The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) has developed a
web tool
that allows you to search for public information about AQMD-regulated
facilities (that is, facilities that are required to have a permit to
operate equipment that releases pollutants into the air). The system is called
FIND (Facility INformation Detail). There are several existing web-based applications on our
website that provide information about specific subject matter, however,
FIND makes
the data available to you in a more consolidated way to provide a "one-stop" location
for finding
facility information.
The information in FIND comes from our AQMD enterprise database. Regularly
scheduled updates are made to this data at least once per week. In the
interactive map, the AQMD data
is supplemented with baseline map data from TeleAtlas (February 2006) that
includes streets and school locations, and aerial imagery from the U.S.
Geological Service.
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What are FIND's Limitations?
Please keep in mind there are limitations to
FIND and ways to use it most effectively. As with any system that uses
data from many sources, we anticipate that users may find some information
that is not up-to-date, is missing, or is not accurate. Also keep in
mind that AQMD provides this information as a resource tool and uses its
best efforts to make it as useful as possible. AQMD does not, however,
take any responsibility for a person or company relying on the information
obtained through FIND; and does not have any control or responsibility for
how the information obtained is used by a person or company.
Some of the other key things to note include
the following:
-
Why are some facilities missing from the
results of a geographical search? Not all facilities with
permitted equipment have been geo-coded (that is, the facility address has
not been converted into geographical coordinates) and some have been
geo-coded erroneously. The amount and quality of the geo-coded data
will improve over time.
-
Why does an active facility have no active
permits or applications? There are several ways a facility can be
part of AQMD's enterprise database and having permitted equipment is
the most common. Examples of other types of active facilities include
facilities subject to Rule 2202 (On-Road Motor Vehicle Mitigation Options) or
facilities that have outstanding Emission Reduction Credits that can still be traded.
-
Why does FIND return a result of "NONE" for Notices to Comply (NCs) when there have been
notices issued for a particular facility? An NC is a "fix it"
ticket that is issued for minor administrative or paperwork violations, such
as having incomplete records or not posting a copy of the permit near the
equipment. If the recipient fixes the problem within two weeks, AQMD
does not take additional action. The FIND Compliance page returns only
the most recent NCs, those received since January 1, 2003, so older NCs will
not be found. If you need to find an older NC, you will need to
make a public records request.
-
How much information can I retrieve?
In order to maintain acceptable performance levels for everyone, the number
of rows you can retrieve is currently limited to 3000. If your request
exceeds this limit you will be asked to refine your search.
-
Browser Information. FIND has been
designed to run using Internet Explorer (version 5 or higher). For best
results, use a screen setting of 1024 X 768 pixels with a "Text Size"
setting of Medium (or Small).
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FIND provides non-confidential facility
information, organized by links to detail pages. You can access the detailed information for
each topic by clicking on the appropriate tab in the blue bar below
the title (see image below). Information available within each tab is
as follows:
Facility Details tab: facility name,
address, facility status (active, out-of-business, etc.) and standard industrial classification code.
Equipment List tab: application and permit
number, permit and application status, application and permit issue dates,
and equipment type and description. The application number links to an
Application Details page that includes a link to the permit image (if
available).
Compliance tab: history of notices of
violation and recent notices to comply (from January 2003 to present).
NOV and NC details can be viewed by clicking on the notice number.
Emissions tab: reported criteria and toxic
emissions by year and pollutant type for the years that data are currently
available in the database. Note that not all active facilities are
required to submit an annual emissions report, only those emitting more than
4 tons/year of any criteria pollutant (CO, NOx, ROG, SOx, or particulates)
or any amount of a toxic pollutant.
Hearing Board tab: case tracking data and imaged
documents.
The link on active tab will be underlined to
help you identify where you are in the detail pages (Facility Details in the
example image below).
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FIND provides access to consolidated public
information about regulated facilities. This information includes facility details,
equipment lists, compliance history, reported emissions, and hearing
board case details. This flexible inquiry module
provides you with three (3) different ways to
search for information.
Three Different Ways to Search
- You can search broadly by facility name, street
name, city or zip code and retrieve a list of facilities matching your
search criteria.
-
You can search specifically by Facility ID,
Application Number, Notice Number or Case Number for a single facility and go directly to the
detailed information.
- You can search for facilities and schools by location using an interactive
map.
You start your search on the main FIND page.
The fields on the left, which are active when the "Find a Facility" radio
button is highlighted, can be used to search broadly for a list of
facilities meeting certain criteria (similar names, located on the same
street or in the same city or zip code). The fields on the right,
which are each activated for a specific search item by separate radio
buttons, can
be used to search for information about a specific facility. The
search criteria for a specific facility are: Facility ID, Application
Number, Notice of Violation/Notice to Comply Number or Hearing Board Case Number.
Click
here for detailed instructions on how to search using text fields.
Use the link on the main FIND page ("Click
here for a detailed map search") to open the
interactive facility map to search geographically.
The interactive map displays AQMD regulated facilities as well as
local schools, streets, freeways and aerial images on a map of the South
Coast air basin. There are two ways to find facilities geographically.
(1) You can enter a specific street address
and buffer distance in the fields on the search tab on the left-hand side of
the map screen. (Note: In order to maintain acceptable performance
levels for everyone, the buffer distance from the selected address is
limited to five (5) miles. If your request exceeds this limit you will
be asked to refine your search.) The search will display an enhanced map
view and a list of facilities within the selected buffer distance. Clicking
on a listed facility will link back to the detailed facility
information. Or, (2) you can use the cursor to draw a rectangle around
the area you are interested in on the map itself. The map will be
automatically re-drawn to represent the area chosen.
Click
here for detailed instructions on
how to search using the interactive map.
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Additional Information
There are other inquiry modules on our website that allow public inquiry
searches by date range or target year. If you need to access your
information in this manner click on one of the links below
Click here to access the NOV/NC Public Inquiry SystemClick
here to access the Public Inquiry System for Emission Inventory
Data
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