North America Pollutant Release Facilities Map: TRI, NPRI and RETC 2006
This interactive map shows approximately 35,000 industrial facilities across Canada, the United States, and Mexico that reported pollutant releases or transfers in 2006 under each country’s national Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR). The data comes from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and draws on three national registers: Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), the United States Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), and Mexico’s Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC). Use the country filter to focus on a single country, or view all three together to compare industrial pollution reporting across North America.
How to Use This Map
Country Filter
Use the All / Canada / USA / Mexico buttons to show facilities from one country at a time or all three together. Canada’s NPRI facilities appear in red, US Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) facilities in blue, and Mexico’s RETC facilities in green.
Zooming and Clustering
At the continental scale, facilities are grouped into clusters showing the count for each area. Zoom in to split clusters apart and see individual facility locations. At street level, each dot represents a single reported facility. Click any dot to see the facility name, address, city, state or province, and NAICS industry code.
Sharing a View
The URL updates automatically as you pan, zoom, and change filters. Copy the address from your browser to share a direct link to any view.
What is a PRTR?
A Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) is a national database in which industrial facilities are required to report the quantities of toxic substances they release to the environment (air, water, land) or transfer off-site for treatment or disposal. PTRs are a key tool for environmental transparency, enabling governments, researchers, and communities to track industrial pollution sources at the facility level.
Canada, the United States, and Mexico each operate their own PRTR under different names and regulatory frameworks, but all three contribute data to the CEC’s North American Environmental Atlas, making cross-border comparison possible.
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) — United States
The US Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is managed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). Facilities in manufacturing, mining, utilities, and other sectors that use more than threshold quantities of listed toxic chemicals must report annually. The 2006 TRI dataset on this map includes approximately 22,000 reporting facilities across all 50 states. TRI data has been collected since 1987 and remains one of the most comprehensive industrial pollution disclosure systems in the world. The blue clusters on this map represent TRI-reporting facilities across the United States.
National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) — Canada
Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) is administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada. It requires facilities in mining, manufacturing, oil and gas, electric power generation, and other industries to report releases of over 300 substances to air, water, and land, along with off-site transfers for disposal or recycling. The 2006 NPRI dataset on this map covers reporting facilities across all provinces and territories, with concentrations in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia — Canada’s most industrialised regions. The red clusters represent NPRI-reporting facilities in Canada.
Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC) — Mexico
Mexico’s Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC) is managed by the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT). The RETC covers industrial facilities that release or transfer a list of priority pollutants, including heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, and persistent organic pollutants. The 2006 RETC data on this map shows reporting facilities concentrated in Mexico’s industrial states, including Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, Estado de Mexico, Veracruz, and Coahuila. The green clusters represent RETC-reporting facilities in Mexico.
Data Source and Limitations
This map uses the North America PRTR Reporting Facilities 2006 dataset published by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) North American Environmental Atlas under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
Important limitations: the data represents the 2006 reporting year only and does not reflect current facility status or current pollution levels. Facilities may have opened, closed, expanded, or reduced their emissions since 2006. The map shows facility locations — not the extent or direction of actual pollutant releases. Reported quantities and pollutant lists vary by country depending on each register’s reporting thresholds and substance coverage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does this map actually show?
Each dot on the map represents an industrial facility that submitted a report to its country’s PRTR in 2006 — either because it released pollutants above a threshold amount or transferred them off-site. The map shows where those facilities are located, not the quantity or type of pollutants they reported.
Does this map show all polluting facilities in North America?
No. PRTR reporting only applies to facilities that exceed specific thresholds for listed substances. Many smaller facilities, agricultural sources, and diffuse sources are not covered. The map shows only facilities that were legally required to report in 2006 and did so.
Why is the data from 2006?
This dataset is part of the CEC North American Environmental Atlas, which harmonised PRTR data across Canada, the United States, and Mexico for the 2006 reporting year. More recent annual data is available separately from each country’s national PRTR (EPA TRI Explorer, NPRI online, and RETC SEMARNAT), but those are not combined into a single cross-border dataset in the same way.
Where can I find the current TRI data for the United States?
The EPA’s TRI Explorer provides current and historical Toxics Release Inventory data for US facilities, updated annually.
Where can I find current NPRI data for Canada?
Environment and Climate Change Canada publishes current NPRI data through the NPRI website, with annual updates and facility-level search tools.
What does NAICS code mean in the popup?
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code identifies the industry sector of the reporting facility. For example, NAICS 3241 indicates petroleum and coal product manufacturing, while 3310 covers primary metal manufacturing. NAICS codes allow comparison of pollution reporting across similar industrial categories in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
