Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers / Public Right-to-Know

American Civil Liberties Union
Using the [U.S.] Freedom of Information Act: a Step-by-Step Guide
http://www.aclu.org/library/foia.html

Bank Information Center, The (Washington, D.C.)
The Bank Information Center (BIC) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that provides information and strategic support to NGOs and social movements throughout the world on the projects, policies and practices of the World Bank and other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). BIC advocates for greater transparency, accountability and citizen participation at the MDBs. Information on MDBs Projects and Policies is organized by the following regions: Africa, Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In English, with Toolkits español, français and dalam bahasa Indonesia.
http://www.bicusa.org/

Berlin Environmental Information System (UIS)
Digital Environmental Atlas Berlin Ministry of Urban Development, Environmental Protection and Technology
This interactive site employs data from the following areas as thematic focal points in the UIS: Soil, Water, Air, Climate, Biotopes, Land Use, and Traffic/Noise. Also includes the. In German and English.
http://www.sensut.berlin.de/sensut/umwelt/uisonline/
http://www.sensut.berlin.de/SenSUT/umwelt/uisonline/index_e.html

Biennial Reporting System (BRS), U.S.
BRS tracks the generation, shipment, and receipt of hazardous waste.
http://d1.rtknet.org/brs/

Californians for Pesticide Reform
A coalition of more than 120 public health, consumer, environmental, sustainable agriculture, labor and rural assistance public interest organizations. Our goals are to expand the public's right to know about pesticide use and abuse, reduce that use and promote safer, ecologically sound agricultural and urban pest management.
http://www.igc.org/cpr/

Center for Environmental Information and Statistics
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
CEIS is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new one-stop source of data and information on environmental quality, status and trends. In English and Spanish.
http://www.epa.gov/ceis/

Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Prevention Office
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Homepage of federal office responsible for encouraging state and local authorities to identify local hazards and to plan for potential chemical emergencies. The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) requires states to establish State Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs) and Local Emergency Planning Committees to develop emergency response plans for each community and provides for public access to information about certain hazardous chemicals stored or released at the facility. With links to relevant laws, publications (such as Accident Prevention and Risk Management Plans), and a database listing instances in which hazardous substances were released.
http://www.epa.gov/swercepp

Coalition Clean Baltic (Sweden)
Coalition Clean Baltic (CCB) is a politically independent, non-profit association that unites 27 member organizations from Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the Baltic Sea environment and natural resources. CCB participates as a joint lobby organization for the member organizations towards intergovern-mental Baltic Sea organizations such as the HELCOM (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission) and the International Baltic Sea Fisheries Commission (IBSFC), the BALTIC 21-process as well as towards the European Union. CCB as an organization has decided to focus on three priority areas:
  1. Reduction of the harmful nutrient load to the Baltic Sea,
  2. Preventions of installations and activities harmful to the Baltic Sea Environment, and
  3. Development of sustainable Baltic Sea Fisheries.
Includes map of Baltic Sea Region Hot Spots. In English.
http://www.ccb.se

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
CERCLIS holds information on hazardous waste sites, site inspections, preliminary assessments, and remediation of hazardous waste sites.
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/cursites/toc/index.htm

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR)
CPSR is a public-interest alliance of computer scientists and others concerned about the impact of computer technology on society. CPSR members provide the public and policymakers with realistic assessments of the power, promise, and limitations of computer technology. CPSR undertakes projects based on public discussion of, and public responsibility for decisions involving the use of computers in systems critical to society. They seek to dispel popular myths about the infallibility of technological systems, challenge the assumption that technology alone can solve political and social problems, and critically examine social and technical issues within the computer profession, both nationally and internationally. With information and member links to ICANN Members Forum, Internet Democracy Project, Civil Society Internet Forum and Working Group on Domain Names and Internet Governance. Publishers of the online Cyber-Federalist Newsletter. In English.
http://www.cpsr.org/

Digital Catalogue of GIS Environmental Data
Geographic Data of MZP (Czech Ministry of the Environment) in Czech and English.
http://www.ecn.cz/rtk/catalogue-gis/index.htm

Digital Governance
The site explores some of the innovative models putting electronic forms of Governance into practice. These generic models have a huge potential to change the political scene, re-shape democracy and transform the way citizens interact with Government. The website provides descriptions of these models and various programmes based on these models, along with relevant electronic-governance case studies, articles and publications and upcoming events. To receive updates subscribe by sending a blank email to digitalgovernance-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
http://www.digitalgovernance.org

Envirofacts Warehouse
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) created the Envirofacts Warehouse to provide the public with direct access to the wealth of information contained in its databases. The Envirofacts Warehouse allows you to retrieve environmental information from EPA databases on Air, Chemicals, Facility Information, Grants/Funding, Hazardous Waste, Risk Management Plans, Superfund, Toxic Releases, and Water Permits, Drinking Water, and Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence. You may retrieve information from several databases at once, or from one database at a time. Online queries allow you to retrieve data from these sources and create reports, or you may generate maps of environmental information by selecting from several mapping applications available. You can also read about the spatial data used by the Maps On Demand mapping applications. The Locational Reference Tables contain all of the latitude and longitude coordinate information available through Envirofacts.Integrates data extracted from five EPA program systems: Envirofacts Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS) Facility Subsystem (EF AIRS/AFS); Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Information System (CERCLIS); Permit Compliance System (PCS); Resource Conservation and Recovery Information System (RCRIS); Toxic Release Inventory System (TRIS), and the Locational Reference Tables (LRT).
http://www.epa.gov/enviro/index.html

Environmental Justice (EJ)
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Description of the EJ program, agency contacts, initiatives within the EJ program, the laws underlying the program, and agency publications. With a link to the Landview III mapping program and associated demographic data.
http://www.epa.gov/swerosps/ej

Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EMPACT is designed to provide time-relevant environmental information in an easily understood format to 86 of the largest Metropolitan areas in the United States. "Real Time" and "Time Relevant" refer to the ability to provide information that is current and timely so the public can make informed and pro-active decisions.
http://www.epa.gov/empact/

Factory Watch
Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Factory Watch gives you the facts about industrial pollution in the UK, helping you fight for a cleaner, healthier environment, and helping us fight for better and more up to date information on pollution from all sources. You can easily: See the official pollution figures for your local industry Make league tables of polluting factories; Make local maps showing where, for example, cancer-causing chemicals are released; Get information on the health hazards of particular chemicals; Discover who controls pollution and how you can influence them.
http://www.foe.co.uk/factorywatch/

FOI Statutes by State (USA)
With few exceptions, most state open records/open meetings laws now are on the Internet, either through state servers or independent sites, such as web pages of press associations.
http://web.missouri.edu/~foiwww/citelist.html

Geographical Knowledge Networks
Geographical Knowledge Networks, or Geo-Know.Net for short, is a not-for-profit organisation that exists to encourage and enable information and knowledge dissemination via the Internet for individuals, communities, collectives, academics, and organisations, that are actively engaged in matters of the environment and development. Geo-Know.Net aims to introduce appropriate and sustainable communications technologies (ICT) to local communities, and those that work with them, in order to disseminate information and experiences based on local knowledge(s) to a global audience. We want to help contribute to a network of local and indigenous knowledge that is used for an inclusive, equitable, and ecologically aware, sustainable international development.
The Internet offers a platform for both communication, and also for knowledge sharing and dissemination. Internet access can help: Geo-Know.Net can help by: We are also involved in the following projects based on appropriate and not intermediate technology: Geographical Knowledge Networks began as an idea in 1998 by Paul Broome, a radical geographer and activist as a contribution to fighting the process of globalisation and contributing towards capacity building for a more sustainable and equitable development. Geo-Know.Net is currently involved in a number of cutting edge environmental and educational projects, although in the main, it remains an umbrella organisation for nurturing and facilitating other's projects. In English.
http://www.geo-know.net

Green Spider Foundation, The
OUTBURST - accessing electronic information!
Designed as a presentation at the Aarhus Ministerial Conference NGO session on Strengthening Participatory Democracy for Sustainable Development for the European Eco-Forum, this site contains a useful overview of Internet access issues facing developing (or redeveloping) countries, as well as information on model activities of NGOs, including
--IPANEX and GreenNet: Supporting Communication in Saharan Refugee Camps
--The ZaMir Transnational Network (ZTN) Experience
--Jailed Russian Democracy Activists Freed Through E-mail
--Green Spider: Helping Hungarian NGOs Define Their Rights
--EcoNews Africa: Supporting Maasai Land Claims
--Alternative News Services
--The Temelin [Nuclear Power Plant] Case
--Environmental lawyers in central and eastern Europe
--Improving drinking water quality in Ukraine
http://www.zpok.hu/outburst/

Green Spider Foundation Hungarian language homepage is found at:
http://www2.zpok.hu/

Hazardous Substances Data Bank
National Library of Medicine Specialized Information Services
National Institutes of Health (USA)
HSDB is a toxicology data file on the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET®). It focuses on the toxicology of potentially hazardous chemicals. It is enhanced with information on human exposure, industrial hygiene, emergency handling procedures, environmental fate, regulatory requirements, and related areas. HSDB is organized into individual chemical records, and contains over 4700 such records.
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB

Industrial Releases Within the Great Lakes Basin
An Evaluation of NPRI and TRI Data This report summariezes the industrial releases and transfers of chemical substances from facilities located within the Great Lakes Basin. It establishes a baseline which can be used to measure the progress of pollution reduction efforts within the Great Lakes Basin. Comparisons are also made between releases generated in the Canadian and United States' portions of the Great Lakes Basin. This report is further intended to demonstrate the potential uses and types of analysis that can be undertaken with NPRI and TRI data.
http://www.cciw.ca/glimr/metadata/industrial-releases/

Interactive Health Ecology Access Links (IHEAL)
IHEAL is a means of cooperating on the presentation of information about health and environment to the general public and nongovernmental communities, following the principles of the UN/ECE Aarhus Convention. It especially employs electronic access, Internet communication, and the application of geographic information systems (GIS).
http://www.iheal.org/

International Right To Know Campaign, The
ICRT Action Network
Friends of the Earth USA
Site of more than 170 environmental, labor, social justice, faith, and human rights organizations in the U.S. joined together in a campaign to enact an International Right To Know law. This law would require U.S. corporations to disclose information on their environmental impacts, labor practices, and human rights practices wherever they operate. With Case Studies, News, Media guide, and search features for U.S. elected officials. In English
http://www.irtk.org

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), The
ICANN is the non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S. Government contract by IANA and other entities. The site contains information about ICANN and its Supporting Organizations, Advisory and Board Committees; ICANN Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws and Organizational Chart; Corporate Documents, Major Agreements and Related Reports, and Corporate Policies; Conflicts of Interest, Independent Review, and Reconsideration policies; Financial Information; and Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations. In English.
http://www.icann.org/

LEPC/SERC Net
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and The Unison Institute
This site was developed to help emergency planners and the public implement the US Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA). It contains LEPC/SERC homepages, provides access to EPA information, and provides a discussion forum (conference) for users to address current issues related to emergency planning and community right-to-know at the local level.
http://rtk.net/lepc/

MapCruzin
Clary Meuser Research Network (USA)
Information site developed by Clary-Meuser Research Network, a Santa Cruz, California-based family-owned firm dedicated to Public Right-to-Know, Environmental Justice, GIS and Internet mapping applications. Co-founder Michael Meuser pioneered Internet mapping of the U.S. Toxics Release Inventory on the Environmental Defense site scorecard.org and Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition Eco-Maps webpages. New Data Resources includes Cancer Registry Data, Charts, Maps; BLM Downloadable Lands Data; Library of Congress Historical Maps; U.S. Toxics Release Inventory; and U.S. Census Data. With downloadable freeware and extenstive links. In English.
http://www.MapCruzin.com

National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) - Australia
NPI is Australia's national database of pollutant emissions. Emissions data from the first NPI reporting year, July 1998-June 1999, will be available from this site in early 2000. A database with information on emissions to the air, land and water in South East Queensland is currently available from this site.
http://www.environment.gov.au/epg/npi/home.html

Pesticide Action Network Pesticide Database
Pesticide Action Network (PAN)
A one-stop location for current toxicity and regulatory information for pesticides. The PAN Pesticide Database brings together a diverse array of information on pesticides from many different sources, providing human toxicity (chronic and acute), ecotoxicity and regulatory information for about 5,100 products, as well as adjuvants and solvents used in pesticide products. This database of active ingredients has been integrated with the US EPA and California Department of Pesticide Regulation product databases, which provide information on formulated products (the form of the pesticide that growers and consumers purchase for use) containing the active ingredients. The information is most complete for pesticides registered for use in the United States.
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/

Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals of the United Nations Environment Programme, Inter-Organisation Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC). The Hampshire Research Institute. Information and links to national PRTR activities, international PRTR activities, non-Governmental PRTR Activities, PRTR documents and contacts. In English, Spanish and French.
http://irptc.unep.ch/prtr/

Pilsen Environmental Foundation (PEN)
Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) in the Czech Republic.
This page presents information on the development of a PRTR for the Czech Republic.
http://www.ecn.cz/PRTR/
http://www.cciw.ca/green-lane/or-home.html

PollutionWatch (Canada)
Environmental Defense Canada
Canadian Environmental Law Association
Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy
PollutionWatch delivers accurate information on toxic chemicals released by manufacturing facilities and the associated health risks. It can rank and compare the pollution situation in communities across Canada. With information about the health effects and regulations concerning toxic chemicals, Pollution Maps, Tools for Users, and Teaching Module. In English and French.
http://www.pollutionwatch.org/home.jsp

Public Eye
Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
Information is power, and government intelligence agencies have created sophisticated means of acquiring and analyzing information. But today many types of information systems once the sole domain of the intelligence community are becoming available to the public. The Public Eye initiative is dedicated to advancing the application by non-governmental organizations and private citizens of these new and emerging information systems to the public interest.
http://www.fas.org/eye/

Public Participation Issue Group
ECE Guidelines on Access to Environmental Information and Public Participation in Environmental Decision-Making, endorsed by Sofia Conference participants, have created possibility to prepare Convention on Access to Environmental Information and Public Participation in Environmental Decision-Making under auspices of UN ECE. PPIG maintains the Public Participation Documentation Center
http://www.ljudmila.org/retina/eco-forum/ppdoc.htm

RCRA, Superfund & EPCRA Hotline's Guide to EPA's Electronic Resources
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hotline/netguide.htm#rtk

Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC)
Instituto Nacional de Ecología (INE), Mexico
Organo desconcentrado de la SEMARNAP, tiene a su cargo el diseño de la política ecológica general y la aplicación de sus diversos instrumentos de regulación y gestión ambiental. Sus responsabilidades abarcan temáticas tanto sectoriales como regionales, que se despliegan en diferentes planos de actuación.
http://www.ine.gob.mx/retc/ingles/ingles.html

Resource Centre for PRTR Release Estimate Techniques (RETs)
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
The Resource Centre provides a clearinghouse of guidance materials regarding release estimation techniques for the principle pollutant release and transfer registers developed by OECD member countries. The Resource Centre has been developed by the Task Force on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) of the OECD's Environment, Health and Safety Programme, under the lead of Environment Canada.
http://www.oecd.org/env/prtr

REZZO - Register of Emissions and Air Pollution Sources
Brno Ecology Institute - Environmental Partnership RTK Program, Czech Republic
This pilot interactive map server shows emission sources divided into four categories - large, medium, small and mobile sources - for which individual REZZO 1-4 databases have been introduced. Layers in map window indicate spatial distribution of emission sources four nine main pollutants (chemical compounds and elements). Data from individual sources are grouped into cadastral areas (spatial administrative units) which are represented by circles. Diameter of each circle depends on sum of emissions in particular cadastral area.
http://www.ecn.cz/rtk/gis/rezzo_1e/rezzo.htm

Right to Environmental Information
The Environmental Partnership´s Right to Know Program
Links to RTK information for government, business and citizens.
http://www.ecn.cz/rtk/index-eng.htm RTK Net - the Right to Know Network
The Right-to-Know Network provides free access to numerous (primarily American) governmental databases of environmental information, the ability to search these databases by area, facility, industry, waste transfer, and chemical, by different levels of detail, and the option of downloading files into spreadsheet programs for manipulation by the user. RTK Net also offers a Landview III data mapping software for U.S. county map and data files; lists of Local Emergency Planning Committees around the U.S.; and the largest amount of Risk Management Plan (RMP) information that we are legally allowed to post. With the information available on RTK NET, you can identify specific factories and their environmental effects; analyze reinvestment by banks in their communities; and assess people and communities affected. There are no fees; RTK NET is free. It was established in order to empower citizen involvement in community and government decision-making. You can access RTK NET via the web, bbs, or telnet. RTK NET offers the databases, technical support, and trainings around the country at a variety of venues. RTK NET was started in 1989 in support of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), which mandated public access to the Toxic Release Inventory. It is operated by two nonprofit organizations--OMB Watch and the Center for Public Data Access--and funded by various government agencies and foundations. The databases available on RTK Net include: ARIP(Survey of major accidental releases); BRS(RCRA hazardous waste generators and receivers); CERCLIS(Potential and actual Superfund sites); CUS(Chemical producers); DOCKET(Civil court cases); ERNS(Accidental releases and spills); FINDS(EPA's master facility list); NPL(Listed Superfund sites); NPRI(Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory); PCS(Water permits); RODS(Decisions about Superfund sites); SETS(Potentially Responsible Parties for CERCLA sites); TRI(Releases and transfers of toxics from manufacturers); and the ability to do a Master Search of all of these databases.
http://www.rtk.net

Russian Ecological Federal Information Agency (REFIA)
This site contains official information on the state of natural resources and environment in Russia. Information is grouped into the following media: air, water, mineral resources, forests, terrestrial biodiversity, water biodiversity, recreational resources, protected areas, state of environment. Under each main heading the information is grouped into the following sections: a state management system, general review, periodicals, legislation and documents. Each following level contains indepth of information regarding each specific subject. Also contained is a link to the "Spaseniye" (Salvation) electronic newsletter (in Russian only). In English and Russian.
http://www.refia.ru

Scorecard
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
Local environmental information first to appear on Scorecard covered releases of toxic chemicals from industrial facilities, together with the health effects of the animal waste from pigs, cattle, sheep, etc., county by county and, in some regions, farm by farm. Scorecard then added information about local environmental priorities, showing what expert panels have identified as the top environmental problems in particular states and regions. To the most commonly asked question "With this local pollution in my neighborhood, am I safe or not?" there is still no definitive answer, either on Scorecard or from any government or public health official. But new estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyoffer a first-ever view of the levels of toxic chemicals in the air that people are actually breathing, neighborhood by neighborhood -- and thus a basis for EDF to calculate the health risks that are associated with those levels. Scorecard includes local information on the traditional "big six" air pollutants, such as ozone, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, etc., with health impact calculations for those pollutants.
http://www.scorecard.org/

Sector Facility Indexing Project (SFIP)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
SFIP brings together environmental and other information from a number of data systems to produce facility-level profiles for five industry sectors (petroleum refining, iron and steel production, primary nonferrous metal refining and smelting, pulp manufacturing, and automobile assembly). Information relates to compliance and inspection history, chemical releases and spills, demographics of the surrounding population and production.
http://es.epa.gov/oeca/sfi/

Shundahai Network
An activists collective working with a broad network of people and organizations to respond to pressing environmental, nuclear, and Native issues in the movement to shape U.S. nuclear and environmental policies. "Shundahai"(SSUN-dah-hi) is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word that means, "Peace and harmony with all creation". Includes Nevada Broadcast of Earthquakes map.
http://www.shundahai.org/
http://www.seismo.unr.edu/Catalog/nbe-big.gif

Silicon Valley Environmental Partnership (SVEP)
Silicon Valley Environmental Partnership promotes environmentally sound business and community practices through collaboration and education. Publishers of the "Silicon Valley 2003 Environmental Index," the Partnership promotes sustainability indicators as a method of enhancing regional environmental performance. The Silicon Valley Environmental Index summarizes high-level trend information in 19 areas, including resource use, population, air and water quality, species and habitats, and hazardous materials, in Silicon Valley, California. Includes a "How To" Manual for communities developing their own sustainability index, Electronics Recycling Map and Directory. In English.
http://www.svep.org

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC)
A diverse grassroots nonprofit organization consisting of environmental and neighborhood groups, labor unions, public health leaders, people affected by toxic exposure and others. SVTC's core values include a commitment to the practice of social justice and multiracial democracy. SVTC's Eco-Maps series shows Toxic Chemical Point Sources and U.S. EPA Cumulative Exposure Project data on hazardous air pollutants and cancer risks in Silicon Valley. Other point-and-click maps feature global high-tech production in the "Silicon Valleys" of the world and non-governmental organizations working on issues of environmental and worker health, sustainability and corporate accountability. This mapping project was done as part of the Interactive Health Ecology Access Links (IHEAL) process in support of the UN/ECE Aarhus Convention. Links to Right-to-Know initiatives around the world.
http://www.svtc.org/

South African Bucket Brigade
South African Exchange Program on Environmental Justice, The (SAEPEJ)
This Boston-based non-profit organization focuses on the effects of toxic chemicals and the deteriorating environment on the health and daily lives of communities in South Africa, and aims to bridge communities in the US with their counterparts in South Africa around environmental justice. SAEPEJ provides resources to South African community, developmental, and environmental groups in order to address the neglected environments in which black South Africans live, and assist in the building of a strong environmental justice movement which will network closely with the US movement. Working collaboratively with groundwork (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa), and the California-based Communities for a Better Environment, SAEPEJ has organized the South African Bucket Brigade. The Brigade's members monitor air emissions from oil refineries. The site contains additional information about the impact of mining on the South African environment.
http://www.igc.org/saepej/
http://www.igc.org/saepej/bucket.html

Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
TRI is a valuable source of information about toxic chemicals that are being used, manufactured, treated, transported, or released into the environment. TRI is known internationally as a model for Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs).
http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/tri/

TOXMAP
National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health (USA)
TOXMAP is a web site that uses maps of the United States to show the amount and location of toxic chemicals released into the environment. Data is derived from the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) (http://www.epa.gov/tri/), which provides information on the releases of toxic chemicals into the environment as reported annually by industrial facilities around the United States. TOXMAP helps users create nationwide or local area maps showing where chemicals are released into the air, water, and ground. It also identifies the releasing facilities, color-codes release amounts for a single year, and provides multi-year chemical release trends, starting with 1987. Users can search the system by chemical name, chemical name fragment, and/or location (such as city, state, or zip code).
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/toxmap.html

US High Production Volume Chemical Tracking System (US TS)
Alliance for Chemical Awareness, The (ACA)
ACA is an initiative of the business community to enhance the availability of information to the public about major chemicals in commerce, with a particular focus on the High Production Volume (HPV) chemicals that have been the subject of public/private chemical testing programs. Their stated goals include increasing public access to chemical information and to facilitate the use of exposure data in chemical risk characterization. ACA members, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Environmental Defense (ED) have agreed on a plan to increase the amount of publicly available screening-level hazard information on l high production volume (HPV) chemicals. HPV chemicals are those manufactured or imported into the U.S. in quantities exceeding a million pounds per year. The goal is for companies to make complete hazard data sets publicly available on the majority of 2,800 HPV chemicals by 2004. The US High Production Volume (HPV) Chemical Tracking System (US TS) web site monitors the voluntary participation of chemical manufacturers and/or importers in the EPA's HPV Chemical Challenge Program. Recent US TS improvements include the ability for chemical manufacturers and/or importers to edit registration information and detailed information for users on how to enter both commitments and work plans into the US TS.
http://www.chemicalawareness.org/
http://www.hpvchallenge.com/

Waterscape International Group (USA)
Waterscape International Group, a California public benefit corporation, develops strategies for managing environmental problems, in particular those relating to water resources. Areas of interest include: 1) surface water and groundwater management, 2) salinity and agriculture, 3) public health and the environment, 4) citizen environmental monitoring and education, and 5) technology training for environmental protection. They specialise in GIS research on environment, agriculture, and public health in Lithuania and California. Waterscape's goals are: 1) to engage in international research and projects in these areas, and 2) to provide limited technical expertise to governments and organizations to initiate and carry-out projects and research in these areas. The site features: Environmental News, Program information, and an extensive list of tools and data for those interested in GIS or modeling of natural systems. In English.
http://www.waterscape.org/

Working Group on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR)
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Human Settlements Division
Established by the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy, the PRTR Working Group is preparing a PRTR protocol under the auspices of the Aarhus Convention. The protocol should be open for accession by non-ECE countries and non-Parties to the Aarhus Convention. The protocol should be ready for signing in early 2003 at the Kiev Environment for Europe Summit. The site contains the text of the Draft Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers - Consolidated text (CEP/WG.5/AC.2/2002/10); discussion papers on diffuse sources, industrial classification, and transfers and on fundamental aspects of PRTRs; and lists of participants in the negotiation. In English.
http://www.unece.org/env/pp/prtr.htm

World Bank - NIPR Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
A PRTR is an environmental database or inventory of potentially harmful releases to air, water and soil as well as wastes transported off site for treatment and disposal. Facilities releasing substances listed on a PRTR registry are to report periodically what pollutants are released, the quantity, and to which environmental media. Data is then made available to interested parties, including the public. In addition to collecting from factories, and other stationary sources, PRTR's can be designed to include estimates of releases from additional sectors such as agriculture and transportation.
http://www.worldbank.org/nipr/prtr.htm