EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Scraper

Extract toxic chemical release data from the EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) database — the most comprehensive public dataset of industrial chemical emissions in the United States. This Actor wraps the official EPA Envirofacts REST API to deliver structured, clean data on over 3.2 million release records reported by US industrial facilities since 1987.

The TRI is a cornerstone dataset for environmental compliance monitoring, ESG due diligence, supply chain risk assessment, and community health research. Every year, thousands of industrial facilities across the US are required by law to report the quantities of toxic chemicals they release into the air, water, and land. This Actor makes that data instantly accessible in JSON, CSV, or Excel format — no API expertise required.

Key Features

Feature	Description
State filtering	Extract releases for any US state using 2-letter codes (CA, TX, NY, etc.)
Year filtering	Focus on a specific reporting year (1987-2023)
Chemical filtering	Search for specific chemicals (Lead, Mercury, Benzene, etc.)
Comprehensive data	30+ fields per record including facility location, GPS coordinates, parent company, industry sector, release amounts by medium, and chemical classifications
No authentication	Uses the free public EPA Envirofacts API — no API key needed
Pagination handled	Automatically pages through large result sets up to 50,000 records

What Data Can You Extract?

Each record represents one chemical reported by one facility in one year. Fields include:

Field	Description
facilityName	Name of the reporting facility
streetAddress, city, state, zipCode, county	Full facility address
latitude, longitude	GPS coordinates for mapping
parentCompany	Parent company name
industrySector	Industry classification (e.g., "Chemicals", "Primary Metals")
chemical	Chemical name (e.g., "Lead", "Toluene")
casNumber	CAS registry number for chemical identification
totalReleases	Total releases in pounds
onSiteReleaseTotal	On-site releases (air, water, land)
offSiteReleaseTotal	Off-site transfers for disposal
fugitiveAir, stackAir, water, underground, landfills	Release breakdown by medium
carcinogen, metal, pfas, pbt	Chemical classification flags
reportingYear	Year the release was reported
triFacilityId, frsId, primaryNaics	Facility identifiers

How to Scrape EPA TRI Data

1. Go to this Actor's page on the Apify Store
2. Click "Start" to open the input form
3. Set your filters:
   • Enter a State code (e.g., CA for California) — or leave blank for all states
   • Enter a Reporting Year (e.g., 2023) — or leave blank for all years
   • Enter a Chemical Name (e.g., Lead) — or leave blank for all chemicals
   • Set Max Results (default: 100, max: 50,000)
4. Click "Start" to run the Actor
5. Download your data in JSON, CSV, or Excel format from the Dataset tab

Input Example

{
    "state": "CA",
    "year": 2023,
    "chemical": "Lead",
    "maxResults": 500
}

Output Example

{
    "facilityName": "EXIDE TECHNOLOGIES",
    "streetAddress": "2700 S INDIANA ST",
    "city": "VERNON",
    "state": "CA",
    "zipCode": "90058",
    "county": "LOS ANGELES",
    "latitude": 34.0031,
    "longitude": -118.2259,
    "parentCompany": "EXIDE TECHNOLOGIES",
    "industrySector": "Electrical Equipment",
    "chemical": "Lead",
    "casNumber": "7439-92-1",
    "totalReleases": 1250,
    "onSiteReleaseTotal": 850,
    "offSiteReleaseTotal": 400,
    "reportingYear": "2023",
    "carcinogen": "NO",
    "metal": "YES",
    "pfas": "NO"
}

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-result pricing:

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.00005
Per result	$0.002

The EPA API is free and public. You only pay for Apify compute resources plus the per-result fee above. A typical run of 1,000 records costs approximately $2.00 in Actor fees plus minimal compute costs.

Use Cases

• ESG & Sustainability Research: Identify the largest polluters in a region or industry for ESG scoring and investment screening
• Environmental Compliance: Monitor facility emissions over time to track regulatory compliance
• Supply Chain Due Diligence: Screen suppliers and manufacturing partners for toxic chemical releases
• Community Health: Map toxic releases near specific communities for public health analysis
• Journalism & Investigations: Data-driven reporting on industrial pollution trends
• Academic Research: Environmental science, public health, and policy studies

Integrations

Connect this Actor to your existing workflows:

• Export to Google Sheets for collaborative analysis
• Send results to Slack or email for automated alerts
• Feed into Zapier, Make, or n8n for custom automation
• Use the Apify API to integrate directly with your application

FAQ

Q: How current is the data? A: The EPA updates the TRI database annually. The most recent data is typically from the previous calendar year (e.g., 2023 data available in 2024).

Q: What chemicals are covered? A: The TRI covers over 770 individually listed chemicals and 33 chemical categories. Major categories include metals (lead, mercury, chromium), volatile organic compounds, and persistent bioaccumulative toxics.

Q: Are all facilities included? A: Facilities must meet reporting thresholds: 10+ full-time employees, in a covered industry sector, and manufacturing/processing/using listed chemicals above threshold quantities.

Q: Can I get data for all 50 states? A: Yes. Leave the state filter empty to retrieve records from all US states and territories.

Legal Disclaimer

This Actor accesses publicly available data from the EPA Envirofacts API, a free public service provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The data is in the public domain and freely available for any use.

This Actor does not bypass any authentication, does not violate any terms of service, and respects rate limits on the EPA API. The Actor is provided as-is without warranty. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of the data complies with applicable laws and regulations.

For questions or support, please open an issue on this Actor's page.