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Environmental activist Cindy King has looked to a national database, accessible through any computer connected to the Internet, to help her gather information on the toxic chemicals used and produced in her neighborhoods in Salt Lake City.

"Public knowledge," she insists, "is a very powerful thing."

King is one of thousands of Americans who are criticizing new regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to cut back on the data companies must submit for the annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).

Their main complaints: The public will have less information because fewer companies will be reporting the toxic chemicals they release into the environment and many companies that do report will have to provide less detail.

"The TRI is one of the most cost-effective ways to provide information to regulators and the public," said King.

The EPA implemented the changes in December, saying they would reduce the paperwork burden on businesses by about $6 million a year without sacrificing much information available to the public.

Under the new regulation, facilities will be free to release up to 2,000 pounds of pollutants before they have to detail those releases. The previous trigger was 500 pounds.

The agency made the changes over the objections of more than 120,000 individuals, 23 state governments, 60 members of Congress, 30 public health organizations, 40 labor organizations and 200 environmental and public interest groups, according to OMB Watch, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy organization. Just 33 commentators, all but four of them from industry, supported the changes.

Tom Natan, research director for the National Environmental Trust, calls the changes "monumentally ill-conceived" and says they provide companies with an incentive to pollute more.

"If you don't know what (quantities of toxic chemicals) they are putting out, " he said, "then you can't take steps to protect yourselves."

In contrast, the agency insists the move will benefit the public by driving companies to recycle waste and take other measures that will reduce their production of toxic materials to levels under the new threshold.

Whether the new TRI regulations will stand is uncertain. As Democrats prepare to take over both houses of Congress, some critics of the new law hope lawmakers will force the agency to restore the reporting system or even get it beefed up.