Priority Area 8:
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Information Database (RCRAInfo) and Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO)

 

The Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) Web site provides the public with information that focuses on facility compliance and EPA/state enforcement of environmental regulations. ECHO provides integrated compliance and enforcement information for approximately 800,000 regulated facilities nationwide.  It includes facilities regulated as Clean Air Act (CAA) stationary sources, as Clean Water Act (CWA) permitted dischargers (under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)), and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste sites.

Though the data presented on ECHO were previously in the public domain through Freedom of Information Act requests and mainframe computer subscription, the information was not available in a searchable Web format until ECHO was launched in 2002. ECHO makes it much easier for the public to obtain these data records on the Internet.

Maryland recommended two changes to the Enforcement ECHO database:

1. EPA should improve data handling.  States should not be expected to check EPA databases such as ECHO and find the things that need correcting.
2. Eliminate requirements to submit hard-copy enforcement and compliance reports that EPA can generate from ECHO or the Permit Compliance System (PCS).

In response to the first recommendation, EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) has ensured that a “Report Error” hyperlink is available at the top of every ECHO facility report.  All users of the ECHO data – the facilities, the states, and the public – may report errors using this error-reporting feature.  EPA and state data experts receive the reports so they can correct data in their databases.  To further ensure data quality, OECA updates ECHO on a monthly basis, performs random audits of the data, and receives suggestions for further improvements at echo@epa.gov.  You may read more about the steps OECA has taken to under Recommendation E7.

Region 3 addressed Maryland’s second recommendation – eliminating redundant hard-copy reports – by discussing the issue on a September 2007 conference call.  During that call, Maryland confirmed that this recommendation was no longer a concern for them and withdrew the recommendation. Learn more under Recommendation E10.