Contractors should monitor info agency posts on website for public use
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides public access to industry regulatory compliance and enforcement data online. EPA released a new State Clean Air Act Dashboard (State Air Dashboard) that is available to the public via the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) Web page. The dashboard, which is focused on stationary sources only, provides information such as how many inspections were performed, how may violations were identified, and how many enforcement actions were taken. EPA plans to update the RCRA, CWA and SDWA dashboards to this new format over the next 6-8 months.
The ECHO website is updated frequently based on agency priorities and user requests. Below are several other new features that EPA has added to ECHO over the past couple months.
- Links to EPA Inspection Reports and Enforcement Documents Added (February 2020)
- Fiscal Year 2020 Data Downloads (January 2020)
- Biosolids Annual Report Data Search Added (November 2019)
- Search for EPA Cases by Pollutant (October 2019)
- NPDES DMR Non-Receipt Status Search (October 2019)
All new ECHO features are described on EPA’s site, click here. You can register for upcoming ECHO webinars and view recorded webinars anytime on the ECHO Training page. Check out the updated ECHO Tool Guide to better understand the site’s features.
Public Access to Your Environmental Inspection and Compliance Data
AGC members may want to consider assigning a representative to access and monitor what EPA is posting about their facilities. As more information on construction sites gets uploaded to ECHO, it will become increasingly important for companies to take steps to monitor and correct any erroneous data.
As described above, ECHO can be used to display trends in compliance and enforcement data through dashboards, maps, and charts. Some AGC members already are using ECHO to analyze and benchmark themselves against other regulated facilities in their region. Similarly, construction firms can use ECHO to monitor compliance across their own jobsites/facilities. Project owners and investors may use ECHO to factor environmental performance into their decisions.
For more information, contact AGC’s Leah Pilconis at leah.pilconis@agc.org.