Calling Out the Super Polluters

Any community in close proximity to a petrochemical plant or oil refinery is familiar with the effects of air pollution: hazy skies, health issues and buildings covered in layers of grime. But some have it worse than others. Among the thousands of industrial sites and smokestacks across the U.S., just 100 of them account for more than a third of the country’s toxic air emissions, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Environmental Integrity Project.

The researchers are calling these super polluters “The Toxic 100.” Using data from the Environmental Protection Agency, they calculated that U.S. industrial facilities released over 300,000 tons of carcinogens, metals, and other toxic chemicals into the air in 2018. After adjusting for the toxicity of each pollutant when inhaled, that amounted to 4.7 billion tons permeating nearby neighborhoods. Of that amount, 1.8 billion tons were emitted by the Toxic 100, which make up less than 1% of the 15,500 companies listed in the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory.