Promoting Right to Know through Pollution Release and Transfer Registry: A Canadian NGO perspective

1. Promoting Right-to-Know through Pollution Release and Transfer Registry: A Canadian NGO perspective Promoting Right to Know through Pollution Release and Transfer Registry: A Canadian NGO perspective Fe de Leon, Canadian Environmental Law Association Presented at the Public Meeting of the Commission on Environmental Cooperation’s North American Pollutant Release and Transfer Register Project Washington D.C., USA November 4, 2010 Fe de Leon, Canadian Environmental Law Association Presented at the Public Meeting of the Commission on Environmental Cooperation’s North American Pollutant Release and Transfer Register Project Washington D.C., USA November 4, 2010

2. Outline • Who is CELA? • How has CELA used PRTR data • What is PollutionWatch? • Recommendations

3. Who is the Canadian Environmental Law Association? • Non-profit, public interest organization founded in 1970 • Goals: use existing laws to protect the environment and advocate environmental law reforms • Funded by Legal Aid Ontario • Representing citizens or citizens’ groups that cannot afford legal assistance • Free legal advisory clinic • Educational and law reform projects

4. Uses for PRTR data? • Promote community right to know • Support policy reform activities for environmental protection • Identify and scope policy issues

5. Promote community right to know • CELA used PRTR data to advocate for development or expansion of right to know programs at the federal, provincial and local levels • Worked collaboratively with local groups that promote disclosure and transparency on pollution data in North America EXAMPLES: • “Making the Links” Project - working with six communities throughout Ontario to increase capacity of, and knowledge-exchange between, residents, legal service providers, health service providers, and others interested in environmental health issues • Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin community • Local groups – British Columbia and New Brunswick • Development of tools for outreach EXAMPLE: PollutionWatch web site allows people access pollution release and transfer data in Canada at all levels

6. Support policy reform activities • All levels of government • Promote pollution reduction and elimination strategies for toxic chemicals • Provincial level • Promote creation of Toxic Reduction Act in Province of Ontario – calling for pollution prevention plans on specific pollutants • Municipal level • Support the development of City of Toronto Public Environmental Disclosure and Reporting Program • Regional/International • Seek improvements for the restoration and protection of Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin

7. Identify and scope policy issues • Design projects to highlight potential research areas or policy needs • Investigating relationship between pollution and income in Canada • Fill in knowledge gaps – Great Lakes reports

8. What is PollutionWatch? • Interactive web-based tool for accessing information on pollution in Canada • Created by Canadian Environmental Law Association and Environmental Defence • Uses data from the Canadian federal National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting Program

9. www.PollutionWatch.org • ADD Front cover of PollutionWatch

10. PollutionWatch Features • Enhanced community right to know: • Health effects lists • Ranking (by company, facility, sector, pollutant, province, Great Lakes, health effects, etc.) • Time trends • Action tools – email facilities or fax Minister • Mapping based on postal codes • Pollution overviews • Special reports produced • National reports • Great Lakes reports (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010)

11. Special report Great Lakes report June 2005 Use 2002 NPRI data

12. Special report Great Lakes report 2006 Use 2002 matched NPRI and TRI data

13. Special report Great Lakes Report December 2009 Use 2007 NPRI data

14. Special report Great Lakes report April 2010 Use 2007 matched NPRI and TRI data

15. Special report Socio economic report November 2008 Use 2005 NPRI data and 2001 Statistics Canada income data

16. Benefits of Special Reports • GIS mapping (socio-economic report, Great Lakes report) • Compare Canadian and US pollution levels (Great Lakes reports) • Produce pollution reports for collaborating with NGO community on issues of common interest (Great Lakes, drinking water source protection, promote reduction and elimination of toxic chemicals) • Support organizational mandate as a legal aid • Example, socio economic report • Outreach to other organizations and agencies that focus on poverty reduction • Contribute to the CELA’s “Making the Links” Project in Ontario

17. Making PRTR data useful : Recommendations • Improve access to pollution information (outreach and program design • Expand and improve existing PRTR programs such as NPRI and TRI • reduce thresholds for reporting to PRTR programs; • Presentation and usability of data; • expand chemicals list (incl. GHG), facilities and sectors covered by the program; • review methods for measuring releases and transfer data, expand facilities and sectors reporting to programs • Expand the scope of the annual CEC Taking Stock report • reinstate ranking feature for North American jurisdictions to allow for comparisons • Add new analysis

18. Recommendations continued…. 4. Strengthen links between use of PRTR data and improving chemicals management policy in North America/internationally (Stockholm Convention on POPs, Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution, on-going international negotiations for global mercury treaty, etc.) 5. Prepare comparative reports on special themes (implementation of pollution prevention, progress on reducing/eliminating mercury or specifically targeted chemicals, health effects, etc.) 6. Explore how PRTR data can be used to promote use of safe substitutes for toxic chemicals

19. Contact Fe de Leon Canadian Environmental Law Association 130 Spadina Ave., Ste. 301 Toronto, ON M5V 2L4 Tel.: 416.960.2284 ext. 223 Fax: 416.960-9392 deleonf@cela.ca www.cela.ca