0% of state’s Asian population
— 15.8% of state’s Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population - Total number of sites: 362
Oklahoma’s biggest toxin-emitting site is a paper manufacturer: the International Paper facility released 5.9 million pounds of pollutants, mainly into the air, in 2020. Of the chemicals emitted into the atmosphere in Oklahoma in 2020, 50% was ammonia, 29% methanol, and 5% toluene.
3. Missouri
- Population living near toxic release sites: 21.7%
— 21.9% of state’s white population
— 24.1% of state’s Hispanic population
— 15.3% of state’s Black population
— 28.2% of state’s Native American population
— 14.4% of state’s Asian population
— 24.3% of state’s Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population - Total number of sites: 507
Combination mine-and-mills comprised four of five of Missouri’s top toxin-emitting sites in 2020. The biggest offenders were facilities in Buick (over 11 million pounds), Brushy Creek (over 6.7 million pounds), Sweetwater (about 3.8 million pounds), and Fletcher (about 3.2 million pounds). The vast majority of toxins were released into the land.
2. Kansas
- Population living near toxic release sites: 25.0%
— 23.4% of state’s white population
— 24.6% of state’s Hispanic population
— 15.8% of state’s Black population
— 28.5% of state’s Native American population
— 15.4% of state’s Asian population
— 31.4% of state’s Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population - Total number of sites: 322
Of the 15.9 million pounds of toxins released on-site in 2020 in Kansas, 10 million pounds went into the air, 1.3 million pounds into the water, and 4.5 million pounds into the land. PQ Corporation was responsible for 5 million pounds, the most in the state. Second was Koch Fertilizer Dodge City, which released over 3 million pounds.
1. Arkansas
- Population living near toxic release sites: 27.1%
— 24.0% of state’s white population
— 41.7% of state’s Hispanic population
— 27.4% of state’s Black population
— 30.3% of state’s Native American population
— 25.1% of state’s Asian population
— 69.3% of state’s Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population - Total number of sites: 341
Arkansas’ 2020 toxin amounts were primarily due to three paper distributors. Evergreen Packaging released over 2.7 million pounds that year; Clean Harbors El Dorado LLC, over 2.2 million pounds; and Domtar’s Ashdown mill, with 2.1 million pounds.