1. Commission for Environmental Cooperation Orlando Cabrera-Rivera Public Meeting of the North American PRTR Project Washington, DC November 3-4, 2010 North American Pollutant Releases and Transfer Register (PRTR) Project

2. What is a PRTR? Pollutant releases to air, water, and land and transfers of toxic substances to disposal, treatment, energy recovery and recycling facilities compiled into an annual register

3. Benefits of PRTRs Promote community right-to-know Increase awareness of pollution Promote improved corporate decision-making and pollution prevention Promote improved government planning and regulation Enable planning for emergency response

4. CEC’s North American PRTR Project:Objectives • To promote the comparability of PRTRs in North America • To improve our understanding of the sources and handling of pollutants of common concern across North America • To promote public accessto information • To promote the use of PRTR data for priority-setting and decision-making in order to protect shared ecosystems, reduce pollution, and improve the management of toxic substances

5. Trilateral collaboration to promote comparability and consistency in the areas of data reporting, collection and quality assurance U.S. Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) Mexico’s Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC) North American PRTR Project: Activities

6. Integrated North American PRTR dataset: Annual Taking Stock report, with analyses and comparisons of PRTR data from the three countries Enhanced trilateral data access via Taking Stock Online, featuring various analytical tools North American PRTR Project: Activities

7. Stakeholder input via the annual public meeting of the North American PRTR Project (citizens, NGOs, industry, governments, media) Promote international linkages North American PRTR Project: Activities

8. 2006 Pollutant Releases and Transfers Reporting Facilities

9. Taking Stock Report and Website

10. Coming Soon!

11. Highlights of Taking Stock 2006 • 28,504 facilities reported a total of 539 pollutants (or groups of pollutants), for a total of 5.7 billion kg.

12. Distribution of North American Releases and Transfers

13. Releases and Transfers by Country

20. North American Cross Border Transfers, 2006

21. Uses of PRTR Data for Priority-Setting: Special CEC Reports “Children’s Environmental Health Indicators” Defining a core set of indicators and identifying associations between chemical sources, exposure, and health effects on children “Toxic Chemicals and Children’s Health in NA” Identification and analysis of key chemicals of concern in North America and their potential effects on children

22. CEC’s North American PRTR Project For more information: Orlando Cabrera Rivera Program Manager, Air Quality/PRTR Telephone: (514) 350-4300 Fax: (514) 350-4314 Email: ocabrera@cec.org www.cec.org/takingstock