Summary of EPA Compliance & Enforcement Data Entry Requirements

Notes: This table is not official EPA guidance or policy, but rather a general summary to assist in data interpretation. The table above applies to "federally-defined" data fields in each database. Most databases provide states with the ability to define additional codes for tracking additional information. These codes are not used for federal data pulls for any category of facility. The table was compiled by the EPA Targeting and Evaluation Branch on 9/24/2001 and updated by the Information Utilization and Targeting Branch in May 2005.

(1) CWA Majors and Minors include only "individual" and "general" permits.

(2) For this table, "CAA-major" is defined as an EPA "federally-reportable" source. This includes CAA major sources with Title V permits, Synthetic Minor sources, and Federally Reportable Minor sources.

(3) TSD stands for Treatment, Storage and Disposal facility, and LQG stands for Large Quantity Generator.

(4) SQG stands for Small Quantity Generator.

(5) Water (CWA) and air (CAA) facility counts apply to active permits.

(6) Full Compliance Evaluations (generally more thorough inspections) are required to be reported, and Partial Compliance Evaluations are not.

(7) Violations under the Clean Water Act are determined primarily by facility submission of discharge monitoring reports (DMR), entry of this measurement data into the Permit Compliance System (PCS), and a subsequent computer comparison of the permitted limits to the actual monitoring data. Data entry requirements are that EPA and states enter permit limits and monitoring data into PCS for major facilities so that effluent (permit limit exceedence) and DMR non-reporting violation status can be determined. Other violations determined in PCS based on data entry by EPA and states are compliance schedule and reporting events, and single event violations.

(8) CAA violations at non-federally-reportable sources are only required if the violation leads to an enforcement action.

(9) Federal enforcement actions and penalties are entered into the facility record in the Air Facility System (AFS), PCS, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Information system (RCRAInfo) databases. This information is also entered into the Integrated Compliance Information System (ICIS). Reports shown in this Web site display both information. In some instances, the same case will not appear in both systems, and in other cases, the same case will be in both systems. ICIS provides information on a wider range of statutes and programs, but is limited to EPA data only.

(10) RCRAInfo contains violations of Federal RCRA regulations and statutes as well as violations of States’ Hazardous Waste Management Programs, which may be broader in scope or more stringent than the Federal RCRA Subtitle C program.