The Toxic Release Inventory has become the great equalizer for outgunned and underfunded grass-roots groups in their battles against pollution. Factories, shipyards, refineries and paper mills must make yearly reports to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, listing what toxic chemicals they discharge and in what amounts.

"That's the only way we would have ever known that we had five Super Fund sites in Taylor County ... because the EPA doesn't voluntarily tell you those kinds of things," said Joy Ezell, an environmental activist in Perry.

Now, the Bush administration wants to relax reporting requirements. Under a two-pronged proposal, polluters would switch from annual reports to every other year, and industries that discharge less than 5,000 pounds of chemicals a year could fill out shorter, less-detailed forms.

Congress created the inventory after Union Carbide's poison gas release in 1984 killed thousands in Bhophal, India. Since then, toxic emissions have plunged by 65 percent. Even industry groups give TRI credit for the reductions.

Environmentalists, journalists and citizen advocacy groups oppose the changes. They say reporting every two years will delay access to information that citizens need to protect their health and the environment. The most current information available on the TRI database is for 2003.

The EPA is taking public comments on the proposed changes for the next 12 months. The EPA can make the revisions without congressional approval.

EPA officials say the changes will increase efficiency and lessen the reporting burden on businesses. The EPA estimates that TRI reporting costs industries $650 million a year

"We had concerns raised over the years that the burden of the program, especially on small business, was heavy," said Mike Flynn, director of the EPA office that oversees TRI. "We continue to look at ways to be as efficient as we can in collecting information."

The chemical industry started pushing for biennial reporting in 1999, said Mike Walls, of the lobbying group American Chemistry Council. Walls said reporting every other year will save plants money only if they don't have to collect data in off years.

"Let's say you report every other year except when emissions vary by 10 percent a year," Walls said. "That's still requiring monitoring data in that alternative year."

Critics of the proposed changes point out that industry opposed TRI at its inception in 1987.

Paul Templet, head of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality from 1988 to 1992, remembers how businessmen complained that cleaning up the environment would "run jobs off."

Templet found the claim nonsensical: Louisiana not only led the nation in toxic discharges at that time but also suffered a 12.4 percent unemployment rate.

"They didn't leave; in fact the jobs came," he said. "We created 25,000 jobs in that four years, and it was purely from environmental spending."

Industries found that redesigning their plants to cut pollution also made operations more efficient. At the same time, Louisiana's toxic emissions dropped 50 percent by 1992. Templet credits TRI.

"It's probably the single most important environmental requirement we have," he said.

Researchers who use TRI regularly say biennial reporting will leave gaping holes in their data, making it harder to quantify patterns.

"If somebody gets better or worse, you can't see that for two years," said Joe Davis, a freelance writer and member of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Several Tampa Bay area industries said the proposed changes would make little difference in their operations.

"Any relaxation of reporting requirements is welcome, but we're accustomed to reporting every year, so it's something we're living with and can continue to live with," said Tom Edwards, environmental manager at CF Industries in Plant City.

COMMENT ON PROPOSAL

•To submit comments on the EPA's proposed changes, visit www.regulations.govand follow the online instructions, or docket.epa.gov/edkpub/index.jsp. Send e-mail to oei.docket@epa.gov.

Mail comments to the Office of Environmental Information Docket, Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code: 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.,Washington DC 20460. Attention Docket ID No. TRI 2005 0073.

•To learn what industries are discharging toxic chemicals in your community, visit epa.gov/tri/.