Southern Company continues to support ongoing air quality studies to determine what impact, if any, our plant emissions may be having on human health and the environment. Learn more at: - EPA - EPRI - Edison Electric Institute
EPCRA
The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) was enacted by Congress in 1986 to help communities protect public health, safety and the environment from chemical hazards.
A provision of the Act requires that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintain a database of information on the amount of chemicals used or produced by industry that are released to the air, land or water. The database is known as the Toxics Release Inventory.
Originally intended for manufacturing facilities such as chemical plants, the EPA in 1997 expanded annual reporting to include electric utility facilities that use coal and/or oil to generate electricity. The first report was filed in June 1999 for 1998 releases. Of the more than 650 substances on the reporting list, about 20 are released or produced as a result of coal or oil combustion.
While the Act requires reporting of the releases — important information the public should have — it does not provide information that allows for the evaluation of the risk or lack of risk posed by these substances. Nor does it provide any contextual background for how to make evaluations.
Many of the "releases" utilities report are actually kept on the plant site. On average, at Southern Company plants, more than 95 percent of the substances classified as metals — such as nickel and zinc — are contained on site. Additionally, on average, 25 percent of "total releases" are actually captured using control equipment and do not escape from our plant sites.
The vast majority of releases that become air emissions are acid aerosols, which are dispersed gradually over time from our stacks.
Putting risk into perspective
What the studies say
What others say
2004 TRI data for Southern Company
TRI Historical Data