PRESS RELEASE
DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

May 9, 2018

STATISTICS INSTITUTE PUBLISHES PUERTO RICO'S TOXIC EMISSIONS PROFILE

In this way, a contribution is made to facilitate access and knowledge of statistics on the toxic waste emitted by establishments in Puerto Rico, which are reported annually to the EPA.

San Juan, PR, May 9, 2018 — In Puerto Rico, 101 facilities handled a total of 33,165,925 pounds of toxic substances during 2016, some 4,330,512 pounds (13%) less than in 2015. Of these, 17,836,676 pounds (54%) were recycled, as revealed by the Puerto Rico Toxic Emissions Profile conducted by the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute).

The Puerto Rico Toxic Emissions Profile, the first of its kind carried out by the Institute, summarizes data from the Toxic Emissions Inventory (TRI) that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been published annually since 1987. Its purpose is to publicize what toxic waste establishments in Puerto Rico emit in order to help the public understand how their communities and environments may be affected.

The TRI emerged from the need for communities to know what toxic waste is being managed around them, and how it is available, so that people can prepare in the event of an environmental emergency. The information comes from estimates made by the facilities themselves based on production. They are reported on an annual form conducted by the EPA.

The federal law that creates the TRI, the Environmental Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), approved in 1986, represented a paradigm shift in environmental regulation, of an end-of-cycle type (end-of-pipe), whose focus is on remedying the production of pollutants, to an open data approach, where the public is given the tools to pressure companies to reduce their emissions.

Here are some of the findings from the publication:

• Since 1987, toxic waste released in Puerto Rico has fallen by 87%.
• Of the total toxic waste handled in 2016, just over half (54%) was recycled.
• Of the total toxic waste emitted, 81% was emitted inside the facilities, and of this, 98% was emitted into the air.
• Of the total toxic waste emitted within the facilities, about a third was sulfuric acid, 100% of which came from the industrial sector of generation, transmission and distribution of electrical energy.

In addition, the report details that the 101 facilities in Puerto Rico that reported data to the TRI during 2016 cover a total of 43 municipalities and are generally located close to coastal areas. Guaynabo, Manati and San Juan had the highest number of facilities participating in the TRI in 2016. However, if municipalities are grouped by amount of toxic emissions, Guayama, Salinas and Manati rank in the first three places.

It is important to clarify that the data presented do not contain all the toxic waste managed, nor all the facilities that handled such waste in Puerto Rico during 2016, since the TRI only requires information from those facilities that meet three main criteria. These are: having at least 10 full-time employees; being federal facilities, or classified under one of the industrial sectors to which the TRI requires them to report; being manufacturing sectors that handle over 25,000 pounds of any of the substances for which the TRI requires reporting data and, if they belong to a non-manufacturing sector, must exceed 10,000 pounds.

In addition to publishing the Toxic Emissions Profile, fulfilling its function of facilitating access to the statistics related to this report, the Institute contributes by making available the complete historical series of the TRI in https://datos.estadisticas.pr/dataset/tri and through the Internet of Toxic Emissions application in your Community http://emisionestoxicaspr.org.

To view the full report of the Toxic Emissions Profile visit the following link: Puerto Rico Toxic Emissions Profile 2016.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The IEPR has in its inventory, accessible through https://estadisticas.pr.gov, about 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through https://data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: https://www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of the Puerto Rico SDC, the IEPR manages the SDC portal, where you can find the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau on Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates; the Puerto Rico Community Survey (Puerto Rico Community Survey) and official statistics on Puerto Rico's 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr.

For more information you can visit our website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (https://www.facebook.com/estadisticas.pr), Twitter (https://twitter.com/estadisticaspr) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/instituto-de-estadisticas-de-puerto-rico).

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/(787) 688-0401

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PRESS RELEASE

DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

U.S. Energy Information Administration includes electricity generation data in PR

This makes it possible to individually access data from each ESA generating plant, among others.

San Juan, PR, July 12, 2018 — For the first time, data on each generating unit in Puerto Rico are accessible and have been included in the inventory of U.S. Energy Information Administration (LIA) which means a great achievement for the transparency of related information by the Electric Power Authority (EEA) and other energy companies in Puerto Rico.

This was confirmed by the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute), representative of the Government of Puerto Rico to the EIA and which has been working for several years to integrate data from Puerto Rico into the statistical inventory of that federal entity. The EIA conducts several annual and monthly surveys of companies and entities that work in the energy industry in the United States, including the electricity sector. They allow us to know in a more timely manner the evolution of Puerto Rico's energy system.

In the case of Puerto Rico, previously it only conducted an annual survey of companies and entities in this sector. Since 2014, thanks to the coordination and initiative of the Institute, the ESA began to take part and participate in monthly electricity sector surveys that allow us to perceive short-term changes in consumption and in the price paid for electricity in Puerto Rico. Now, data is added that allows us to geographically visualize where the generating plants have been located and how much each one generates, among other details. Previously, information could only be accessed globally.

The executive director of the Institute, Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, stressed the importance of continuing to add ESA statistics to the monthly surveys carried out by the EIA, since they allow us to evaluate sales, consumption and price more frequently, among other important aspects. “This is another great achievement for the transparency that our government aspires to, in every area. We will have monthly indicators of the operational status of each generating unit, which can only benefit Puerto Rico, just as the Government has announced a plan to profoundly transform the Electric Power Authority,” said the Executive Director of the Institute.

The data can be accessed through the Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. It can be seen that before 1958 all the plants were hydroelectric. While with few exceptions, those that were built and started operations between 1958 and 2009 run on oil and are still in operation. Renewable energy sources, including solar and wind, were added in 2011. After Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, most of the plants are operating. Some wind and solar plants have not yet been able to resume operations, but they hope to be able to do so this year.

By law, the Institute represents the Government of Puerto Rico before the EIA. In 2013, the Institute recommended that the EIA include ESA in its monthly survey. By 2014, the fruits of this initiative began to be seen with the inclusion of Puerto Rico in one of the monthly surveys. From then on, the working sessions between the EIA and the ESA were achieved, which has allowed the above-mentioned achievements.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through www.estadisticas.pr.gov, about 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through www.data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of the State Data Center (SDC) of Puerto Rico, the Institute manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau on Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates; the Puerto Rico Community Survey (Puerto Rico Community Survey) and official statistics on Puerto Rico's 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

For more information you can visit our website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (statistics.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico).

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/(787) 688-0401

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Statistics Institute and the EPA release a tool to report on the sources of toxic emissions around each community