Quantifying Community Use of Pollutant Inventories

In Australia, the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) commenced in 1998 with the first reports published on the Internet (www.npi.gov.au) in 2000. Eight years of annual emission data on 90 substances from 4000 of the most significant pollutant emitters in Australia has been collected and published. Reporting to the NPI is mandatory if a facility exceeds the thresholds relating to substance usage, fuel or waste burning or emissions to the environment. Like other Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs), the NPI was established with Community Right to Know (CRTK) cited as one of the main drivers. It therefore follows that the success of the NPI, and other PRTRs, is at least partly dependant on community knowledge and use of the information in the PRTR. Despite this, apart from the numerous case studies reported by the Working Group on Community Right-to-Know, there is little evidence in the literature of comprehensive analysis of the level of knowledge and use of PRTRs by members of the community. Such analysis is particularly relevant in Australia as there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that the NPI has been embraced less enthusiastically by environment groups than has been the case with some overseas inventories. This pape