The E-Enterprise Facility Integration Project developed shared services to streamline data reporting

As federal, state, and Tribal environmental programs evolved over the years, they developed separate and mostly disconnected facility data management systems that meet the needs of individual programs. As a result, any one data system has only partial environmental information at a given facility site. Each system often contains different information about the facility name, owner, location, boundaries, address, and site activities. The information in these systems is also often out-of-date, unsynchronized, and redundant. This situation can exist even within a single program office.

These conflicting data make it extremely difficult for the regulated community and information users to obtain an accurate picture of environmental issues and regulatory actions without having to contact multiple program offices.

The E-Enterprise Facility Integration Project launched a suite of shared facility services available for broader adoption by co-regulatory partners. The services enable partners to “push” (submit) facility data from their systems into a program record within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Facility Registry Service (FRS), and to query facility data in real time from FRS. The facility services can enable real-time sharing of facility information between partners’ systems and FRS.

History of the Facility Integration Project

Phase III (2018-2020): Facility Shared Services Development, Scoping Requirements for Unified “Facility Operational Status” Microservice

In Phase III, the Facility team launched the suite of shared facility services now available for broader adoption by co-regulatory partners. The team also updated the Shared Service Implementation Guide to reflect the new shared service developments and incorporate feedback received from facility stakeholders.

In parallel, the team worked in collaboration with federal, state, local, and Tribal environmental programs to scope the requirements for a potential unified “facility operational status” microservice to be leveraged by all environmental programs. Environmental programs have different definitions and uses for “facility status,” and this effort aimed to identify ways to build a microservice flexible enough to accommodate the unique requirements of all environmental programs.

Phase II (2016-2018): Facility User Stories, Facility Business Rules, and Initial Pilot of Facility Services

In Phase II, the Facility team conducted a State Master Data Management (MDM) Pilot with Rhode Island. The pilot implemented shared facility services in a test environment that enables joint facility data management between EPA and Rhode Island’s MDM systems.

The Facility team developed a draft Implementation Guide to assist with additional testing of the facility shared services. Providing information that other partners need to test the services with their systems, the Guide will be refined based on input from subsequent testing.

The team developed another living document, Facility Business Rules to Support Integration of Facility Information (1.0). These business rules will continue to be refined as the facility services incorporate additional fields, such as sub-facility data, and serve as the basis of scoping facility governance requirements. The Facility Integration Phase II Summary Report offers a high-level overview of Phase II accomplishments of the Facility Team.

Phase I (2015-2016): Analysis and Discovery

In Phase I, the Facility Team gathered stakeholder input to explore, identify, and test possible approaches for integrating or sharing facility information across programs and agencies. The IPT developed an understanding of current EPA, state, territorial, and Tribal efforts to integrate facility data, identify a shared set of goals for supporting more comprehensive facility integration, and identify and test options for achieving those shared goals. The Exchange Network website includes more information about Phase I.

Resources and Other Information

An integrated facility identification approach supports regulatory burden reduction, cross-program coordination, and the ability to correct data as it is reported. It can also:

• Streamline processes for regulators,
• Facilitate broader agency and public understanding of facilities and their regulatory history,
• Reduce reporting burdens for the regulated community, and
• Provide the regulated community, regulators, and the public more accurate and timely facility data.