The bad news is Tooele County remains the pollution capitol of Utah -- a place famous for not only creating its own waste but cheerfully accepting the waste of others. The good news is less pollution was generated in the county in 2006 than 2005, continuing a general trend of decline over the past eight years.

Those are the two main conclusions to be drawn from the latest Toxics Release Inventory compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency. The report showed that Tooele County companies released 12.4 million pounds of toxic substances into our air, water and land in 2006 -- a total that represented a reduction of around 60 percent from the 30 million pounds that were released in 2005.

We still boast the No. 4 (EnergySolutions), No. 5 (US Magnesium), and No. 6 (Clean Harbors Grassy Mountain facility) polluters in the state, with No. 1 (Kennecott's mine concentrators and power plant) and No. 2 (Kennecott's smelter and refinery) just over the county line.

Much of the dramatic drop-off in toxic releases in the county is down to EnergySolutions, which had a record year in 2005 that it couldn't replicate in 2006. US Magnesium and Clean Harbors --- both the Grassy Mountain and Aragonite facilities -- actually increased toxic releases slightly, though in fairness to US Mag it has decreased its toxic releases far more than any other company in the county over the past eight years.

The TRI report is good way of taking the temperature of Tooele County. We all need to pay attention to these numbers with the same avid interest as we track home and gas prices. And we need to use them to put pressure on polluters to continually modernize and clean up their operations.

Many of these companies established themselves in Tooele County at a time when it seemed like the edge of the earth, a place where pollution and humanity would rarely intersect. But with rapid population growth in the Tooele Valley and on the west side of Salt Lake City, these operations now seem closer and more visible than ever before. We should not lose sight of them, or the toxins they release, again.