Your Environment
More Resources
It's not always easy to know where to get your questions answered. Here are our best information resources to help you find answers to your questions.
Find people
- EPA Employee directory
- The Region 5 Experts List : Find an expert on a particular topic and contact that person directly. You can search on a topic or someone's name.
- If you are a reporter, contact the Region 5 Media Relations staff.
- Region 5 Speakers Bureau : Request a speaker or science fair judge.
Send us questions or comments
- You can contact us by phone, fax, or e-mail. Use our online comment form to ask your question by e-mail. We'll forward it to the appropriate Region 5 staff person.
- Call the Region 5 Environmental Hotline at 800-621-8431 from 8:15am - 4:45pm Central time (312-886-2395 for callers outside IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, and WI) You can also send email to r5hotline [at] epa <dot> gov
- Maybe we've seen your question before; check our Frequent Questions (FAQs).
- There's a national list of hotlines
- Report an environmental violation
- Submit a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request
- Current public comment periods
- Public notices of proposed penalty orders or complaints for penalties
Find information
- Print and electronic publications.
- See if there are any meetings scheduled
- Library services
- Educational resources for students and educators
- Region 5 Environmental Education
- Visit the national EPA Information Sources page
- Major environmental laws
- Databases and software
- Glossary, abbreviations, acronyms
- USA.gov - the U.S. Government's official Web portal, lets you search all government sites at once
- GobiernoUSA.gov - Información oficial en español
Top things that you might think you'd find at US EPA...
- Endangered species - US Fish and Wildlife Service
- Energy conservation - Energy Star or Energy Information Administration
- Alternative energy sources - US Department of Energy
- Trees - USDA Forest Service
- Weather - see the National Weather Service
- EPA does work with oceans and marine ecosystems, but so do NASA and NOAA
- Noise complaints are handled at the local level of government
- Trash disposal and recycling programs are managed at the local level of government
- Burning trash is handled at the local level of government
- Labeling of products as recycled: the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection regulates this - see Complying with the Environmental Marketing Guides or Eco-Speak: A User’s Guide to the Language of Recycling