Tracking Toxic Substances at Industrial Facilities Engineering Mass Balance Versus Materials Accounting (1990) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-8
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information. The Senate bill leading to SARA would have required manufacturing facilities to report mass balance information in order to help track flows and assess releases of toxic materials.
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To most scientists and engineers, the collection and application of mass balance data is an exacting exercise; obtaining measured data with minimal uncertainty is emphasized. A mass balance analysis provides a rigorous accounting of toxic chemicals flowing through a manufacturing facility.
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The committee concluded that materials accounting data, properly validated and interpreted by persons with sufficient technical knowledge, may have better potential for achieving the goals for the national uses of mass balance information listed in Section 313~1) of SARA, even though such data are less accurate and precise than engineering mass balance data.
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However, both of these approaches, supplemented by expert data validation and technical knowledge, might be helpful for detecting gross errors in reported estimates of environmental releases and for improving understanding of chemical-use patterns and environmental releases. Because materials accounting data are potentially useful and typically less difficult and less expensive to obtain than engineering mass balance data, further consideration of materials accounting information for this purpose is warranted.
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The committee concluded that engineering mass balance and materials accounting are conceptually useful for assessing and sometimes improving management practices, including storage, waste treatment, handling, waste reduction, on-site tracking of toxic chemicals, and transportation into and out of a facility. However, information obtained through either engineering mass balance or materials accounting is generally inappropriate from a practical perspective.
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COLLECTING MASS BALANCE INFORMATION ON A NATIONAL SCALE Regarding the desirability of national collection of engineering mass balance or materials accounting data, the committee was charged with considering relevant potential benefits to government and society, including the potential uses explicitly stated in SARA Section 313~1~. The committee also considered the costs of collection and analysis, the complexity and interpretability of the data, the way the data could enhance the public's and government's understanding of relationships between industrial manufacturing activities and the release of chemicals into the environment, and the potential reporting costs to facilities providing the data, including matters of confidentiality.
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PILOT STUDY RECOMMENDATION The committee recommends that a pilot study be conducted to test the feasibility of the national collection of materials accounting information and that the study include a technical support group. The committee considers a technically supported materials accounting program as potentially a useful application of materials accounting data that could enhance the public and government understanding of relationships between manufacturing and the environmental release of chemicals, which in turn might lead to reductions in the releases of toxic substances into the environment.
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In summary, mass balance information, and in particular materials accounting supplemented by expert data validation and technical assistance, has potential utility for addressing the information needs specified in SARA Section 313. However, the potential usefulness of a national program cannot be clearly established without conducting the recommended second!
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