EnvironmentalHQ
METHODOLOGY

How the score works.

A score from 0 to 100 summarizing the regulated pollution sources within five miles of an address. Built on public federal data, no lobbying, no hidden variables.

What feeds the score

Every facility and violation record comes from public US government datasets. We do not collect, estimate, or model pollution ourselves — we index what regulators already require companies to report.

FRSEPA

Facility Registry Service

Canonical facility identity and location across every federal environmental program.

TRIEPA

Toxics Release Inventory

Annual self-reported releases of 770+ toxic chemicals from industrial facilities.

RSEIEPA

Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators

EPA's own human-health hazard score combining toxicity, dose, and population exposure.

SEMSEPA

Superfund Enterprise Management System

Active and historical Superfund sites, including NPL-listed hazardous waste cleanup sites.

SDWISEPA

Safe Drinking Water Information System

Public water system boundaries and MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level) violations.

ECHOEPA

Enforcement and Compliance History Online

Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and RCRA violations and enforcement actions.

LUSTState agencies

Leaking Underground Storage Tanks

State-reported petroleum leaks from underground tanks. Coverage varies by state.

The composite score

The composite is a 0-to-100 number normalized against a national grid of baseline addresses, so a 50 means roughly the median US address for regulated exposure.

Scores are binned into five plain-English bands:

0–20LOW RISK

Few or no regulated sources nearby. Uncommon; typical of rural low-industry areas.

21–40MODERATE

A handful of sources, modest releases. Typical suburban reading.

41–65ELEVATED

Meaningful industrial presence or a flagged contamination site in range.

66–85HIGH RISK

Dense industrial clustering, significant TRI releases, or active Superfund sites.

86–100SEVERE

Sustained heavy releases or multiple NPL sites — warrants a professional Phase I ESA.

The four subscores

Alongside the composite, every result breaks down into four themed subscores so you can see what's driving the number.

Air

Toxic air releases within 5 miles weighted by RSEI hazard and distance decay.

TRIRSEIECHO (CAA)

Industrial

Count and intensity of active regulated industrial facilities nearby.

FRSTRIECHO

Water

Drinking water violations and surface-water discharge events affecting your address.

SDWISECHO (CWA)

Legacy

Superfund sites and leaking underground storage tanks within range.

SEMSLUST

Distance and hazard weighting

A refinery a quarter mile away matters more than one eight miles away. Contributions from each facility are weighted by:

What this is not

A screening tool. Not a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment. Not legal, medical, or real estate advice. A 30-second read that tells you whether to ask harder questions, not the final word.

Indoor air quality, radon, asbestos, lead paint, mold, and property-specific soil testing are outside the scope of federal open data and outside the scope of this score.

Demo mode notice

DEMO MODE

Scores shown today are deterministic synthetic results — not computed from live EPA data.

The ingestion pipeline for the datasets above is in active development. When real data goes live, this banner comes down and the methodology on this page becomes the literal algorithm behind every score.

LAST UPDATED 2026-04-20