Finding Information on Regulated Facilities

Ohio EPA, Division of Hazardous Waste Management does not currently have searchable databases available online. However, three of U.S. EPA’s online tools allow you to search for environmental information about companies regulated by EPA:

The Office of Environmental Information's (OEI) Envirofacts Data Warehouse and My Environment Web pages allow users to obtain information on regulated facilities and display it in a text or graphical format.

The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) maintains ECHO, the Enforcement and Compliance History Online.   Multi-year historical compliance information for the Air, Water, and Hazardous Waste programs is available for individual facilities as well as Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data.

These Web sites include hazardous waste data drawn from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Information System (RCRAInfo).  RCRAInfo is a national program management system that contains information about hazardous waste handlers. Ohio EPA enters data received from sources such as notification of regulated waste activity forms, hazardous waste inspections, monitoring and enforcement, permitting, closure and post-closure data directly into RCRAInfo.  On a monthly basis, an extract of national data is provided to OEI and OECA for population of their public Web sites. 

We encourage you to review the information on these Web sites. If you identify problems, each of the Web sites has a process that allows you to notify U.S. EPA and the state of possible error(s). 

To update basic information about your facility (e.g., name, generator status, ownership), please submit a new  Notification of Regulated Waste Activity Form to Ohio EPA, Division of Hazardous Waste Management.

Lists on the Division of Hazardous Waste Management's Web site that may be of interest include:

• Commercial Facilities Accepting Hazardous Waste in Ohio
• Facilities in the Cessation of Regulated Operations (CRO) program
• Universal Waste Handlers
• Used Oil Handlers

To obtain Hazardous Waste Annual Report information, call the Division of Hazardous Waste Management at (614) 644-2621.  Facility-specific reports for odd-numbered years only (i.e., Biennial Reports) are available in Envirofacts (see below).  Hazardous Waste Reports are required to be submitted by Large Quantity Generators and facilities that have a permit to treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste.

U.S. EPA's Databases and Software Web page contains an extensive list of the reference information available on their Web site.  Listed below is information about the three U.S. EPA Web pages mentioned above.

Envirofacts Data Warehouse

 Helpful Instructions for Envirofacts Searches for RCRA Data

There are several types of searches you can do with Envirofacts.  Because the facility identification information may not be entered in the system in the way you expect, don't be too broad or too specific in your initial query.  If the search does not provide you with the information the first time, try a different type of search.

• Click on the orange Waste symbol under Topic Searches.
• In the RCRAInfo section, enter geographical search criteria or click on the words Full Search to enter search criteria.  The following directions are for a Full Search.
• On the query screen, you can search to find a specific EPA ID number, facility name or address:
  • Query by EPA ID number
    • Under Facility Selection you will need to change Facility Identification to Handler ID by clicking on the drop down list and selecting Handler ID.
    • Enter a partial or complete EPA ID Number in the Facility Identification Option Value box.
    • Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.  For the initial query it is recommended that you keep the defaults of Search Values = "Use RCRAInfo facility information only" and Output Selection = "Basic Facility Information".
    • Click on Search.
       
  • Query by Facility Name
    • Under Facility Selection the default is Facility Name.
    • Enter a partial or complete Facility Name in the Facility Identification Option Value box. Tip: instead of using the facility’s exact name, enter a part of the name that is specific (e.g., do not use "Company" or "The") and choose the “Containing” radio button.
    • Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.  For the initial query it is recommended that you keep the defaults of Search Values = "Use RCRAInfo facility information only" and Output Selection = "Basic Facility Information".
    • Click on Search.
       
  • Query by Address

    When searching for an address, never use an exact address.  There could be several different reasons why you would not be able to bring up an exact match: the address itself could contain a typo; it may have Rd or Road instead of St or Street; abbreviations could be different (SW vs S W) than what you expect, or the city could be entered as a suburb name rather than the bigger city (e.g., Cleveland Heights vs. Cleveland). Since any one of these things could cause a problem while searching by address, it is a good idea to do more than one search if the first attempt is unsuccessful.  Start simply with street name and city as in the instructions below:

    • Under Geography Search enter the street name (e.g., Main) then click the radio button for “Containing”. (You do not need to enter anything under Facility Selection.)
    • Type in the city name where indicated and enter the two character State abbreviation.
    • Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.  For the initial query it is recommended that you keep the defaults of Search Values = "Use RCRAInfo facility information only" and Output Selection = "Basic Facility Information".
    • Click on Search.

    If the search does not retrieve the address you are trying to find, go back to the Query Form and this time along with the street name, populate the county or zip code rather than the city. If after performing these searches, there is still no match, you should assume that the address is not in the system.  However, please take into consideration that Envirofacts posts information from RCRAInfo on a monthly basis so if the ID number is new it may not be in Envirofacts yet.  You can determine when the last data pull was by reading the date after the statement "Results are based on data extracted on" near the top of the Query Results.  If you have a question or problem please call the Division of Hazardous Waste Management at (614) 644-2621 for help.

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My Environment

My Environment  is a powerful Web-based mapping tool that provides a wide range of federal, state and local information about environmental conditions and features.  After choosing a location of interest, My Environment will provide the following:

• An interactive map shows the location of regulated facilities, monitoring sites, water bodies, population density, perspective topographic views and so much more with hotlinks to state/federal information about these items of interest.
• Provides selected geographic statistics and downloadable files about your area of interest.
• Links to information from federal, state and local partners on environmental issues like air and water quality, watershed health, Superfund sites, fish advisories, impaired waters and local services working to protect the environment in your area.

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 Enforcement and Compliance History Online

Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) provides integrated compliance and enforcement information for thousands of regulated facilities nationwide. The site allows you to find facility-level inspection, violation, enforcement action and penalty information for the past three years.  Facilities regulated under the Clean Air Act (CAA) Stationary Source Program, Clean Water Act (CWA), National Pollutant Elimination Discharge System (NPDES), and RCRA are included.  ECHO reports provide a snapshot of a facility’s environmental record, showing dates and types of violations and the state or federal government’s response.  ECHO reports also contain demographic information from the national census. An online error reporting process allows users to alert U. S. EPA and the states to possible errors. The Web address is: www.epa-echo.gov/echo.

Click on "Hazardous Waste Data" to search for information about RCRA facilities.  A basic search using minimal criteria is recommended as stated above for Envirofacts.  If ECHO cannot find the facility and you're fairly certain the site is regulated under the air, water, or RCRA programs, scroll down the selection criteria screen and look for boxes checked by default that may be preventing a match from being found.  Uncheck the boxes and try again.

The currency of the ECHO information is indicated in the main screen by the hyperlinked text under "Data updated:".  Click on the hyperlink to see the current data pull date and the date of the next anticipated pull date, by data system.

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