IV.D. Comparison of Toxic Release Inventory Between Selected Industries The following information is presented as a comparison of pollutant release and transfer data across industrial categories. It is provided to give a general sense as to the relative scale of releases and transfers within each sector profiled under this project. Please note that the following figure and table do not contain releases and transfers for industrial categories that are not included in this project, and thus cannot be used to draw conclusions regarding the total release and transfer amounts that are reported to TRI. Similar information is available within the annual TRI Public Data Release Book. Exhibit 22 is a graphical representation of a summary of the 1993 TRI data for the petroleum refining industry and the other sectors profiled in separate notebooks. The bar graph presents the total TRI releases and total transfers on the left axis and the triangle points show the average releases per facility on the right axis. Industry sectors are presented in the order of increasing total TRI releases. The graph is based on the data shown in Exhibit 23 and is meant to facilitate comparisons between the relative amounts of releases, transfers, and releases per facility both within and between these sectors. The reader should note, however, that differences in the proportion of facilities captured by TRI exist between industry sectors. This can be a factor of poor SIC matching and relative differences in the number of facilities reporting to TRI from the various sectors. In the case of petroleum refining, the 1993 TRI data presented here covers 159 facilities. These facilities listed SIC 2911 (petroleum refining) as a primary SIC code. V. POLLUTION PREVENTION OPPORTUNITIES The best way to reduce pollution is to prevent it in the first place. Some companies have creatively implemented pollution prevention techniques that improve efficiency and increase profits while at the same time minimizing environmental impacts. This can be done in many ways such as reducing material inputs, re-engineering processes to reuse by-products, improving management practices, and employing substitution of toxic chemicals. Some smaller facilities are able to actually get below regulatory thresholds just by reducing pollutant releases through aggressive pollution prevention policies. In order to encourage these approaches, this section provides both general and company-specific descriptions of some pollution prevention advances that have been implemented within the petroleum refining industry. While the list is not exhaustive, it does provide core information that can be used as the starting point for facilities interested in beginning their own pollution prevention projects. When possible, this section provides information from real activities that can be, or are being, implemented by this sector -including a discussion of associated costs, time frames, and expected rates of return. This section provides summary information from activities that may be, or are being implemented by this sector. When possible, information is provided that gives the context in which the technique can be effectively used. Please note that the activities described in this section do not necessarily apply to all facilities that fall within this sector. Facility-specific conditions must be carefully considered when pollution prevention options are evaluated, and the full impacts of the change must examine how each option affects air, land and water pollutant releases. Drivers and Barriers to Pollution Prevention in the Petroleum Refining Industry Pollution prevention in the petroleum refining industry is expected to become increasingly important as federal, state and municipal regulations become more stringent and as waste disposal costs rise. According to the American Petroleum Institute, the industry currently spends a significant amount of money every year on environmental quality and protection78. This provides the industry with a strong incentive to find ways to reduce the generation of waste and to lessen the burden of environmental compliance investments. For the petroleum refining industry, pollution prevention will primarily be realized through improved operating procedures, increased recycling, and process modifications. A cooperative effort of the Amoco Corporation and EPA to study pollution prevention at an operating oil refinery identified a number of cost effective pollution prevention techniques for the refinery that could also be adopted by other refineries. In addition, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has |