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What is the Sector Facility Indexing Project?
The Sector Facility Indexing Project (SFIP) is a
computerized database that integrates and provides public
access to facility-level environmental information in one
location on the Internet. SFIP profiles facilities in five
industry sectors as well as a subset of federal facilities.
On SFIP’s Internet site (http://www.epa.gov/oeca/sfi),
you can look at recent environmental data about each facility,
including information such as the number of inspections the
facility has received, its record of compliance with federal
regulations, its chemical releases and spills, and other related
data. SFIP also includes background data on the location of
each facility as well as information on the population of
the surrounding area. Production capacity is provided for
industry facilities but not for federal facilities, due to
the diversity of their operations.
What are the goals of SFIP?
Goals of SFIP include the following:
- to make environmental and regulatory compliance information
more accessible to the public.
- to expand the comprehensiveness and improve the accuracy
of data for analyzing the environmental track records of
individual facilities and sectors.
- to provide industrial and government stakeholders with
better analytical tools for permitting, reporting, compliance,
benchmarking, self-policing, and pollution prevention purposes.
- to help all stakeholders take a more holistic, multi-media
approach to environmentally sound performance.
What types of facilities are included
in SFIP?
SFIP includes information on facilities in five industry
sectors. They are:
- automobile assembly
- pulp manufacturing
- petroleum refining
- iron and steel production
- primary smelting and refining of aluminum, copper, lead,
and zinc (nonferrous metals)
Since the initial launch in 1998, EPA has expanded the universe
of facilities included in SFIP. In June 2001, data for a subset
of federal facilities in the United States were added to SFIP.
The federal facilities that are included in SFIP are classified
as "major" potential sources of environmental impact(s)
under at least 2 of the following 3 statutes: the Clean Air
Act (CAA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), or the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA).
What are the key elements of SFIP?
For each facility, SFIP provides information on its location,
surrounding population, permits held under major environmental
programs, the number of inspections received, its record of
compliance with federal regulations, and any chemical releases,
transfers, and spills. Production capacity is provided for
sector facilities but not for federal facilities, due to the
diversity of their operations. Original facility-specific
reports are available in SFIP for viewing and downloading.
However, these raw data are often so detailed and complex
as to make it virtually impossible for a user to compare different
facilities, chemicals, or geographic areas. So, in addition
to gathering all this information into one location for the
first time, SFIP structures and aggregates the data so a user
can easily view, compare, and analyze information from different
facilities.
What information sources does SFIP use?
SFIP includes compliance and enforcement information submitted
to state and federal regulators, as well as chemical release
information submitted under the federal Toxics Release Inventory
(TRI). SFIP also links data submitted to state and federal
agencies by facilities regulated under the Clean Air Act,
the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act, and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know
Act. Finally, statistics about the population around facilities
were taken from census reports, and information about production
was gathered from outside sources.
To link all these data, SFIP has used an interactive, high-speed
data retrieval and integration system developed by EPA, called
the Integrated Data for Enforcement Analysis (IDEA) system.
Are Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) emissions from
industrial facilities legal and permitted?
TRI only affects the reporting of releases and off-site
transfers. Just because a chemical is reported under TRI does
not make it illegal. A TRI chemical release may be legal and
fully permitted. In fact, most of the chemicals reported under
the TRI program are allowable under existing single-media
permits (i.e., for air, water, or hazardous solid waste) or
are unregulated.
Why do some facilities under SFIP have no TRI releases
or transfers?
There are several possible reasons why no TRI data are reported,
such as:
- A facility may have been idle during the reporting period.
- A facility may be small enough to be exempt from reporting.
- A facility may have failed to file required reports.
What indicators of noncompliance are included in
SFIP?
SFIP uses several indicators, including:
- historical noncompliance, which indicates the frequency
of problems over time.
- significant noncompliance (SNC) under the CWA and RCRA,
which indicates a current major noncompliance problem or
a series of problems.
- high priority violator (HPV) under the CAA, which indicates
a serious or severe noncompliance problem or a series of
problems.
- the number of times that a facility has exceeded its Clean
Water Act National Pollution Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) pollution limits.
- On-site spills of chemicals subject to the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
(CERCLA), also known as the Superfund Law. These spills
are reported to the Emergency Response Notification System
(ERNS).
How does SFIP indicate the severity and duration
of noncompliance problems?
SFIP allows users to dig down into the underlying data, to
find out more about a violation. For instance, SFIP provides
underlying information about the duration of a problem, such
as whether it extended into more than one quarter. By considering
the type and duration of any noncompliance event in conjunction
with other data, SFIP users can draw their own conclusions
about the severity of the problem.
Does the use of "indexing" mean that individual
facilities will be ranked?
The term “indexing” describes the process that SFIP
uses to identify all facilities and data. The facilities have
not been ranked in any way.
How accurate are the SFIP data?
Prior to release of this facility-level information on SFIP,
EPA works to identify the correct universe of facilities to
be included and ensures the accuracy and usefulness of the
data. As part of this effort, all facilities have an opportunity
to review the data. EPA and the states then review the responses
and make changes to the data as appropriate.
Prior to SFIP’s launch, each industry facility received
a copy of its compliance and enforcement data for review,
to make sure that any problems were identified before the
information was distributed through the SFIP. Similarly, the
subset of federal facilities that were added to SFIP were
also given the opportunity to review their data to identify
any problems. These were individually addressed prior to the
release of the data.
How does EPA ensure that SFIP data continue to be
accurate when the data are updated?
The accuracy of the data depends upon reliable reporting by
states, local agencies, and industry. Accuracy also depends
upon correct recording of information by regulatory agencies
at local, state, and federal levels. EPA, in conjunction with
the affected stakeholders, continues to work at improving
the quality and consistency of the underlying data. EPA has
set up an SFIP Hotline (617-520-3015) for users to ask
questions about the data and has also established a "comment
page" on the SFIP website for users to submit their comments
instantly.
Has this information ever been released before?
The information in SFIP has been available to the public directly
through different data systems, publications, and in several
places on the Internet. SFIP has gathered all this data into
one location, improved the data quality, and made the data
easier to work with and understand.
If I work for a facility included in SFIP and suspect
that the data need to be corrected, what should I do?
A system has been established for making changes to the SFIP
data. To report a possible inaccuracy, a facility representative
should click on the "Report Error" button at the
top of the facility's Detailed Facility Report. The facility
representative can then submit a general comment by clicking
on the "General Comment" button or a line-specific
comment by clicking in the far righthand column of the line
in question. The SFIP Hotline at 617-520-3015 is available
should he or she have any questions.
How can the public and other non-government entities
use SFIP?
SFIP enables users to research environmental compliance and
chemical releases at individual facilities. SFIP is especially
useful for comparing information about different facilities
in a particular sector, evaluating and comparing chemicals
used by a sector, measuring compliance and chemical release
trends over time, identifying common compliance problems and
developing solutions to them, and identifying issues that
may warrant further research.
Will SFIP affect the way facilities in these sectors
conduct business?
EPA is hopeful that SFIP will create an additional "compliance
incentive" for industry and federal facilities. SFIP
may lead to collaborative efforts between EPA and facilities
to design compliance assistance programs. It also may assist
states and facilities in taking a more holistic, multimedia
perspective about their business, and may help them to identify
pollution prevention opportunities. In addition, as companies
and the federal government increasingly look to make exemplary
environmental records known, SFIP will provide a platform
for those that demonstrate a commitment to the environment,
and may help to identify high-performing facilities that can
be recognized publicly.
If I am interested in records for facilities in other
sectors, where can I obtain information?
EPA is developing procedures for providing information on
additional facilities in the future. Meanwhile, you can contact
EPA or your state/local environmental agency to request specific
facility information.
In what forms are the SFIP data available?
The SFIP is available online for use by the general public.
The SFIP Internet address is as follows:
http://www.epa.gov/oeca/sfi
Anyone who wishes to use SFIP online should read the introductory
information carefully before proceeding.
For additional requests and/or questions, please call SFIP’s
Hotline at 617-520-3015.
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