By VICKI URBANIK

Toxic chemical releases in Porter County rose by 19 percent in 1999, moving up the county’s rank as the seventh top polluter in Indiana.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management this month released the 1999 Toxic Release Inventory data, the latest year for which information is available. The TRI data is submitted by industries annually to show how much toxic chemicals they release through air emissions, landfill disposal, or other means.

IDEM said that statewide, the latest TRI data is good news, since it shows a continued downward trend in toxic releases during the 1990s.

Among the industries that began filing the TRI reports in the late 1980s, toxic releases dropped 56 percent during the first nine years of the decade. Anther 1 percent drop was reported in 1999.

A corresponding decline, however, was not seen in Porter County, which was ranked 9th highest in the state in toxic releases in 1998, but is now ranked 7th. Porter County industries reported an increase in total releases from 4.9 million pounds in 1998 to 5.8 million in 1999.

IDEM attributed Porter County’s jump mainly to an 842,000 pound toxic increase released by SEQUA Coatings Corp. and a 284,000 pound increase at BETA Steel. In addition, four plants in Porter County had to begin filing the TRI reports in 1999.

Porter County has three of the state’s top 10 industries releasing the most toxic chemicals. They are Bethlehem Steel Corp.’s Burns Harbor plant with a release of 1.6 million pounds; SEQUA Coatings, with 1.65 million; and Beta, with 1.35 million.

Those three are ranked fifth, sixth and seventh respectively in the state.

Lake County remains the top ranked county in Indiana in toxic releases, though its total releases fell from 18.9 million in 1998 to 16.9 million. The drop was attributed largely to a 3 percent decline in toxic releases from the state’s largest polluter, USS Gary Works, which had a total release of 14.2 million pounds.

The top 10 counties in toxic releases, in their current rank, are now Lake, Gibson, Spencer, Warrick, Dearborn, Elkhart, Porter, Jefferson, Vermillion and Pike.

Between 1991 and 1999, IDEM says toxic releases from the industries that were originally required to submit TRI data dropped 74.5 million pounds, or a 56 percent decline. Another 1 percent drop was seen in 1999.

However, those gains are offset by adding the toxic releases from an additional 70 manufacturers that were required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin compiling the TRI data in 1998.

Combining the new reporting industries shows a total TRI increase in Indiana of 6.5 million pounds, or a hike of about 5 percent, in 1999.

IDEM attributed the overall increase to a jump in electricity generation and to AK Steel in Spencer County, which began its first full year of production in 1999. The steelmaker accounted for abut two-thirds of the reported increase.

Indiana remains the fifth top state in the country for total toxic releases, the second year in a row.

The number one toxic released in the state is hydrochloric acid, at 30.6 million pounds, followed by zinc, 14.9 million, and sulfuric acid, 14.7 million. IDEM said most of the hydrochloric acid is reported by Indiana electrical generating plants.

The TRI data is one measurement of how much a county pollutes, since it includes all toxic releases as well as toxics handled through recycling, energy use, treatment or disposal in landfills.

Industries required to submit the TRI data must file their reports by July 1 for the previous year. IDEM then undertakes an analysis to ensure that the data is correct and complete. IDEM completes the analysis the following January.