CEC releases updated industrial pollution data via its Taking Stock Online tool
Explore pollutant releases and transfers within North America’s watersheds with new online interactive tools
Montreal, 16 June 2016—The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has released the latest trinational data reported by industrial facilities to the pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Through the CEC’s Taking Stock Online website, users can explore integrated, multi-year industrial pollution data that now spans 2006 to 2013 and comprises more than 30,000 facilities.
Taking Stock Online also has new features, such as:
- A search parameter that allows users to explore pollutant releases via the watersheds map layer of the CEC’s North American Environmental Atlas.
- Easier access to information, such as reporting requirements for specific pollutants in each country, that will allow a better understanding of the data.
Overall, the Taking Stock Online site allows users to:
- Access data on releases and transfers of hundreds of pollutants from a wide range of sectors, in one or more countries and across borders.
- Generate reports in a variety of formats, including graphics and spreadsheets.
- Create maps and view them using Google Earth.
- Analyze PRTR data in the context of other information using geospatial data from the CEC’s North American Environmental Atlas.
Save the date for the next public meeting of the North American PRTR project
The next public meeting of the CEC’s North American PRTR (NAPRTR) project will take place on 18 October 2016, in Washington, DC.
The meeting brings together representatives of industry, governments, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the public interested in issues and information relating to industrial pollution. This year’s event will take place at the same venue as the national meeting of the US PRTR program, the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), being held on 19 October 2016.
For more information, contact CEC Project Coordinator Danielle Vallée at dvallee@cec.org.
Next Taking Stock report to focus on releases and transfers from the North American mining sector
The next edition of the CEC’s Taking Stock report will include a special focus on the mining sector. Scheduled for publication in spring 2017, the report will describe the mining sector’s activities in the region and the pollutant releases and transfers reported by related facilities in each country. It will also present the potential environmental issues associated with mining operations, along with examples of the sector’s sustainability efforts. In addition, the report will identify gaps resulting from differences in national PRTR reporting requirements or incomplete reporting, and discuss the impacts of these gaps on our understanding of industrial pollution across North America.
About Taking Stock and the North American PRTR project
Taking Stock Online and the Taking Stock report series are hallmarks of the CEC’s ongoing work on industrial pollutants and environmental health under its North American PRTR (NAPRTR) project. Through the work on this core initiative, the CEC and the three national PRTR programs collaborate to enhance the quality, completeness and accessibility of industrial pollution data and information.
About the CEC
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.