The release of toxic waste materials has negative impacts on people’s health and the surrounding environment. Differing levels of exposure to toxic releases for different communities could highlight disparities. For this indicator, the average concentration of toxic releases by census tract is measured as the pounds of pollution emitted per acre within 2 miles of release sites. The data includes chemical releases reported by industrial and federal facilities, compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program. Toxic releases from smaller commercial facilities may not be included.
Go to: Toxic Releases Map | Toxic Releases Now | Toxic Releases Trend
Toxic Releases Map
Pounds per acre within 2 miles of release sites
Source(s): U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Toxics Release Inventory Program, 2024; U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division 2020 TIGER/Line Shapefiles
Insights & Analysis
- The three census tracts with the highest concentration of toxic site release are in Pierce County (Lakewood, north of Joint Base Lewis-McChord; Eastside neighborhood in Tacoma); the next four are in King County (Houghton, Lakeview, Moss Bay, and South Rose Hill neighborhoods in Kirkland).
- Pierce and Kitsap Counties have an average concentration of toxic site release higher than the regional average; King and Snohomish Counties are lower than the regional average.
- 67% of the tracts in the region (620/919) experience less than 0.1 lb/acre toxic site release exposure.
Toxic Releases Now
Source(s): U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Toxics Release Inventory Program, 2024; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Tables B02001, C17002, B22010, B11005, B11007, C16002
Note 1: Horizontal axis (low, medium, high) denotes concentrations of each community. See, "How is equity measured?" for more information.
Note 2: For Households with Limited English Proficiency, the low and low medium categories have the same value in Kitsap and Pierce counties. There are more census tracts in those places estimated to have 0 households with limited English proficiency than the number of tracts in the low quintile category. The values for the low and low medium categories were averaged.
Insights & Analysis
- Communities in the region with the highest concentration of people of color have 145% higher toxic site release exposure than communities with the lowest concentration of people of color - 1.2 lb/acre and 0.5 lb/acre, respectively.
- The average concentration of toxic site release is 2 times higher in communities with the highest concentration of low income households (1.9 lb/acre) than in tracts with the lowest concentration of low income households (0.9 lb/acre).
- In Snohomish County, communities with the highest concentration of households with limited English proficiency experience higher rates of toxic site release exposure than communities with the lowest concentration with differences ranging - a 1.6 lb/acre difference. The difference in King and Pierce are smaller - 0.1 lb/acre and 0.3 lb/acre, respectively.
- Communities with the highest concentrations of people with a disability have higher toxic site release exposure compared to communities with the lowest concentrations of people with a disability in Pierce and Snohomish counties (55% and 82% higher, respectively).
- There is no consistent trend for communities with higher and lower concentrations of households with youth and households with older adults.
Toxic Releases Trend
Source(s): U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Toxics Release Inventory Program, 2014, 2019, 2024; U.S. Census Bureau, 2010-2014, 2015-2019, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Tables B02001, C17002, B22010, B11005, B11007, C16002
Note 1: Line categories (low, low-medium, etc.) denote concentrations of each community. See, "How is equity measured?" for more information.
Note 2: For Households with Limited English Proficiency, the low and low medium categories have the same value in Kitsap and Pierce counties. There are more census tracts in those places estimated to have 0 households with limited English proficiency than the number of tracts in the low quintile category. The values for the low and low medium categories were averaged.
Note 3: Data for households with limited English proficiency are only available starting in 2016.
Insights & Analysis
- From 2014 to 2024, toxic site release exposure decreased for communities with the highest concentrations of low income households - the largest decreases was in Pierce County (86%), followed by King (63%), Kitsap (51%), and Snohomish (19%).
- In Pierce County, communities with the highest concentration of people with disabilities saw significant decreases in the concentration of toxic site release, from 15.1 lb/acre in 2014 to 1.9 lb/acre in 2024.
- Between 2019 and 2024, the difference in toxic site release exposure between communities with the highest and lowest concentrations of households with limited English proficiency decreased in all counties, except for Snohomish County, where the gap increased from 1.2 to 1.5 lb/acre.
- Across the region, toxic site release exposure decreased for most communities between 2014 and 2024, especially in Pierce County.