Data Entry Requirements

This table indicates where EPA requires data be provided to national databases (which flow through to the ECHO website on a weekly basis, with the exception of drinking water data, which are updated quarterly). Data are provided by authorized state, tribal, and local governments, as well as EPA. This table is designed to help users understand where data are more complete. Many states voluntarily enter additional data that is not required; however, in boxes that indicated "Partial" or "N" for no, data completeness may vary widely from state to state. The ECHO website will show the information entered by states regardless of whether it is required. ECHO users may want to refer to state agency websites for additional information.

  Clean Water Act - National Pollution Discharge Elimination System1 Clean Air Act - Stationary Sources Resource Conservation and Recovery Act - Hazardous Waste Safe Drinking Water Act
Facility/Source/ System Type Major (Individual Permit) Non-Major (Individual Permit) Non-Major (General Permit Covered Facilities) Title V Major Synthetic Minor12 Subset of Minors13 TSDF and LQG4 SQG5,6 Public Water Systems
Estimated # of Active Regulated Entities 6,700 46,700 >370,000 14,000 27,000 <3,000 42,200 118,500 152,500
Data System ICIS-NPDES ICIS-Air RCRAInfo SDWIS-FED
Facility Universes Tracked Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Compliance Evaluation Performed
EPA Y Y Y Y Y Y8 Y Y Y17 
State Y Y Y Y7 Y7 Y8 Y Y Y17 
Compliance Evaluation Results (Violation/Compliance Status)
EPA Y Y Y N9 N9 N9 Y11 Y11 Y
State Y Y2 Y2 Y9 Y10 Partial9 Y11 Y11 Y
Self-Reported Discharge/Violations
EPA Y Y Y Y10 Y10 Partial10 N/A N/A Y
State Y Y Y Y10 Y10 Partial10 N/A N/A Y
Severity of Violation (SNC/HPV)14
EPA Y Y Y N N N16 Y Y N
State Y Y Y Y Partial15 N16 Y Y N
Notices of Violation (Informal Enforcement)
EPA Y Y Y N N N Y Y N
State Y Y Y Y Y Partial8 Y Y N
Formal Enforcement Actions
EPA3 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
State Y Y Y Y Y Partial8 Y Y Y
Amount of Assessed Penalties
EPA3 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N
State Y Y Y Y Y Partial8 Y Y  

Reporting of Linkages Between Compliance Monitoring Activities, Violation/Significant Noncompliance/High Priority Violation, and Addressing Enforcement Actions

Generally, linkages allow a user to understand a relationship between activities such as the identification of violations and the enforcement action that addresses or resolves the violations.

CAA 

CWA

  • EPA and delegated states are required to link violations to the compliance monitoring activity that discovered the violation.  
  • EPA and delegated states are required to link enforcement actions to violations covered by the enforcement action.  
  • Please see the October 2015 NPDES Electronic Reporting Rule for more detail. 

RCRA

  • EPA and delegated states are required to link violations to compliance monitoring activity that discover the violation.  
  • EPA and delegated states are required to link formal enforcement actions to violations covered by the enforcement action. 
  • Please see RCRAinfo User’s Guide for more detail.

SDWA

  • EPA and primacy agencies are not required to link violations to the compliance monitoring activity that discovered the violation.  Additionally, SDWIS does not possess data elements that allow for violations and compliance monitoring activities to be linked.  
  • While most enforcement actions in SDWIS are linked to one or more violations, EPA and primacy agencies are not required to link enforcement actions to violations covered by the enforcement action.  
  • Please see June 2019 SDWIS Fed Data Reporting Requirements (DOCX)(276 KB) for more detail. 
     

Footnotes 

(1) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently promulgated the NPDES Electronic Reporting Rule (“final rule”) to modernize Clean Water Act reporting for municipalities, industries, and other facilities by converting to an electronic data reporting system. This final rule requires regulated entities and state and federal regulators to use existing, available information technology to electronically report data required by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program instead of filing written paper reports. See National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Electronic Reporting Rule; Final Rule, October 22, 2015, 80 FR 64064. This regulation will help provide greater clarity on who is and who is not in compliance and enhances transparency by providing a timelier, complete, more accurate, and nationally-consistent set of data about the NPDES program. The final rule will be implemented over the next few years. During this transition period there will likely be more information available from ICIS-NPDES on major NPDES regulated entities. The list of data that must be electronically collected, managed, and shared with EPA’s ICIS-NPDES is listed in Appendix A to 40 CFR Part 127.

 (2) States must share Single Event Violation (SEV) data with EPA’s ICIS-NPDES except for construction stormwater inspections where the state does not take a formal enforcement action.

 (3) Federal enforcement actions and penalties are reported to Integrated Compliance Information System (ICIS) and RCRAInfo.  Reports shown on this website display both pieces of information when available. In some instances, the same federal enforcement action will not appear in both systems, and in other cases, the same action will be in both systems. ICIS provides information on a wide range of statutes and programs.

 (4) TSDF - Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility and LQG - Large Quantity Generator.

 (5) SQG - Small Quantity Generators.

 (6) VSQG - Very Small Quantity Generators and Transporters have reporting requirements similar to SQGs.

 (7) Full Compliance Evaluations (FCEs) (which typically include an on-site inspection) are required to be reported, while Partial Compliance Evaluations (PCEs) are not, unless the PCE was conducted as part of a negotiated CAA Compliance Monitoring Strategy (CMS) plan or was the discovery action for a High Priority Violation.

 (8) FCEs conducted, notices of violation issued, formal enforcement actions issued, and penalties assessed at federally-reportable minor sources are required to be reported.

 (9) State, local, and tribal agencies are required to report violation determinations that result from compliance evaluations at a federally-reportable facility in accordance with the FRV Policy (PDF)(619.43 KB, About PDF), and HPV Policy for more detail (PDF) (1.54 MB).  In addition, the results of stack tests and Annual Title V Compliance Certification reviews are required.

 (10) The CAA requires that sources report activities, such as emission/stack test results, annual compliance certifications, periodic monitoring reports, etc. These reports are reviewed by the permitting authority to determine compliance with permits and regulations. In some instances, the data reported might indicate intermittent compliance, emission exceedances, deficiencies, or deviations, which might result in a violation determination.  See the FRV Policy (PDF)(619.43 KB, About PDF), and HPV Policy for more detail (PDF) (1.54 MB).

 (11) RCRAInfo contains violations of federal RCRA regulations and statutes as well as violations of state hazardous waste management programs, which may be broader in scope or more stringent than the federal RCRA Subtitle C program.

 (12) Synthetic Minors (SMs) have a federally enforceable permit that keeps them below major source thresholds.

 (13) The "subset of minors" universe includes CAA minor sources that are:

  • Subject to CAA Part 61-National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutant Standards (NESHAPs),
  • Subject of a formal enforcement action, 
  • Part to a CMS plan, or 
  • Have an active HPV.

 (14) SNC stands for Significant Noncompliance and is used for CWA and RCRA. HPV stands for High Priority Violation and is used for CAA. Note that CWA non-majors that have SNC-level violations are shown in ECHO as "Category I" violators. For SDWA, EPA identifies serious violators using a point system explained in the December 8, 2009 Enforcement Response Policy for the Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) Program under the Safe Drinking Water Act and Implementation of (SWA) the Enforcement Targeting Tool.

 (15) If an emissions limit violation occurred for a pollutant "synthetically limited" below a major source threshold by a federally enforceable permit then the Revised Timely and Appropriate Enforcement Response to High Priority Violations (PDF) (1.54 MB, About PDF) policy would apply.

 (16) The Revised Timely and Appropriate Enforcement Response to High Priority Violations (PDF) (1.54 MB, About PDF) policy normally does not apply to minor sources but may if added by an agency as a "Discretionary" HPV.

 (17) The majority of SDWA compliance monitoring activities for Public Water Systems consists of the primacy agency comparing a PWS's sample analysis with maximum contaminant levels established by the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations. Drinking water primacy agencies also monitor compliance with treatment technique requirements, with monitoring and reporting requirements, and with requirements to provide information to the public at set intervals, primacy agencies are also required to complete and report an on-site review (or sanitary survey)) of each PWS' water source, facilities, equipment, operation and maintenance.  The eight areas evaluated for adequacy to deliver safe drinking water: water sources; treatment; distribution systems; finished water storage; pumps, pump facilities and controls; monitoring, reporting and data verification; water system management and operations; and operator compliance with state requirements.

(18) Facilities regulated under the CAA Stationary Source Program are subject to the minimum data reporting requirements outlined in the approved Air Stationary Source Compliance and Enforcement Information Reporting Information Collection Request (ICIS-Air ICR).  Please see January 31, 2020 Air Stationary Source Compliance and Enforcement Information Reporting Information Collection Request (ICIS-Air ICR) (DOCX)(129 KB) for more detail. 

Other Notes
EPA maintains a list of known data quality problems. To check whether there are known issues within particular states in regard to populating this information, please refer to these links on the ECHO page. State Review Framework program evaluation reports may also contain information about data quality within particular states. Typically, the authorized authority is either the state, EPA, tribal, or local government. In most cases, the state is the authorized authority. The authorized authority is primarily responsible for maintaining an inventory of regulated sources and doing core inspection, violation tracking and enforcement work. However, EPA may also conduct activities within states, so this table shows what data entry requirements EPA has for activities it performs in the states.
Acronyms - For a list of acronyms used on ECHO, see Acronyms.