EPA ECHO Scraper: Facility Violations, Inspections and Penalties

This EPA ECHO scraper gives you the environmental compliance record of regulated facilities in the United States: refineries, chemical plants, power stations, water systems, waste handlers and factories. One row per facility shows its compliance status, whether it is a significant violator today, how many of the last 12 quarters it spent in violation, how many inspections and enforcement actions it had, the penalties paid, and the community around it. A concern score from 0 to 100 puts the facilities that need attention first.

Two more modes go deeper. The facility report returns the full history of a plant: inspections, formal actions, notices, drinking water violations, toxic releases, hazardous waste and the people living within a mile. The enforcement cases mode returns federal civil and criminal cases with the penalties, the settlement dates and the law behind them.

Environmental consultants, ESG analysts, insurers, lenders, real estate buyers, journalists, lawyers and community groups use it for due diligence and monitoring.

What can you do with this EPA ECHO scraper?

• List the facilities of a state, county, city, ZIP code or industry with their compliance status
• Find significant violators and facilities in violation for many quarters
• Rank facilities by penalties paid in the last five years
• Find major facilities that have not been inspected for years
• Screen by community: percent minority and low income near the plant
• Check a company by name across all its sites
• Get the full inspection and enforcement history of one facility
• See toxic releases and hazardous waste history by year
• Follow federal civil cases and penalties by state, law and date
• Export to CSV or Excel, or send changes to Slack and your own tools

What data can you extract from EPA ECHO?

Mode	One row is	Highlights
Facilities and compliance	One facility	Name, registry id, address, county, EPA region, coordinates, active and major flags, federal and tribal flags, industry codes and names, programs (air, water discharge, hazardous waste, drinking water, toxic releases, greenhouse gases), compliance status per program, significant violator flag, current violation flag, quarters in noncompliance in total and by program, effluent exceedances, quarter by quarter history, inspections in five years, last inspection and days since, informal and formal actions, total penalties and by program, last penalty, enforcement cases, toxic releases, greenhouse gas tons, population density, percent minority, percent below low income, concern score and flags in words, link to the official report
Detailed facility report	One facility	Permits and industries, summary per law (inspections, status, quarters in violation, actions, penalties), inspection list, formal actions, enforcement cases with settlements, informal notices, drinking water violations with actions, toxic release history, hazardous waste history, watersheds, community demographics within a mile
Enforcement cases	One federal case	Case number and name, category, status, law and section, lead agency, filing, lodging, settlement and closing dates, days from filing to settlement, federal and state penalties, total penalty, supplemental project cost, compliance action cost, cost recovery, outcome, court and justice department docket, link

How to scrape EPA ECHO

1. Choose Facilities and compliance, Detailed facility report or Enforcement cases.
2. Add at least one filter: a state, county, city, ZIP code, company name or industry code.
3. Optionally keep only major facilities, significant violators or facilities with penalties above a limit.
4. Set Max Items and click Start.
5. Export the dataset as CSV, Excel or from the Apify console.
6. Take the registry ids you care about and run the detailed facility report for them.

Input example

{
  "mode": "facilities",
  "states": ["TX"],
  "sicCodes": ["2911"],
  "majorOnly": true,
  "onlySignificantNoncompliance": true,
  "maxItems": 50
}

Facility output example

{
  "facilityName": "Buckeye Texas Processing",
  "registryId": "110064647379",
  "city": "Corpus Christi",
  "state": "TX",
  "industry": "2911: Petroleum Refining",
  "isMajor": true,
  "complianceStatus": "Significant Violation",
  "significantNoncompliance": true,
  "quartersInNoncompliance12": 9,
  "inspectionsLast5Years": 3,
  "lastInspectionDate": "2026-05-06",
  "formalActionsLast5Years": 4,
  "totalPenaltiesUsd": 260640,
  "percentMinority": 73.6,
  "concernScore": 72,
  "concernFlags": ["Significant noncompliance now", "9 of the last 12 quarters in noncompliance", "Penalties of $100,000 or more in 5 years", "4 formal enforcement actions in 5 years"]
}

Enforcement case output example

{
  "caseNumber": "HQ-2023-0001",
  "caseName": "Enterprise Products GP, LLC",
  "category": "Judicial",
  "primaryLaw": "CAA",
  "dateFiled": "2026-09-29",
  "settlementDate": "2026-09-29",
  "federalPenaltyUsd": 7000000,
  "leadAgency": "EPA"
}

How much does it cost to scrape EPA ECHO?

You pay per result: $23 per 1,000 rows plus a tiny start fee. The free plan returns up to 10 rows per run. A detailed facility report is one row per facility, even with long histories inside.

Tips for better results

• The source refuses searches that return millions of records. Always add a state, and add a county, city, ZIP code, company name or industry code to narrow it.
• Sorting and filters are applied to the facilities read in the first part of the search, up to the scan limit (20,000 by default). Narrow the search or raise the limit to cover everything.
• The concern score is a screen built from public fields: significant violation, current violation, high priority air violations, quarters in noncompliance, penalties, formal actions and major facilities without inspections. It is not a legal finding.
• Penalties and counts cover about five years. Quarter histories cover three years.
• Industry codes work as four digit SIC codes, for example 2911 for refining and 4911 for electric utilities.
• One company has many facilities. Search the name, then group the rows by company in your spreadsheet.
• Percent minority and income are measured around the facility. Use them as a first screen for environmental justice questions.
• A schedule every month with the significant violators filter gives you a list of new problem sites.

Who uses EPA ECHO data?

• Consultants and lenders run environmental due diligence.
• ESG analysts and insurers score companies and sites.
• Real estate and industrial buyers check a site and its neighbors.
• Journalists and community groups investigate polluters.
• Lawyers research the record of a defendant.

Automate and connect

Schedule the Actor every month and send new violators to Slack, Google Sheets, Zapier, Make or n8n, or trigger a webhook when a run ends.

FAQ

Do I need an account or a login? No. The Actor works without any login.

What is a registry id? The 12 digit number the EPA uses to identify a facility across its programs. It appears in every facility row.

What does significant violator mean? A facility with serious violations that the EPA tracks with priority. It is a status of the agency, not a verdict of a court.

Why does a facility show no penalties? Many facilities have none. Penalties come from formal enforcement actions in the last five years.

Can I search by company? Yes. Use the facility or company names field. Facilities are named after the site, so try the common spelling and a short part of the name.

How current is the data? The EPA refreshes each program on its own schedule, from weekly to quarterly.

Is this legal advice? No. It is public information. Check the official report and ask a professional before you act on it.

Legal note

This Actor collects information that is publicly visible on the website. Check the source site's terms and your local rules before using the data.

Support

Missing a field or found a bug? Open an issue from the Actor page.