Abstract |
The Permit Compliance System (PCS) is an EPA national computerized management information system that records water-discharge permit data on more than 64,000 wastewater treatment facilities nationwide. This system automates entry, updating, and retrieval of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) data and tracks permit issuance, permit limits, monitoring data, and other data pertaining to facilities regulated under NPDES. There are approximately 49,000 industrial facilities and 15,000 municipal facilities regulated by NPDES. The first file on the tape, the Facility Address and Permit File, contains general facility and permit events (e.g., issuance and expiration dates, type of ownership code, SIC code, and location including longitude and latitude) for all active NPDES permitted facilities for the most recent year. The second file on the tape, the Current Effluent Limits File, contains detailed information describing each outfall for approximately 7100 major active permitted facilities and the associated outfall permit requirements for the current NPDES permit - such as pollutant name, permit limit values, and limit start and end dates - which indicate when a facility may discharge. For each permitted facility there may be multiple outfalls and thus multiple sets of pipe schedule data. Because effluent limits may cover a number of pollutants, for each set of pipe schedule data there may be multiple sets of parameter data. This data is updated twice a year. Major facilities have a design or actual flow of one million gallons per day or greater, a service population of 10,000 or greater, or a significant impact on water quality (i.e., with a potential for toxic discharge, located close to a drinking water intake, discharging into stressed receiving waters, or requiring advanced treatment). Municipal and non-municipal facilities not meeting the above requirements are categorized as minor. |
Availability Notes |
Also available: Enforcement Action National File, price $90; Compliance Schedule National File, price $90; Facility Inspection National File, price $90; each on one 3 1/2 in. HD diskette. Available on quarterly subscription Significant Non-Compliance List (for Microcomputers) order number SUB-5252, price $360. Single issues also available. Available in 9-track, EBCDIC character set tape. |