A journalist’s guide for investigating cancer-causing air pollution from industrial facilities by using ProPublica’s original air toxics map and data.
Is the community you cover located in or near a hot spot of cancer-causing industrial air pollution? The ProPublica reporters who built the most detailed map of toxic hot spots have created this guide to help journalists across the country illuminate the risks readers face and the remedies they might have to hold government and industry accountable. (For more background, you can learn more about air toxics and read our national overview story.)
As part of our effort to empower journalists to use this new tool, ProPublica is also hosting a virtual event geared toward journalists where our reporters can answer questions about the map, the underlying data and the shoe-leather reporting techniques they’ve employed. This event will be held on Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Register here. (There will be a separate virtual event for the general public.)
ProPublica’s original analysis of five years of modeled Environmental Protection Agency data identified more than 1,000 toxic hot spots across the country. There are hundreds of stories waiting to be told. We’re sharing our “recipe” for how you can investigate the hot spots near you and uncover the impact local air pollution is having on communities.
1. Dig Into the Emissions Data.
Verify the data:Our map is built using data modeled from the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory, a powerful public database that compiles emissions data from thousands of industrial facilities across the country. Because this data is self-reported by the facilities and not always vetted for accuracy by the EPA, we’ve found that it may contain errors. As you begin to research the potential pollution problems in your area, it’s important to reach out to any of the facilities you are looking at to ask them to confirm the numbers they have submitted to the Toxics Release Inventory. If they do not stand by their emissions data, they may update it at any time by submitting a new corrected form to the EPA. Our map currently shows data covering 2014-18, but the EPA has also published data for 2019 and 2020. You can use the EPA’s multisystem search feature to look up the facilities driving the risk in your hot spot and see if their emissions are increasing or decreasing.
Supplement the data: Our map does not visualize all the toxic air pollution in the environment. Only some facilities are required to submit their annual emissions to the Toxics Release Inventory, which means that small industrial facilities and mobile pollution sources like diesel trucks are not represented in our map, even though they may represent significant sources of air pollution. Given the myriad sources of pollutants, our analysis is likely an underestimate of the additional cancer risk that communities are facing from toxic air.
When telling a story or producing your own research about your neighborhood, you may want to consider supplementing the information provided by our map with other sources of pollution data, especially if you live in a place that has undertaken air monitoring or conducted studies on the exposure to pollution that residents may face from buses, cars and shipping ports. Keep in mind that additional toxic hot spots — and other important stories — may be present in locations that are not indicated by our map.
Understand the model: Before you start reporting on the potential toxic hot spots near you, make sure you have a solid understanding of what can and can’t be said with the data. Our map uses data from a sophisticated computer modeling tool that predicts where air toxics are concentrated around facilities based on emissions data from the Toxics Release Inventory. That tool, known as the EPA’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators model, estimates the concentrations of toxic chemicals surrounding industrial facilities across the country. Since the data comes from a model and not from real air samples, it may not represent the actual conditions on the ground in a community and should not be used to describe an individual’s actual exposure to toxic compounds. While air models may provide conservative estimates of real-world conditions, they are often the best starting point for understanding how much any one facility or chemical might be contributing to a community’s cancer risk in an industrialized area. Read our explainer to learn more about air toxics.
Nerd out:Our methodology offers a deep dive into what can and can’t be said about the data shown on our map. If you still have questions, email us at [email protected].
2. Understand How This Pollution Is Handled by State and Local Regulators.
Pull permits: Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA leaves much of the regulation of air toxics up to states and local authorities. Many large facilities are regulated under what’s called a Title V permit, which you should request from the state agency if it’s not already available online. These permits will help you understand just how much pollution these facilities are allowed to emit.
Learn about the local rules: Spend some time familiarizing yourself with your state’s regulatory program. State, local and tribal environmental agencies are responsible for the majority of enforcement actions against polluters that are found to be violating the Clean Air Act, but the number of enforcement actions can vary widely from state to state. Also, some state agencies have pollution limits that are far stricter than the EPA’s federal standards.
Download the local data: Many states collect their own inventories for air emissions, and in some states, that data is far more detailed than what you’d get from the Toxics Release Inventory. Be sure to research and compare all of the kinds of data the facilities in your area may have provided to the state. You might find important discrepancies in state and federal emissions data as a result of different reporting requirements or errors made by the companies. In some cases, local data might tell a crucial story on its own.
Interview local regulators: Schedule an interview with a permitting authority in your state’s environmental department. Some questions you may ask are:
How does my state decide whether to permit a new industrial development? Does my state require companies to model their future emissions when they apply to build a new plant or expand an existing one?
Does my state consider the risks posed by industrial facilities and chemicals in combination? Or does it look at each facility and each chemical separately?
Does my state have ambient air standards for air toxics? What cancer risk standard are they based on, and is that standard more or less protective than the federal EPA’s?
Does my state monitor the air near industrial facilities? What does my state agency do with the air samples it collects? Do they ever lead to enforcement action?
Does my state offer tax incentives to industrial companies? How do those incentives compare to those in other states?
When permitting or regulating emissions from industrial facilities, is my state considering the potential for disproportionate impact on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color?
3. Get to Know the People Who Live and Work in the Areas You’re Covering.
Talk to residents: Americans who live near the fence lines of an industrial facility’s property are often the best experts on industrial pollution, the impact it has on their communities, and the history of the facilities polluting their neighborhoods.
