Raw Data
The 1,123 municipal solid waste landfills depicted on the map represent approximately 92% of all municipal landfills in America. 1,120 of the landfills included in this map self-report their greenhouse gas emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which is publicly accessible via the Environmental Protection Agency's Enforcement and Compliance History Online database.
Data Summary (Last Updated: March 2024)
| Number | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| All Facilities in Dataset | 1,122 | |
| Facilities with Current Violations (Q4 2023) | 230 | 20% |
| Facilities with Current Multiple Violations (Q4 2023) | 13 | 1% |
| Facilities with Current Significant Violations (Q4 2023) | 90 | 8% |
| Facilities with Current Multiple Significant Violations (Q4 2023) | 2 | 0.20% |
| Facilities with Historic Violations (2021-2023) | 403 | 36% |
| Facilities with Historic Multiple Violations (2021-2023) | 48 | 4% |
| Facilities with Historic Significant Violations (2021-2023) | 168 | 15% |
| Facilities with Historic Multiple Significant Violations (2021-2023) | 6 | 1% |
| Facilities with Formal Enforcement Actions (2019-2023) | 115 | 10% |
| Facilities with Informal Enforcement Actions (2019-2023) | 254 | 23% |
| Facilities with Multiple Formal Enforcement Actions (2019-2023) | 46 | 4% |
| Facilities with Violations in Environmental Justice Communities (2021-2023) | 164 | 15% |
| Facilities with Significant Violations in Environmental Justice Communities (2021-2023) | 80 | 7% |
| Facilities with Violations in Neighborhoods with a Majority of Residents Are People of Color (2021-2023) | 40 | 4% |
| Facilities with Violations in Neighborhoods with a Majority of Households Are Low-Income (2021-2023) | 20 | 2% |
| Facilities with Violations in Indian Country (2021-2023) | 2 | 0.20% |
| Facilities with Violations in Nonattainment and/or Maintenance Areas (2021-2023) | 169 | 15% |
| Facilities with Violations and Potentially Underestimated Emissions Based on Satellite Data (2019) | 21 | 29% |
| Facilities with Annual Emissions Greater than 2.5Gg Located in a Nonattainment Area (2022) | 94 | 8% |
| Facilities with Annual Emissions Greater than 2.5Gg Located in an Extreme Ozone Nonattainment Area (2022) | 9 | 1% |
Violations and degree of violations are measured against standards set by the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Landfill violation and enforcement action data comes from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online database. Environmental justice data comes from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool “EJScreen.” Satellite data comes from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite.
The point source emissions data is sourced from Carbon Mapper, https://data.carbonmapper.org. The use of Carbon Mapper data for non-commercial purposes is subject to a Modified Creative Commons Share Alike 4.0 license. Providers include ASU GDCS GAO and NASA JPL AVIRIS-NG. Available here.
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