U.S. EPA ECHO Application
Visit U.S. EPA's ECHO Website to:
- Access the ECHO facility search page.
- Answer additional questions you have via the Frequently Asked Questions page.
- Learn more about the ECHO site.
- Learn more about the data used in ECHO.
The public comment period for ECHO has ended, but the comments U.S. EPA received about ECHO from stakeholders and the general public can be viewed on the ECHO Website.
Please Note: IDEM believes that the ECHO website can be a very useful tool for researching the compliance and enforcement histories of regulated facilities. However, the compliance status of facilities, as listed in ECHO, can be misleading. One frequent problem is that U.S. EPA and the states have different definitions of what constitutes a formal enforcement action, and of when such cases are resolved. For example, if a facility has ever been subject to an enforcement action, ECHO continues to show that facility as out of compliance until the enforcement case has been formally resolved by U.S. EPA's standards, and regardless of the presence or absence of current violations. Another problem is the small percentage of errors* in the system, that IDEM and U.S. EPA have been working with stakeholders to correct.
As you use the ECHO searchable database, please keep in mind that the site attempts to summarize complex issues. This may lead to misinterpretations.
In all, U.S. EPA reported only about 5,700 data errors among the over 800,000 sources/facilities listed in the ECHO database. Error ratios were as follows: wastewater (PCS) 32%, air (AFS) 32%, and hazardous waste (RCRAInfo) 36%.
What is ECHO?
Although similar information already was available online through U.S. EPA's EnviroFacts warehouse, ECHO represents the next generation of improved access to compliance and enforcement data in a more user-friendly format. Like EnviroFacts, the data in ECHO is provided to U.S. EPA by the states.
Enforcement Information Available From IDEM
In recent years, IDEM also has made increasing amounts of enforcement information available via the Internet, including a searchable enforcement database, a flowchart explaining the IDEM enforcement process, and material explaining the enforcement process. Or, you can contact one of the IDEM staff listed below.
Contact
For Questions About ECHO or About IDEM Compliance and Enforcement:
If you have questions about information in the IDEM Office of Enforcement searchable database, contact:
Donna Emanuel
demanuel at idem.IN.gov
(317) 233-5523
IDEM Data Stewards
If you have questions about data displayed in ECHO, or about error corrections, please contact one of the IDEM Data Stewards (staff responsible for coordinating with U.S. EPA to ensure that compliance and enforcement data on Indiana sources and facilities are as current as possible) please contact:.
Air Data
Judy Lombardo
jlombard at idem.IN.gov
(317) 234-1300
Water Data
Jeff EwickWater
jewick at idem.IN.gov
(317) 233-0676
Hazardous Waste Data
Jenny Ranck Dooley
jrdooley at idem.IN.gov
(317) 232-8925
Facilty Inspections
If you have questions about facilty inspections, please contact:
Air Compliance
Phil Perry
pperry at idem.IN.gov
(317) 232-8457
Water Compliance
Bruno Pigott
bpigott at idem.IN.gov
(317) 232-8655
Hazardous Waste Compliance
Bruce Kizer
bkizer at idem.IN.gov
(317) 308-3113
Enforcement
If you have enforcement-related questions, contact:
Air Enforcement
David McIver
dmciver at idem.IN.gov
(317) 233-8456
Water Enforcement
Mark Stanifer
mstanife at idem.IN.gov
(317) 232-8431
Hazardous Waste Enforcement
Nancy Johnston
njohnsto at idem.IN.gov
(317) 232-7207
Solid Waste Enforcement
Paul Higginbotham
phigginb at idem.IN.gov
(317) 233-5973
- Confined Feeding Operations
- Underground Storage Tanks
- Biosolids
Please Note:
- There are several levels of action that may be taken by the IDEM Office of Enforcement that may not be considered enforcement actions as U.S. U.S. EPA defines the term. Thus, persons viewing ECHO data could get the incorrect impression that IDEM has done nothing to bring a violator back into compliance.
- Since pending enforcement actions do not show up in ECHO, there is no indication that IDEM may be aware of violations, or that it intends to take action, even in cases where IDEM is aware of the problem and is preparing to act.
- Issuance of a Violation Letter could lead to a source returning to compliance. It is considered a first step in the IDEM enforcement process, and sometimes may be all that is necessary to return a source or facility to compliance. However, since a Violation Letter is not considered a formal action by U.S. EPA (or by IDEM) ECHO will continue to show that no action has been taken by IDEM.
- Issuance of a Notice of Violation (NOV) is considered by IDEM to be a formal action because it initiates the enforcement process, and ultimately leads to action that will "resolve" the case. But NOVs also are not counted as formal enforcement actions by ECHO. Thus, a violator may have received a NOV from IDEM, but it still would appear in ECHO that no action has been taken against the violator by IDEM, even though the process that will bring resolution to the matter has been started.
- As suggested immediately above, issuance of a NOV leads to either a negotiated "Agreed Order" or a unilateral "Commissioner's Order" which requires the violator to take actions to resolve the case.
- Once such an "order" has been signed by the IDEM commissioner, the case is considered resolved by IDEM. However, U.S. EPA does not consider cases resolved until all the work outlined in the order is completed, which in some instances could take years. Thus, because of differences in the way U.S. EPA and IDEM define "resolved", a source or facility could continue to be shown in ECHO as in Significant Non-Compliance, or as a High Priority Violator, even though the violations have been successfully corrected by the IDEM enforcement process.
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