2024 State of Environmental Compliance: Benchmarking Report

Based on analysis of thousands of data points from the EPA’s RCRAInfo and ECHO databases and accompanied with regulatory expert comments, the 2024 State of Environmental Compliance: Benchmarking Report is your key to understanding your performance against your industry peers.

Overview

The 2024 Environmental Compliance Benchmarking Report aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of environmental compliance across various industries, leveraging data from the RCRAInfo and EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) databases. The report categorizes industries using NAICS codes and offers insights into regulatory compliance performance, violations, and significant non-compliance events.

Selected Stats

45.21%

of violations received by Manufacturing

69.74%

of violations are related to Water non-compliance

$65,603

average penalty per facility for facilities with a violation

Key Findings

Retail has the highest overall number of generators, primarily due to the classification of pharmaceutical waste as hazardous.
Manufacturing, Oil, Gas, Mining, and Utilities sectors have the highest concentration of violations.
Significant non-compliance events are most prevalent in Manufacturing, followed by Third Party Logistics.
Water-related violations are disproportionately high across all industries, aligning with the EPA’s focus on water compliance through recent enforcement initiatives.

Questions to ask yourself:

How many regulated facilities do you have?
What is the makeup of my generators: Very Small Quantity Generators (VSQGs), Small Quantity Generators (SQGs) or Large Quantity Generators (LQGs)? VSQG, SQG, LQGs?
Is my program on par with the averages for my industry?
Does my organization have the expected make up of LQG, SQG, and VSQGs per industry average?
Are we outperforming industry averages in any areas? If so, this is a great chance to show the impact of all the environmental programs you are running to management and the business.
Are we underperforming in any areas? If so, are corrective actions or new projects warranted?