Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program
Urban Communities:
Greater Los Angeles
 TRI facilities in Greater Los Angeles |
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Quick Facts for 2009:
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The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA metropolitan area is also known as the Greater Los Angeles Area. With an estimated population of 12.9 million, it is the second most populous metropolitan area in the United States. It includes Los Angeles and Orange Counties and the principal cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, Glendale, Pomona, Pasadena, Torrance, Orange, Burbank, Compton, Santa Monica, and Newport Beach. The total land area of the combined statistical area is 4,850 square miles.
The Los Angeles area occupies part of a mountain-rimmed basin fronting on the Pacific Ocean. It is bounded by the Santa Monica Mountains to the north and by the San Gabriel Mountains to the east. Owing to this geography, the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley can suffer from severe air pollution when atmospheric inversions hold in the emissions from vehicles, ocean vessels, manufacturing, and other sources.
Greater Los Angeles is the nation's second largest industrial and commercial center, after the New York Metropolitan area. The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are the center of imports and exports for U.S. trade on the Pacific Coast. According to the Port of Los Angeles, when considered together, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach comprise the fifth busiest port in the world.
While there is a diversity of manufacturing in the Greater Los Angeles area, there is a significant presence of aerospace industry, which includes the manufacturing of commercial and military aircraft and various space systems. Also significant are the assembly of automobiles and other vehicles, fabrication of metal parts, the making of tires, and an electronics sector that has undergone significant growth over the past decade. The Greater Los Angeles Area also hosts large petroleum refining and petrochemicals industries.
Petroleum refineries in the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area had the largest air releases of any sector, with 59% of the total. Air releases of ammonia from petroleum refineries were 33% of total air releases in this area.
Total on-site disposal for the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area decreased by 62% from 2001 to 2009, with a 27% decrease from 2008 to 2009. Air releases, which represented 83% of all on-site disposal or other releases in 2009, decreased by 58% from 2001 to 2009 and by 22% from 2008 to 2009. Petroleum refineries, with the largest air releases, decreased their air releases by 45% from 2001 to 2009.
Top Five Chemicals by Environmental Medium, 2009
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These charts represent the top five TRI chemicals in pounds released for this urban community, and do not include all chemicals of concern nor the priority or importance of those chemicals within the urban community.