Toxic Emissions Fell in 2007, E.P.A. Says

WASHINGTON — The volume of toxic chemicals that were released into the environment or sent for disposal in 2007 dropped 5 percent compared with 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. But concealed within the overall numbers was good and bad news.

For example, the volume of released or disposed "persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals," substances like lead, dioxin, mercury and PCBs, was up slightly, the agency said. Most of those releases were not to air or water, the agency said, meaning that the material was mostly buried in landfills, injected into deep wells or held in impoundments.

The number given for PCBs was up by 40 percent, but "it’s good news." said Michael P. Flynn, acting deputy assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Information.

The E.P.A. banned production of PCBs 30 years ago, so pounds counted now, Mr. Flynn said, represent electrical transformers or other equipment being taken out of service and PCBs disposed of in qualified facilities.

The material released or disposed of in 2007 came to almost 4.1 billion pounds. More than 20 billion pounds, about five times as much material, was recycled, treated to render it nontoxic or burned for energy, the agency said.

The 2007 numbers, from 22,000 sources including factories, refineries, chemical plants, power plants and mines, were gathered under relaxed rules put into effect by the Bush administration in December 2006. Under those rules, smaller producers had the option to report their figures on a simplified form, giving less detail. But Mr. Flynn said that only about 2 percent of reporting companies had taken that option, and that the number of pounds of chemicals involved was probably small.

Those looser rules were revoked this month by a provision inserted into a budget bill by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, who was an author of the 1986 law that required reporting in the first place. The new E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, who formerly held the top environmental job in New Jersey, said in a statement that Mr. Lautenberg’s provision would restore “the rigorous reporting standards of this vital program.”

Mr. Flynn said that over the last few years, “the overall direction is a decreasing amount of releases.” Pollution prevention, reductions in chemical use, and some industrial companies’ going out of business all contributed, he said.

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