SARA Title III, Section 313--looking ahead.

Abstract

On July 1, 1988, thousands of plants throughout the United States were required to submit R Forms presenting estimates of releases to the atmosphere, waste-water, and solid waste during 1987 of toxic chemicals listed under Section 313 of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986. Because this is an annual reporting requirement, the paper will present recommendations, based upon Dames and Moore's experience in developing toxic chemical releases for a wide variety of facilities, to improve the accuracy of these release estimates for future submissions. These recommendations will be centered on ways in which each plant can assure, organize, and collect appropriate data with which to make the toxic chemical release estimates. In addition, the paper will recommend and provide supporting rationale for each plant's assessing the impact on air quality of the atmospheric releases reported on the R Forms. While this is not required, it is information which is invaluable in communicating to the public the impact of these releases and in responding to inquiries from the press and environmental groups. In undertaking this assessment, a step-by-step procedure beginning with low coast screening dispersion modeling analyses will be presented.