Posted on: Saturday, May 25, 2002

Hawai'i looks good on toxic spill list

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

The Environmental Protection Agency's annual Toxics Release Inventory has once again found Hawai'i to be one of the cleanest, least-polluted states in the nation.

That's good, but it's not surprising, because Hawai'i is one of the smallest states and is not industrialized.

In the survey for the year 2000, Hawai'i ranked 50th out of 56 states and territories for releases of toxic compounds into the air, on land and into the water.

"The Toxics Release Inventory provides us with an annual snapshot of pollution entering the water, land and air from Hawai'i's largest industrial facilities. Again, Hawai'i ranks as one of the cleanest states, due to our relative small size and lack of heavy industry," said Gary Gill, deputy state health director for the environment.

The major polluters on the list are power plants and oil refineries.

"Hawai'i can further reduce pollution by upgrading industrial pollution control technologies and reducing our dependency on fossil fuels," Gill said.

The EPA said 30 industrial facilities in the Islands released nearly 1.3 million pounds of toxic chemicals during 2000. That is consistent with previous findings.

Fact sheets are available online at www.epa.gov/region09/toxic/tri. Direct access to details of the inventory is available at www.epa.gov/triexplorer and www.epa.gov/enviro.