Data · Toxic releases
Toxic chemical releases, county by county
How many facilities in each county report releasing toxic chemicals, how many pounds go to air, water and land, and how much of it is carcinogens, PFAS, benzene, ethylene oxide or lead. We read the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory files in full, add counties up to states and the nation, keep the earlier years for comparison, and check every state against EPA's own state report.
What is in this dataset?
Toxic chemicals that industrial and federal facilities reported releasing on site to the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in reporting year 2024, for 2,437 counties with a reporting facility, 56 states and territories and the US: 21,482 facilities and 2,842,308,160 pounds in all (530,322,130 to air, 188,664,266 to water, 2,123,321,764 to land), with the pounds of known or suspected carcinogens, PFAS, ethylene oxide, benzene and lead, and the on-site total of each of the earlier years kept (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023). State records list the three largest parent companies. Counties carry the Census FIPS code. Dioxin-like compounds, which facilities report in grams, are converted to pounds. TRI counts reported releases by listed chemicals from covered facilities; it is not a measure of exposure or of harm.
Use it to size toxic-exposure and environmental-injury work in the counties a firm serves: how many covered facilities release listed chemicals there, how many pounds, how much of it is carcinogens or PFAS, and how a county compares with its state and with earlier years. Agents can look up a state and its counties, compare up to ten states, or search a county by name.
- Records
- 2,494
- Look up by
- 57
- state or territory
- Primary source
- 2,494
The letters are explained in what P, S, D and U mean.
Where does the data come from?
Read from EPA's TRI Basic Data Files, one per reporting year (data.epa.gov), cached outside the repository; only aggregates are kept: per state and county name, the facilities and the 'ON-SITE RELEASE TOTAL' in pounds by release route (air, water, land) and by chemical tags (known or suspected carcinogens, PFAS, ethylene oxide, benzene, lead and lead compounds). The tags are not a partition: ethylene oxide and benzene are also carcinogens. County names are matched to vintage-2025 FIPS codes in the shared crosswalks (names EPA cuts at 25 characters are completed against the county list). A gate re-reads the whole file with a separate routine, checks that counties add up to states and states to the US, compares every state with EPA's own TRI Explorer state report, and re-sums fifty random county-chemical-group cells.
- Period covered
- January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024
- Places
- The whole US, states and counties
- How often we refresh it
- Once a year
- The source's next release
- January 2026
- Records read
- October 29, 2026
Official sources
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program, by bulk download. A work of the U.S. government, public domain (17 U.S.C. 105); EPA publishes the TRI Basic Data Files for public use at data.epa.gov (Envirofacts) without restriction..
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program (TRI Explorer state report, second-source control in check.py), by official web pages. A work of the U.S. government, public domain (17 U.S.C. 105); EPA publishes the TRI Basic Data Files for public use at data.epa.gov (Envirofacts) without restriction..
The sources the records cite most
- EPA, TRI Basic Data File, reporting year 2024: 2,494 records
- EPA, TRI Basic Data Files page: 2,494 records
What does a record look like?
-
United States: 21,482 facilities reported 2,842,308,160 pounds of toxic chemicals released on site in 2024 (530,322,130 to air, 188,664,266 to water, 2,123,321,764 to land). Of that, 237,103,647 pounds were known or suspected carcinogens, 184,944 pounds were PFAS, 377,980 pounds were ethylene oxide, 6,428,031 pounds were benzene, 38,628,105 pounds were lead and lead compounds. That is 5% less than in 2023.
Status P · checked October 29, 2026 · source: EPA, TRI Basic Data File, reporting year 2024
-
Texas: 1,950 facilities reported 234,898,593 pounds of toxic chemicals released on site in 2024 (52,431,276 to air, 16,606,495 to water, 165,860,822 to land). Of that, 25,430,115 pounds were known or suspected carcinogens, 13,185 pounds were PFAS, 52,805 pounds were ethylene oxide, 2,432,113 pounds were benzene, 370,841 pounds were lead and lead compounds. That is 7% more than in 2023.
Status P · checked October 29, 2026 · source: EPA, TRI Basic Data File, reporting year 2024
-
Louisiana: 395 facilities reported 119,872,487 pounds of toxic chemicals released on site in 2024 (53,200,814 to air, 11,195,503 to water, 55,476,170 to land). Of that, 21,603,520 pounds were known or suspected carcinogens, 13,900 pounds were PFAS, 29,623 pounds were ethylene oxide, 525,814 pounds were benzene, 222,213 pounds were lead and lead compounds. That is 8% more than in 2023.
Status P · checked October 29, 2026 · source: EPA, TRI Basic Data File, reporting year 2024
-
Ohio: 1,269 facilities reported 52,286,544 pounds of toxic chemicals released on site in 2024 (23,706,374 to air, 6,624,517 to water, 21,955,653 to land). Of that, 4,905,071 pounds were known or suspected carcinogens, 1 pounds were PFAS, 62,557 pounds were benzene, 515,126 pounds were lead and lead compounds. That is 7% less than in 2023.
Status P · checked October 29, 2026 · source: EPA, TRI Basic Data File, reporting year 2024
The full records add the dates, the quoted source text and every field in the CSV and JSON files below.
What each of the 28 main columns means
jurisdiction- Two-letter code of the state, DC or territory, or US
level- county, state (states and territories) or us
county- 5-digit county FIPS code (vintage 2025; Connecticut's retired counties keep their old codes); empty for other levels
countyName- County name as the Census Bureau writes it
stateName- State name
value- Same as onsite_lbs: pounds released on site in the latest reporting year
unit- What the value counts
reportingYear- TRI reporting year of the figures
facilities- Facilities that filed a TRI form for the place that year
onsite_lbs- Total on-site releases in pounds: to air, water, land and underground, including disposal in landfills
air_lbs- Fugitive and stack air releases in pounds
water_lbs- Releases to surface water in pounds
land_lbs- Releases to land in pounds: underground injection, landfills, land treatment, surface impoundments and other disposal
carcinogens_lbs- On-site pounds of chemicals TRI flags as known or suspected carcinogens (includes ethylene oxide and benzene)
pfas_lbs- On-site pounds of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances on the TRI list
ethylene_oxide_lbs- On-site pounds of ethylene oxide
benzene_lbs- On-site pounds of benzene
lead_lbs- On-site pounds of lead and lead compounds
onsite_lbs_2020- On-site releases in pounds in reporting year 2020
onsite_lbs_2021- On-site releases in pounds in reporting year 2021
onsite_lbs_2022- On-site releases in pounds in reporting year 2022
onsite_lbs_2023- On-site releases in pounds in reporting year 2023
onsite_lbs_2024- On-site releases in pounds in reporting year 2024
change_pct- Percent change in on-site pounds from the previous reporting year
topParents- State records: the three largest standard parent companies by on-site pounds (businesses)
unplaced_lbs- State records: pounds on forms whose county could not be matched to a county code (included in the state total)
effectiveFrom- First day of the reporting year
effectiveTo- Last day of the reporting year
How do I use it in my own tools?
toxicreleases_lookup- For one two-letter state or territory code (or US): facilities and pounds of toxic chemicals released on site in the latest TRI reporting year for the state and every county in it, with carcinogens, PFAS, benzene, ethylene oxide and lead, the earlier years' totals and the state's largest parent companies.
toxicreleases_compare- The TRI release records of up to 10 states (two-letter codes) or US side by side: facilities, pounds released on site, carcinogens, PFAS and the change from the previous year.
toxicreleases_search- TRI release records whose text matches the words given, such as a county name ("Harris County"), a state name or a 5-digit county FIPS code.
How to cite this dataset
You can reuse, adapt and republish this data, including commercially, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). The only condition is that you credit Probative and link to the source.
- Version
- 1.0.0, released October 29, 2026
- Every version
- 10.5281/zenodo.23753051 (always points to the newest)
- License
- CC BY 4.0
Download the data
- CSV: toxic-releases.csv 1961 KB · one row per record (columns in README.txt)
- JSON: toxic-releases.json 4701 KB · every record with its sources
Free, no email or login. The files are hosted on this site and Zenodo, a public research archive.
Suggested citation
Probative. (2026). Toxic chemical releases by county (EPA Toxics Release Inventory) (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23753052
Credit line for a chart, table or article
Source: Probative, Toxic chemical releases by county (EPA Toxics Release Inventory), version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23753052, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Add to a reference manager (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote)
Not legal advice. These are pounds that covered facilities reported releasing, kept for research and market sizing. A release is not an exposure, a finding that anyone was harmed or a finding of fault, and the Toxics Release Inventory covers only listed chemicals and facilities above reporting thresholds. Questions about exposure or injury are for a licensed attorney or a health professional.
What changed recently?
- 2026-10-29 · On-site releases of toxic chemicals reported to EPA's Toxics Release Inventory for reporting year 2024 in every county with a reporting facility, every state and the US: 2,842,308,160 pounds from 21,482 facilities, with the 4 earlier years' totals. (source)
The full log is in changes.json.
What are the limits?
- These are pounds that facilities reported releasing, mostly estimates the facilities make themselves. A release is not an exposure: the figures do not say who breathed, drank or touched a chemical, at what level or for how long, and they say nothing about harm.
- The inventory covers listed chemicals and facilities above reporting thresholds. Many sources, such as small businesses, farms, vehicles and household products, are not in it, so a low count is not a clean bill of health.
- Pounds are not comparable across chemicals: one pound of a very toxic chemical and one pound of a common solvent count the same here. The chemical tags overlap, because ethylene oxide and benzene are also carcinogens.
- A facility is placed in the county its report names. A few reports carry a county name that cannot be matched to a county code; their pounds are kept in the state total, which says so.
- Waste that a facility sends elsewhere, recycles or burns for energy is not counted as an on-site release. Large totals often come from a single mine or landfill, so read the facility count beside the pounds.
- The newest reporting year is published many months after it ends, and facilities can revise past reports. We re-read the files every year and log any change to a published figure.
- Records older than 400 days since their last check are marked
stalein the files until we re-check them. Every confirmed error we fix is listed in the data corrections log.
Found a wrong value? Report an error with the record id and the source that shows the right value.
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