SFIP provides environmental data about each facility, such as the number of inspections, compliance with federal regulations, enforcement actions taken, chemical releases, and spills. SFIP also includes background information on the location and production capacity of each facility, as well as information on the population of the surrounding area. Anyone with Internet access can log onto the SFIP website. SFIP information is also available in a hard copy format. SFIP does not rank or order the information, but users can view and sort the data in a number of ways.
Users can select standardized report formats or create their own analyses.
For example, they can check on a particular facility's record of compliance with environmental regulations, compare the performance of one facility to other similar facilities in that sector, look at data across an entire sector, or analyze the environmental performance of the facilities in a given state. EPA worked for three years to identify the facilities in SFIP and to assure the accuracy and usefulness of the data. As part of this effort, all facilities had an opportunity to review the data. Sixty-two percent of the facilities responded. EPA and the states then reviewed the responses and made changes to the data as appropriate.