About the Facility Emissions Report - Hazardous Air Pollutants

What does the report tell me?

The Facility Emissions Report displays the amount of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) released in a year by individual point sources (facilities). The main purpose of the report is to compare the HAP emissions of facilities. The report includes all facilities, both "large" (major sources) and "small" (area sources). The report's data are for year 1999.

Each row of the Facility Emissions Report displays one facility's estimated emissions of up to six HAPs. The Grand Total line at the bottom of each report page shows the total HAP emissions of all facilities in the report.

Most facilities emit more than one HAP. (See the Number of HAPs column description below.) The Facility Emissions report allows you to see all the HAPs emitted by a particular source. Clicking in the Facility Detail column returns a new report that lists the emissions of each HAP the facility releases, and its total emissions of all HAPs.

The National Emissions Inventory (NEI) is an emission inventory developed every three years (1996, 1999, etc.) by EPA. The NEI is a national inventory of stationary and mobile sources that emit hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). HAPs are generally defined as those pollutants that are known or suspected to cause serious health problems. Section 112(b) of the Clean Air Act currently identifies a list of 188 pollutants as HAPs. The NEI contains emission estimates for major sources, area sources, mobile sources, and other sources which do not readily fall into these categories. Point sources in the NEI are sources for which the specific location is known; they may be either major or area sources. As best as possible, point sources in the NEI have each been identified as either major or area, but this identification may not correspond to the official regulatory classification of some sources. Nonpoint sources in the NEI include area sources that are not identified as point sources because their specific locations are not known. Nonpoint sources also include other sources such as wildfires and prescribed burning whose emissions are estimated at the county level.

What does the report look like?

Each row of the report lists emissions and other information about one facility. In this example, the report includes emissions of cadmium and nickel compounds, facility name and ID code, and more. Rows are in descending order of cadmium emissions, as indicated by the red down-arrow button in that column. The last column contains links to a facility detail report, which lists the emissions of each hazardous air pollutant released by a particular facility.

How can I customize the report?

Sort Order

You can use the SORT buttons in each report column to change the order of rows in the report. The default sort order is descending emissions amount, which puts the "largest" facilities at the beginning and the "smallest" facilities at the end.

Detail or Summary

This is always a detail report. Omitting optional report columns does not change the level of summarization. A row of the report always displays data for a single facility.

Individual Pollutants or Total Emissions

You may have the report display the emissions of one to six separate HAPs, the total emissions of urban HAPs (Sum of 33 urban HAPs), or the total emissions of all HAPs (Sum of 188 HAPs). If you select specific HAPs, the report includes facilities emitting at any of those HAPs. If you select Sum of 33 urban HAPs, the report includes facilities that emit one or more of the 33 urban HAPs. If you select Sum of 188 HAPs, the report includes facilities that emit any of the 188 HAPs.

If you choose Sum of 188 HAPs in combination with individual HAPs, the report includes facilities that emit any of the 188 HAPs. If you choose Sum of 33 urban HAPs in combination with individual HAPs, the report includes facilities that emit any urban HAP and facilities that emit any individual HAP selected.

Format of Emissions Values

Depending on the Pollutant Emissions Format option that you choose for the report, emission values are displayed as decimal numbers (0.0351) or in scientific notation (3.51E-02). With the decimal option in effect, values smaller than 0.0001 are displayed as "< 0.0001" in an html report and displayed in scientific notation when exporting to a text file.

What do the report columns mean?

Row #: Sequence number of report rows (lines). Sequence numbers are not associated with particular rows; they simply enumerate the rows of a report from first to last. Thus, choosing an alternate sort order for a report would change the sequence numbers associated with particular rows.
EPA Region: EPA region number in which a source is located. There are ten EPA regions. [ Details ]
State: Postal abbreviation for the state or territory in which a source is located. [ Details ]
County: Name of the county (or equivalent jurisdiction) in which a source is located.
County Code: Code for the county (or equivalent jurisdiction) in which a source is located, consisting of 2-digit FIPS state code and 3-digit FIPS county code. FIPS is the acronym for Federal Information Processing Standards, which defines codes used in most U.S. government information systems.
Urban/Rural Designation: For purposes of developing EPA's Integrated Urban Air Toxics Strategy, a county was considered "urban" if either:
1) it includes a metropolitan statistical area with a population greater than 250,000; or
2) the U.S. Census Bureau designates more than fifty percent of the population as "urban."
The Integrated Urban Air Toxics Strategy is an important part of EPA's national air toxics program. Please note that the definition of "urban" does not necessarily apply for regulatory or implementation purposes. (www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/urban/urbanpg.html)
Facility Name: The name of a point source of HAP emissions -- a particular industrial, commercial, or government facility.
Facility ID: The NEI database identification code for a facility.
Pollutant Emissions: Estimated annual HAP emissions, in pounds, from a single facility.

If you selected multiple HAPs, the report includes an emissions column for each of them, and displays pollutant name in the column heading. See the NEI HAP Names table for alternative pollutant names and identification codes.

An emission estimate is based on the normal operating schedule of a source, and includes the effects of installed pollution control equipment and regulatory restrictions on operating conditions.
% of Total Emissions: Fraction (percentage) of the report's Grand Total emissions attributable to the entity represented by a row of the report -- a single facility and year.
Number of HAPs: The number of separate HAPs emitted by a particular facility.
Facility Detail: You can view a complete listing of a facility's HAP emissions by clicking on the "See All HAPs" link in a report row. A Facility Detail report is displayed in response to your click, which shows the emissions of each HAP emitted by the facility, and total HAP emissions. If the facility emits any of the urban HAPs, the report also displays total urban HAP emissions.