UNITED STATES PCB EMISSIONS INVENTORY

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Permit Compliance System (PCS)

The Permit Compliance System (PCS) is a public-access database maintained by U.S. EPA. The database can be queried from EPA's Envirofacts site and it holds data on facilities that have a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit [PCS, 2000].

Although access to the online PCS database was achieved, it was somewhat difficult to obtain data related to discharges of PCBs into the Great Lakes. A Freedom of Information Act Request to U.S. EPA was submitted to request such information.

PCS Summary Table from the Binational Strategy (BNS)

In its PCB report, the Binational Toxics Strategy (BNS) estimated reported PCS discharges from 1990-1999. While the report is a draft, with a "do not cite or quote" stipulation, the information is publicly available on the EPA GLNPO website and thus is reprinted here [BNS (b), 1999]. It should be noted that no data were available for Lake in the BNS report. To supplement, data for Lake were summarized from the Lake Lakewide Management Plan summary. Discharges to Lake from point and nonpoint sources and from tributaries to Lake , within both the U.S. and Canada were estimated for 1992-1993 and was added to the table below [GLC (b), 2002]. The table contains data in both kilograms and pounds and summarizes discharges by Lake and for all of the Great Lakes.