Overview

Every year, factories and manufacturers in Maryland release thousands of pounds of dangerous pollutants, toxic metals and poisonous fumes into our air, water and urban centers.

Despite overwhelming public opposition, in December 2006 the Bush administration’s EPA issued a rule exempting more than 3,500 facilities nationwide—including 34 in Maryland—from reporting their pollution under the Toxic Release Inventory program. The Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act would reverse these rollbacks and restore the public’s access to information about the toxic pollution released into communities.

In 2004 parts of Baltimore City ranked 13th in the nation for total air and water releases of toxics suspected to cause respiratory problems. We need to be doing more, not less, to monitor toxic pollution. That’s why Maryland PIRG is standing with the public against powerful special interests to make sure we know what polluters are dumping into our communities.