Analyze

From Tu (2020): "In Taiwan, the community air-monitoring projects often have difficulties in identifying the specific pollution sources due to the historical patterns of industrial development that tend to set up dense clusters of different factories in the industrial parks along the west coast (Liu 2012).3 The agglomeration of polluting facilities complicates pollution identification that further creates significant knowledge gaps between the predicted emission, the actual emission, and the community sensory experiences throughout the policy process. This pattern of development has somehow constrained Taiwan community air monitoring to target the specific polluters."

Facilities and enforcement case searches can both easily be limited by geography (EPA region, city, state, zip code, county, proximity to national border, and watershed). The tool also automatically produces maps that allow users to see the distribution of facilities across space.

This database uses a broad variety of data. Most of the data is collected by the EPA itself. Users are able to search for facilities regulated under the following systems:

• Risk Management Plan (RMP)
• Toxic Release Inventory (TRI)
• National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) - under the Clean Water Act
• ICIS-Air
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) - hazardous waste
• Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)
• Superfund Enterprise Management System (SEMS)
• Clean Air Markets Division Business System (CAMDBS)
• Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP)
• Emissions Inventory System
• Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

When looking at individual facilities, the database provides detailed facility reports, enforcement case reports (civil and criminal), air pollutant reports, effluent charts, pollutant loading reports, effluent limit exceedances reports, CWA program area reports, permit limits reports, and other facility documents as available. The database provides easy ways to download and map the data. The database also allows users to narrow facilities searches using demographic data from EJScreen (also maintained by the EPA), the U.S. Census, and tribal land data.

Users can also look for information on federal administrative and judicial enforcement actions through an enforcement case search.

ECHO is maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Its purpose is to provide comprehensive information about all of the facilities regulated by the EPA. It is connected directly to the EPA's internal enforcement record system, so information is currrent.

The Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) Database, maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) Database. 2022. Available online: https://echo.epa.gov/ (accessed on 17 March 2022).