Industries in Richmond County have reported more than 14 million pounds of toxic releases to air and water during 2006, the most recent complete year covered in the federal Toxic Release Inventory.

The total, reflecting an increase from the 13.1 million pounds released in 2005, includes varying amounts of ammonia, chlorine, sulfuric acid, benzene, mercury, lead -- and even formaldehyde, according to an analysis by The Augusta Chronicle .

How do all those emissions affect human health?

"Getting a clear look at the big picture is a problem," said Jennette Gayer, a policy advocate with Environment Georgia, an Atlanta-based watchdog group.

Having data from sources such as the TRI is a wonderful first step in allowing residents to know more about releases in their communities, she said, but more studies are needed to gauge long-term impacts.

"When you have a county like (Richmond) there needs to be a closer look," she said.

Augusta's largest polluters are almost always the largest industries, which include PCS Nitrogen, where emissions rose from 4,249,142 pounds in 2005 to 5,082,929 in 2006; DSM Chemicals, where emissions rose from 3,258,442 pounds in 2005 to 5,478,110 in 2006; and International Paper, which released 2,781,575 pounds during 2005, decreasing to 2,674,819 pounds in 2006.

The primary pollutants released in Augusta also include nitrogen wastes emptied into the Savannah River in wastewater, according to the report.

Mercury releases decreased from 973 pounds in 2005 to 743 pounds in 2006, according to the reports. All but a fraction of that amount comes from a single source: Olin Chemical Corp.'s 42-year-old plant on Doug Barnard Parkway, which has been urged by environmental groups to convert to a mercury-free process to manufacture chlorine.

Augusta's broad array of industries has a huge effect on the Savannah River -- and the city's economy, said Frank Carl, the executive director of Savannah Riverkeeper Inc.

The same industries that provide tax revenue and thousands of jobs also create conflicts over the river's ability to assimilate waste -- a commodity that is becoming a coveted asset.

"It's already created a conflict. If you listen to South Carolina, their allocations of the river are already much smaller than Georgia, and there will be a point where they will want a bigger share," Dr. Carl said.

During a recent water conference in Columbia County, for example, Georgia Watershed Protection Branch Manager Elizabeth Booth said Georgia uses 95 percent of the river's waste assimilation capacity -- leaving just 5 percent to a state that theoretically could demand an equal share.

Dr. Carl said the glut of pollution entering the river in Augusta would likely prevent any new industries from locating here, because they could not get permits to dump more waste.

"The good news is that we're now limited to clean industry," he said. "But the bad news is that we are limited."

Data in the TRI reports, he said, usually are looked at individually, but there should be more of an effort to evaluate the collective impact of so many varied releases.

Liz Hitchcock, a public health advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said TRI data are often the only tool available to offer residents an accurate and truthful glimpse at emissions in their own backyards.

"The data in these reports is meant to be looked at, and the idea is that more information is more power for communities to use in heading off more pollution," she said.

In recent years, policies advanced by the Bush administration have reduced the scope of reporting requirements, which in turn has helped some industries shield portions of their toxic emissions from public scrutiny, she said.

"Starting in 2006, some facilities were no longer required to report their emissions, so the 2005 numbers were the last time we got as complete a picture as we were getting," she said.

Georgia, which publishes an annual TRI report and analysis for all Georgia counties, didn't produce such a document this year because of personnel turnover and staffing issues, said Al Frazier, the manager of Risk Management and Emergency Planning for Georgia's Environmental Protection Division.

The data, however, remain available in a different form on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site. Georgia will resume issuing its reports in 2009, which will contain 2007 data.

Augusta-Richmond County ranks 54th in the nation in the amount of toxic materials released into air and water, according to the EPA.