Provenance audit of every environmental layer currently on the map, as of 2026-08-12. Each layer states its source universe and inclusion rule, whether coverage is genuinely nationwide, the version the records came from, how precise the location is, what the source cannot tell us, and what a single record actually is. None of these layers is a measurement of anyone’s exposure, and proximity to any of them is not evidence of a health effect.
Regulatory recordPartial coverage249,044 published records
FracFocus hydraulic-fracturing disclosures
FracFocus registry — Ground Water Protection Council / Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission
- Source universe
- The FracFocus bulk CSV archive (DisclosureList), one row per hydraulic-fracturing job disclosure filed by an operator.
- Inclusion rule
- Every disclosure in the archive that carries a usable surface latitude and longitude.
- Coverage
- Partial coverage — 27 states are represented. Disclosure is mandatory in some states, voluntary in others, and was not required nationally before 2011, so absence of a disclosure never means no fracturing took place.
- Record date / version
- FracFocus bulk CSV archive downloaded 2026-08-12 · job dates 1955–2026 (a handful of source date typos remain as filed)
- Location precision
- Operator-reported surface location of the well, not the stimulated interval; a horizontal well may be fractured a mile or more from the point shown.
- What one record is
- An administrative status held by a regulator. It describes paperwork, not a measurement of what is in the air, soil or water.
- Source limitations
- Self-reported by the operator and never independently verified. It records that a fracturing job was disclosed — not chemical volumes reaching anyone, not an emission, not an exposure, and not a health effect.
- Official source
- https://fracfocus.org/data-download
Publisher status categories, preserved verbatim
- Disclosures on federal land or minerals18,045
- Disclosures on tribal land or minerals1,842
Audit correction This is the only layer in the Atlas that identifies hydraulic fracturing, and it does so only where an operator filed. It must not be read as a count of fractured wells, and the oil & gas well layer must not be relabelled from it.
Regulatory recordPartial coverage242,266 published records
Oil & gas wells
U.S. Department of Homeland Security — HIFLD Open (compiled from state oil & gas regulators)
- Source universe
- A national compilation of well surface locations assembled from individual state oil & gas regulator files.
- Inclusion rule
- Every well record in the compilation that carries a usable surface coordinate. Wells the compilation records as non-active, plugged or abandoned are published in a separate layer.
- Coverage
- Partial coverage — 51 of 51 state services answered, but state attribution is missing on most published rows, so per-state completeness cannot be asserted. Each contributing state maintains its own file on its own schedule.
- Record date / version
- HIFLD Open nationwide response, 2026-08-12
- Location precision
- Surface location as published by the state regulator. Point precision varies by state; some states publish a permit or lease centroid rather than a surveyed wellhead.
- What one record is
- An administrative status held by a regulator. It describes paperwork, not a measurement of what is in the air, soil or water.
- Source limitations
- Well status, update cadence and attribute definitions differ by state and are not harmonised. Historic wells drilled before state record-keeping are largely absent. Nothing in this file describes completion technique.
- Official source
- https://hifld-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com/
Publisher status categories, preserved verbatim
- PRODUCING WELL159,286
- NON-ACTIVE WELL61,516
- UNKNOWN WELL16,275
- STORAGE / MAINTENANCE / OBSERVATION WELL3,724
- WELL DEVELOPMENT1,465
Audit correction These records must not be described as fracking or hydraulically fractured wells. The source carries no completion-technique field. Hydraulic fracturing is only identifiable where an operator filed a FracFocus disclosure, which is a separate, self-reported and incomplete layer.
Regulatory recordPartial coverage984 published records
Non-active / plugged wells
U.S. Department of Homeland Security — HIFLD Open (compiled from state oil & gas regulators)
- Source universe
- The same national well compilation, restricted to wells a regulator records as no longer producing.
- Inclusion rule
- Rows whose regulator-published status indicates plugged, abandoned or permanently non-active.
- Coverage
- Partial coverage — Split out of the well compilation; state attribution is incomplete on published rows.
- Record date / version
- HIFLD Open nationwide response, 2026-08-12
- Location precision
- Surface location as published by the state regulator; precision varies by state.
- What one record is
- An administrative status held by a regulator. It describes paperwork, not a measurement of what is in the air, soil or water.
- Source limitations
- Regulatory status at the published date only. It says nothing about current physical site condition, integrity or emissions. Orphaned wells predating state records are largely undocumented.
- Official source
- https://hifld-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com/
Facility recordNationwide63,822 published records
EPA FRS / TRI facilities
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Facility Registry Service
- Source universe
- EPA's master registry of facilities and places that are known to at least one federal environmental programme, including the flag identifying facilities that report to the Toxics Release Inventory.
- Inclusion rule
- Registry entries with a usable coordinate, retrieved per state and merged.
- Coverage
- Nationwide — 51 of 51 state services answered.
- Record date / version
- EPA Envirofacts / FRS nationwide response, 2026-08-12
- Location precision
- EPA-published facility coordinate. FRS coordinates carry mixed collection methods, from GPS survey to address geocoding.
- What one record is
- A place that exists and is identified by the publisher. Presence only.
- Source limitations
- Registry presence only. Activity that no federal programme regulates is simply absent, so a blank area is not a clean area. A TRI flag means the facility files reports; it is not a quantity and not an exposure.
- Official source
- https://www.epa.gov/frs
Regulatory recordPartial coverage22,314 published records
EPA RCRA hazardous-waste handlers
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — RCRAInfo via ECHO
- Source universe
- Facilities recorded in RCRAInfo as generating, transporting, treating, storing or disposing of hazardous waste.
- Inclusion rule
- Handler records with a usable coordinate, retrieved per state.
- Coverage
- Partial coverage — 50 of 51 state services answered at the audit date; one state service did not respond and is queued for re-run.
- Record date / version
- EPA ECHO / RCRAInfo nationwide response, 2026-08-12
- Location precision
- EPA-published facility coordinate, mixed collection methods.
- What one record is
- An administrative status held by a regulator. It describes paperwork, not a measurement of what is in the air, soil or water.
- Source limitations
- Handler status changes over time and the published rows are a snapshot. A handler record does not mean waste left the site, and it does not mean anyone was reached by it.
- Official source
- https://echo.epa.gov/
Cleanup / programme recordNationwide17,337 published records
EPA SEMS programme records
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Superfund Enterprise Management System (SEMS)
- Source universe
- Every site EPA holds in SEMS, the Superfund programme's own record system. This includes sites that were assessed and never listed, sites proposed for the National Priorities List, sites currently listed, and sites deleted after cleanup.
- Inclusion rule
- SEMS site records with a usable coordinate, retrieved per state.
- Coverage
- Nationwide — 51 of 51 state services answered.
- Record date / version
- EPA SEMS nationwide response, 2026-08-12
- Location precision
- EPA-published site coordinate. For large or multi-parcel sites this is a representative point, not the boundary of contamination.
- What one record is
- An entry in a cleanup or assessment programme. It records that an agency looked at a place, at some status, at some date.
- Source limitations
- A SEMS record shows that the programme has a file on a place, at a status, at a date. It is not a measurement, not a boundary of affected land, and not evidence that anyone nearby was exposed.
- Official source
- https://www.epa.gov/enviro/sems-overview
Publisher status categories, preserved verbatim
- Not on the NPL15,011
- Currently on the Final NPL1,322
- Deleted from the Final NPL448
- Site is Part of NPL Site446
- Removed from Proposed NPL59
- Proposed for NPL37
- Withdrawn from the Final NPL7
- Pre-proposal Site7
Audit correction These 17,337 records must not be presented as current Superfund/NPL sites. Only 1,322 are currently on the Final NPL. The large majority — 15,011 — are recorded by EPA as Not on the NPL. All eight EPA status categories are preserved verbatim and are filterable on the map.
Facility recordNationwide13,446 published records
Power plants
U.S. Energy Information Administration
- Source universe
- EIA's inventory of utility-scale electric generating plants, carrying the plant's primary generating technology.
- Inclusion rule
- Plant records with a usable coordinate from the nationwide EIA service response.
- Coverage
- Nationwide — 52 state and territory codes present.
- Record date / version
- EIA power plants service response, 2026-08-12
- Location precision
- EIA-published plant coordinate, generally the plant site.
- What one record is
- A place that exists and is identified by the publisher. Presence only.
- Source limitations
- Utility-scale plants only; distributed and behind-the-meter generation is absent. The technology field is what the plant burns or uses, not what it emits. Capacity is an operational figure and is not a pollution measure.
- Official source
- https://atlas.eia.gov/
Publisher status categories, preserved verbatim
- solar6,406
- natural gas1,983
- hydroelectric1,400
- wind1,352
- petroleum890
- biomass597
- batteries391
- coal198
- other73
- geothermal67
- nuclear55
- pumped storage34
Audit correction The 55 records tagged nuclear here are generating plants in the EIA inventory. They are not a nuclear-facility layer: reactors, fuel-cycle facilities and waste sites are regulated separately and are not yet published.
Facility recordNationwide26,319 published records
Mines (MSHA)
U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration — Mines data set
- Source universe
- Every mine MSHA holds an identity record for: coal and metal/non-metal, surface and underground, in every operating status the agency publishes.
- Inclusion rule
- Official MSHA Mines.txt extract uploaded by the owner, parsed exactly as published. A mine is mapped only when MSHA publishes usable coordinates for it.
- Coverage
- Nationwide — 91,944 mine records were read from the official file; 26,319 carry publishable coordinates and are on the map. The remainder are real MSHA records without a mappable location and are deliberately not placed on the map rather than guessed at.
- Record date / version
- MSHA Mines data set, official file uploaded 2026-08-12
- Location precision
- Mine point as published by MSHA. For multi-pit operations this is a representative point, not a pit boundary.
- What one record is
- A place that exists and is identified by the publisher. Presence only.
- Source limitations
- Operating status is MSHA's own status field, reproduced unchanged; abandoned, inactive and non-producing are kept distinct and unknown is never treated as inactive. Mines closed before federal record-keeping are absent. A mine location is not a measured exposure.
- Official source
- https://www.msha.gov/data-and-reports/data-sets
Publisher status categories, preserved verbatim
- abandoned20,749
- active4,971
- inactive340
- NonProducing259
Audit correction This layer previously held 560 coal-only records from a public EIA Atlas feature service, mislabelled as MSHA data. Those records have been removed and replaced by the official MSHA Mines data set, which covers coal and metal/non-metal mining nationwide.
Archives awaiting a one-time official upload
These publishers distribute a downloadable archive rather than a queryable service, so the file has to be fetched once and uploaded through the admin upload workflow. Nothing is published until it passes the same validation and release report as every other layer.
