Every Chemical Factory Near You — EPA TRI Data

Data source: ZipCheckup analysis of EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) 2023

Every year, thousands of industrial facilities across the United States file paperwork with the EPA documenting exactly how many pounds of toxic chemicals they released into the environment. The filings are public. The database is searchable. And almost nobody looks at it.

It's called the Toxic Release Inventory — and ZipCheckup has mapped all of it to your ZIP code.

The Scale of What's Tracked

The numbers are staggering. Across 8,797 ZIP codes, the TRI logs releases from 21,856 industrial facilities. The total: 3.4 billion pounds of chemical releases reported in the most recent filing year.

That includes 17,885 entries involving known carcinogens, 10,477 involving persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs) — chemicals that accumulate in the food chain — and 180 involving PFAS "forever chemicals."

These aren't estimates. They're self-reported figures that facilities are legally required to submit under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

The Top Polluting ZIP Codes

Some ZIP codes carry an outsized share of the burden. Here are the heaviest:

ZIP 99752 — a remote Alaskan mining site — alone accounts for over 771 million pounds of releases. That's nearly a quarter of the national total from a single location. But you don't have to live near a mine to be affected. Industrial facilities in suburban and urban ZIPs release smaller quantities of far more dangerous chemicals.

The Most Common Chemicals

Lead dominates the TRI data. Lead and lead compounds appear in 2,856 ZIP codes — more than any other substance. Here's how the top chemicals rank by number of ZIPs affected:

1. Lead / Lead compounds — 2,856 ZIPs
2. Nitrate compounds — 1,471 ZIPs
3. Zinc compounds — 1,465 ZIPs
4. Ammonia — 1,255 ZIPs
5. Chromium — 1,150 ZIPs
6. Copper — 1,148 ZIPs
7. Methanol — 1,133 ZIPs
8. Nickel — 1,105 ZIPs
9. Manganese — 1,071 ZIPs
10. Toluene — 1,004 ZIPs

Several of these — lead, chromium, nickel — are classified as known or probable carcinogens. Others, like ammonia and nitrate compounds, can contaminate groundwater and drinking water supplies when released in large quantities.

The Carcinogen Hot Spots

Not all TRI facilities release the same kinds of chemicals. Some ZIP codes are disproportionately burdened with carcinogenic releases:

• 43920 (East Liverpool, OH) — 96 carcinogen entries from 2 facilities releasing 308,402 lbs
• 77705 (Beaumont, TX) — 74 carcinogen entries from 15 facilities releasing over 2.1 million lbs
• 77571 (La Porte, TX) — 71 carcinogen entries from 29 facilities releasing over 6 million lbs
• 71730 (El Dorado, AR) — 69 carcinogen entries from 13 facilities, plus 15 PFAS chemical entries

El Dorado, Arkansas is notable: its 13 facilities report 15 different PFAS chemicals — the highest PFAS diversity of any ZIP code in the TRI data. PFAS are called "forever chemicals" because they don't break down in the environment and accumulate in human blood and tissue.

What This Means for Your Water

TRI releases don't automatically contaminate your drinking water. Air releases disperse. Land releases may be contained. But the data creates a risk map. ZIP codes with high TRI activity, especially involving water-soluble chemicals like nitrates and lead compounds, have a statistically higher chance of water quality issues.

The downstream signal is uneven: across the 5,572 public utilities tracked in the CCR Rich Dataset, only 753 (13.5%) publish PFAS detections with a substances list in their CCR — so even where TRI shows industrial chemical releases nearby, the utility's own disclosure may not itemize what's been measured in the tap.

Our environmental burden score — calculated from TRI data, facility density, chemical types, and proximity to water sources — ranges from 0 to 100 for each ZIP code. A score above 50 indicates above-average industrial chemical exposure risk.

How to Check Your ZIP Code

Every ZIP code in our database includes TRI facility data as part of its safety report. You can see:

• How many TRI facilities operate in or near your ZIP
• What chemicals they release
• Whether any are carcinogens, PBTs, or PFAS
• Your ZIP's environmental burden score
• How your area compares to the national average

The data is already collected. The government already tracks it. The question is whether you've looked at what they found near your home.

Check your ZIP code now →

Methodology: ZipCheckup analyzes EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data for 8,797 ZIP codes covering 21,856 facilities. Chemical classifications (carcinogen, PBT, PFAS) follow EPA's TRI chemical categories. Environmental burden scores are calculated using facility count, release volumes, chemical toxicity profiles, and proximity to water infrastructure. All data is from the most recent TRI reporting year.