What is the Environmental Monitoring Dashboard?
The Environmental Monitoring Dashboard (EMD) identifies industrial facilities (public & private) within the United States that have recorded levels of pollutants in their wastewater discharge that exceed their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permit allowance. In addition to the wastewater discharge violations, the EMD also details the compliance history, industry, address, and contact information for each facility. The purpose of the EMD is to help connect facilities that are violating their wastewater discharge permits with solutions providers.
Facility Information Table
NPDES ID
The NPDES ID is a unique identifier given to the facility by the Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, if present, the NPDES ID column is hyperlinked to the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) facility webpage.
Address
The street number, street name, city, state code, and ZIP code of the facility.
Facility Phone
The general phone number of the facility.
Facility Type
The facility type column indicates the ownership of the facility. Publicly owned treatment works (POTW) are facilities owned by public entities, whereas non-publicly owned treatment works (NON-POTW) are facilities owned by private entities.
MGD
The MGD indicates in millions, the gallons per day of wastewater discharge emitted by the facility. If the MGD is blank, this means that the MGD of the facility is not recorded by the EPA.
Designation
Facilities are classified as "Major" or "Minor" depending on the quantity, toxicity, and impact of pollutants included in their wastewater discharge. Additionally, facilities with a higher MGD are much more likely to be classified as "Major". For further details on classification, refer to this PDF.
Compliance Status
The compliance status refers to the current regulatory classification of an individual facility by the EPA. Below are the definitions for the different violation status types:
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Effluent - Non-monthly Average Limit - The facility has exceeded the non-monthly effluent restrictions established by a state or EPA on quantities, rates, and concentrations in wastewater discharges.
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Failure to Report DMR - Not Received - The EPA did not receive a Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) from the facility.
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Violation Identified - The facility has effluent, compliance schedule, permit schedule, or single-event violations in the current quarter.
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Compliance/Permit Schedule - Violations - An enforcement action has been issued, and the facility is not meeting its compliance schedule.
In Significant Non-Compliance (SNC)
The EPA classifies facilities to be in significant non-compliance depending on the severity, duration, and type of their violations.
Formal Enforcement Action (FEA) Count
A formal enforcement action is a written document from the EPA that mandates compliance and/or initiates a civil or administrative process or action. The formal enforcement action count is the number of formal enforcement actions taken against the facility within the past five years.
Informal Enforcement Action (FEA) Count
Informal enforcement actions typically represent written notices from the EPA to alleged violators before filing a civil or administrative complaint, order, or agreement against the facility. The informal enforcement action count is the number of informal enforcement actions taken against the facility within the past five years.
Quarters in Non-Compliance (Quarters in NC)
Count of the number of quarters, out of the last twelve official quarters (three years), in which the facility is considered either with violations identified, in Noncompliance (NC) status, in Significant Noncompliance (SNC), or High Priority Violation (HPV) status.
Discharge Violations Table
Pollutant
The pollutant refers to the individual contaminant that was measured within the wastewater discharge sample of an EPA-permitted facility.
Reported Units
The reported units are the units of volume used for the wastewater discharge sample.
Limit Value
The limit value is the amount of pollutant allowed in the facility wastewater discharge.
Reported Value
The reported value is the amount of the pollutant measured within the facility’s wastewater discharge.
Sample Type
The sample type indicates the measurement classification of the discharge test. “MIN”, “AVG”, “MAX” or “TTL” correspond to the smallest, average, largest, or total of the sample measurements taken within a reporting period.
Reported Date
The date that the wastewater discharge sample test results were recorded by the EPA.
Exceedance Percentage
Indicates as a percentage how much the facility reported value exceeded the permit value.