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Analyze Trends: State Air Dashboard
The Clean Air Act (CAA) authorizes EPA to regulate air pollution from stationary sources like chemical plants, utilities, and steel mills. EPA delegates much of their CAA authority to state, local and tribal agencies. To manage the national CAA stationary source compliance monitoring and enforcement program, EPA requires that delegated agencies regularly report data on the type of facilities within their jurisdiction and activities conducted, such as, compliance evaluations, compliance determinations, and enforcement actions. The dashboards provide an easy-to-use summary of activities to answer questions like: which facilities are regulated, how many have been evaluated, and how many have alleged violations and have been subject to enforcement.
State counts may include facilities where a local control agency has been delegated the authority to enforce the Clean Air Act. Therefore, activities conducted by the local control agency are included in the state counts. Visit the project homepage, or watch the State Dashboard and Comparative Maps tutorial.
See critical information about the data and state program assessment. Note: The State Dashboard "Export" option does not allow export into Excel 2007; the Excel 2003 option triggers an error message in newer versions of Excel, but clicking "Yes" allows the file to open.
Due to the transition between CAA national data management systems, the Performance View of the Air Dashboard has not been updated since January 31, 2015. EPA is reviewing options for displaying more recent data. Differences in Activity View data between FY14 and FY15 may be apparent due to the different data sources – the legacy data system and the current system. Additionally, some states are still establishing complete data transfer connections to the current system, in which case their full data sets may not yet be represented in ECHO.
State Review Framework
The State Review Framework (SRF) is a tool used by EPA to consistently assess each state and local agencies' enforcement of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and Hazardous Waste laws; and the SRF tracks recommendations made by EPA for state and local agencies to improve their compliance and enforcement programs.
Data Download and Data Corrections
Common Questions
Air Quality in State
Other Resources
- Health and Environmental Agencies of U.S. States and Territories
- ECHO Multimedia Facility Data Search
- ECHO Air Facility Data Search
- Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- EPA and State Enforcement Action Map (release date TBD)
- Ultraviolet (UV) Index
About the Data and Assessing State Performance
State performance is a complex and difficult matter to analyze and explain. Data alone cannot provide a complete picture of performance. Many states have issues with data completeness and accuracy, and without investigation and program knowledge, data can be misleading or misinterpreted. Often, there is important context around data that must be taken into account to provide an accurate picture. For example, not all activities and violations may be reported, some states are not authorized to run programs, current year data may still be in the process of being reported, and states may have alternative inspection plans. EPA uses data, like the information here, as a starting point for assessing state performance, but not as the sole measure of performance. More in-depth program reviews (see State Review Framework Reports) are used to identify needed state program improvements. While file reviews and management discussions can add to our understanding, the many layers of context and information make it difficult to portray performance in a consistent and transparent way.
Caveats
Activities and Violations
Data shown in the State Dashboards are based on data reported to EPA and may not reflect all compliance monitoring/inspections, enforcement or the full extent of noncompliance within a state. State environmental agencies may have more information on activities and noncompliance within their state on their agency websites. Links to state agency websites are provided below each State Dashboard.
Authorization
Some states/territories do not have authorization/delegation to enforce any or all regulations implemented under the CAA, CWA and RCRA. In these instances, when State is selected as the implementing Agency, it may appear that no activity was conducted. Activity in these states/territories may be displayed when EPA is selected as the implementing Agency. Where this occurs is:
- Air: American Samoa, Guam and Northern Mariana Islands
- Hazardous Waste: Alaska, American Samoa, Guam, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
- Water: Alaska, American Samoa, Guam, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Puerto Rico
Current Year
The most recent federal fiscal year may not show a complete data set because it has not yet been verified or the year is not completed.