WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the ECHO Clean Air Tracking Tool (ECATT), which serves as an interface and repository for Clean Air Act data that can be used to evaluate emissions at stationary sources of air pollution and analyze general air quality for the United States. ECATT is the first EPA tool to integrate data from multiple emissions inventories with enforcement and compliance data, Environmental Justice data, facility industry classifications, air monitoring station data, toxic risk data, and Clean Air Act program classifications.
“ECATT is a unique tool anyone can use to locate areas of high air pollution concentrations and to determine which facilities are the source of those pollutants,” said Larry Starfield Acting Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “This database will increase the public’s awareness and ability to react to high levels of hazardous air pollutants in their communities.”
ECATT has two main searches: the Air Monitoring Station search and the Emissions Screener search. The Air Monitoring Station (AMS) search provides data on air monitoring stations that measure ambient or outdoor concentrations of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) and Criteria Air Pollutants (CAPs). The search can be used to identify areas with high pollutant concentrations and higher potential for health impacts and identify the facilities emitting in those areas.
- Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs), also known as toxic air pollutants, are those pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer, other serious health effects (including reproductive effects or birth defects), or adverse environmental effects.
- Criteria Air Pollutants (CAPs) are six common air pollutants (particulate matter, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and lead) that have National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) set by the Clean Air Act.
The AMS search also incorporates AirToxScreen modeled data so users can identify areas with elevated cancer risk or higher potential for other health impacts and compare those areas to nearby emission concentrations measured by air monitors to identify potential risk hotspots. Users can screen facilities for further evaluation by identifying measured pollutant concentrations larger than the modeled amount.
The Emissions Screener search provides data on stationary sources regulated under the Clean Air Act. These data sets are reported to several EPA air emission inventory programs, including the National Emissions Inventory, the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, the Toxics Release Inventory, and the Clean Air Markets Division Acid Rain Program and Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. Users can analyze the data reported to these emissions inventories to identify top emitters and provide additional information related to the source, quantity and location of the emissions, and the specific pollutants being released. The search organizes emissions data by facility, industry, or pollutant. Through the facility report, users can access each facility’s Air Pollutant Report to view detailed emissions data.
Visit ECHO Clean Air Tracking Tool for more information about the tool and how to access it.
A short video tutorial is available to help users get started. Register for upcoming ECHO Clean Air Tracking Tool training.