TRI

From Exchange Network Wiki

The TRI data exchange is one-of-a-kind, because the TRI program is different than most.  The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) report grew out of the "community right to know" issues that followed on the heels of the Bhopal disaster.  The legislation that created the TRI required that anyone (permit or no) who released certain threshold quantities of toxic materials report directly to EPA.  Because the right to know movement did not entirely trust EPA to make the inflormation public in a timely manner, the legislation also required that reporters sent a duplicate report to the state's designated right to know coordinator. 

For many years, EPA has been collecting TRI reports, using first a client app, then a web app called "TRI Made Easy", or TRI-ME.  Until very recently, reporters then printed a copy of their report from TRI-ME and mailed it to the state.  The Exchagne Network data flow for TRI comes from the EPA Node (CDX) instantly when a report is submitted through TRI-ME.  The program office worked out language with their lawyers to allow the XML file from CDX to count as the report to the state.  All that is necessary is to execute an MOU.  Details are on the EPA web site or check out the Exchange Network TRI page.

Contents 1 Getting Started With TRI 2 TRI Resources 3 TRI Lessons Learned

Getting Started With TRI

All a state has to do to implement TRI is to execute an MOU, and to have a node prepared to "catch" the incoming files.  However, there are some "issues" that keep some states from signing up:

• The state agency that has a node may not be the "state right-to-know coordinator".  Oregon, for example, updates a database on behalf if the State Fire Marshal. 
• Some states may have requirements that go beyond the "form R", and are not met by TRI-ME
• The node may not know what to do with a XML TRI report.  There are freely available products available for processing these reports, but they are not easy to find.  (can anyone add a link here?)
• At present, the TRI flow is not smart about transactions.  It attempts to deliver each file three times, but if it fails, there is no way for the recipient to know that it ever tried.  The TRI program is working on this issue.

Even with the above issues, TRI is an easy flow to execute.

TRI Resources

• Here is a test version of a TRI Form R file in .xml format: File:Tri xml form r.xml

• Here is a test version of a TRI Form A file in .xml format: File:Tri xml form a.xml

• This is an XSLT file that will mark up the TRI Form A and TRI Form R .xml files to a human readable format. This style sheet assumes that the .xml files are well formed according to the TRI 4.0 schema. File:Forms.zip

TRI Lessons Learned

Currently you cannot send TRI-ME web submissions to yourself through the test environment. You have to call the helpdesk and have them send the submission. When you start testing your node this becomes important.