Microproduct data guideintermediate

EPA Toxics Release Inventory

Facility-level toxic chemical release reports for building fenceline community monitors and environmental-justice screens.

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At a glance

Difficulty
Intermediate — some data preparation helps
Size
Medium · ≤1 GB
Formats
JSON, CSV
Access
API or Download
API key
Not required
Provider
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Updates
Annual
Data terms
U.S. Government public data / federal copyright guidance

From source to product signal

Test a product idea in four steps

Envirofacts exposes TRI facility tables through a REST URL. Start with one state and the first twenty facility rows. Reported pounds are self-reported waste-management quantities, not measured community exposure, and they are distinct from ECHO drinking-water compliance records.

1

Check the setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • A notebook environment such as Jupyter or Google Colab
  • An internet connection
2

Access the data

  1. 1.Read the Envirofacts Data Service API page and identify the TRI facility table.
  2. 2.Request a bounded row window for one state in JSON.
  3. 3.Keep facility identifiers, city, and coordinates before joining release quantities.
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3

Run the Python example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install pandas requests

import pandas as pd
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://data.epa.gov/dmapservice/tri.tri_facility/state_abbr/equals/RI/1:20/json",
    timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
facilities = pd.DataFrame(response.json())
facilities["retrieved_at_utc"] = pd.Timestamp.now(tz="UTC")
print(facilities.head())
4

Test a useful signal

Map reporting TRI facilities in one state

Test whether a short facility extract can support a local fenceline directory.

  1. 01Keep facility name, city, ZIP, and coordinates and drop closed sites when a closure flag is present.
  2. 02Count facilities by city and flag missing coordinates.
  3. 03Explain that TRI pounds are not exposure estimates and that thresholds exclude many smaller operations.

Dataset details

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is a government source. Last verified 2026-08-17. Temporal coverage: 1987-present.

Theme

Environment & Hazards

Domains

Environmental HealthPublic HealthRegulation

Data types

TabularEvent Data

Tasks

Safety MonitoringGeographic AnalysisCommunity Comparison

Geography

United States

Formats

JSONCSV

Provider

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Data terms

U.S. Government public data / federal copyright guidance