On this page, we explain how to explore MapEcos, search for a facility of interest, and interpret what you see.

How to move around the map.

• Click on the map, hold the mouse down, and drag the map.  Release the mouse to stop dragging.
• Double click on the map to center the map there and zoom one step.
• Click to jump to a location by typing a location name, street address, city, state, or zipcode.  
• Clicking will take you back to your last location, or the United States.

How to zoom in or out.

• "Zoom" by clicking   and then clicking two corners of a bounding box. Remember: click one corner, release the mouse button, click another corner.
• Slide the scale tool

Remember, the button at MapEcos will always bring back summary instructions on how to get around the map.

Getting information on facilities.

Browse: Go anywhere on the map where you see red and blue dots.  Zoom in about half way.  Roll the mouse over a marker to get the name of that facility.  Click on it to get information on that facility. 

Search:  Enter  search terms in the "tools" find and mark all of the facilities that match a given criteria.  Matching facilities will appear in a list in the left column.  All of the facilities in the list will be shown as dots on the map.  Facilities at the top of the list are also identified by markers (i.e. little pins).  To see other markers, click through the list using the arrows at the top of the search.  Or, if you have selected to sort by distance, move the map to a region of interest.

Search Tips.

<- Changes the order of the search results. <- Enter a facility name. <- Enter an industry name or and SIC code (e.g. Petroleum or 2911). <- Enter a name to see all of the TRI facilities in that company. <- Enter a chemical name to find facilities where it's the primary emission <- Enter a number 0 (lowest) to 9 (highest) to find facilities with similar total pounds of emissions.   <- Enter a number 0 (lowest) to 9 (highest) to find facilities whose emissions result in a similar amount of hazard to humans.   <- Search will report results that match all criteria.

Getting information on corporations

To get information on any corporation, first find a facility owned by that corporation (you can use the search tool to find it by name).    Click on the "Corporation" tab to get a list of facilities and aggregate data for that corporation.  Click on any one of the blue facility links to go to that location.

Getting information on regions.

If the tools bar is open, MapEcos will tell you the location of the center of the map you are viewing.  When you first open the site, it tells you the map is over Kansas -- literally in center of the continental US.  As you move the map, it will continue to find the state and county located in the center of the map. 

To get information on a region (nation, state, or county) click on one of the links at the top of the tools menu.  This will open a popup window with data on that region.  For example, for Smith County, Kansas, we would get this:

As you scroll down, you will see the facilities with the most onsite emissions, the top chemicals emitted, and the top industries.  To see more information on a particular location, just click on the link. We will move the map to that location and open the information bubble.  Click on the "satellite" button to see the best satellite imagery of the location.

Interpreting data on the facilities. Facility Summary: Point color and emissions levels We provide data on the volume of toxic chemicals released into the environment at the location of the facility. We do not provide information on chemicals processed and destroyed at the site or transferred offsite for processing elsewhere.  The facility's location dot and its emission level help provide a sense of the extent of these emissions. Most facilities in the US emit only a few lbs of toxic chemicals, while a few facilities emit millions of lbs.  In calculating our levels and in setting the color of the facility marker dot, we wanted to take this into account.  As a result, we created an exponential scale for our dot color and in calculating the "Emissions Level" and the "Hazard Level".  The cutoff for each level is 10X that of the previous one.   A facility with the median level of emissions (Level 3) will have a dot color that appears between blue and purple.  For more information on how we calculated our levels, click here.

Color	Emissions
	High Median facility Low

The following two graphs show just how skewed are emissions.  Even with our exponential scaling, the vast majority of emissions come from levels 7,8, and 9.  Yet, the number of facilities in these levels represent only 2.5% of the total.  The one facility as level 9 has far more emissions that the bottom 6 levels (totally 90% of all facilities).  

But, we encourage you to be careful in drawing conclusions.  Many of the facilities with high emissions or hazard scores are very large and they operate in industries where emissions are hard to avoid.  They may be bringing you your electric power or the aluminum for your soft drink can.

For more data on the distribution of emissions among the different levels, click here.

Operations Data

We asked managers from each facility to answer a survey about their environmental management practices -- including how they try to control their toxic emissions -- and then report these data to the map to tell their story.  If you click on the "operations" tab, you will find what they reported.  When you are just browsing an area, you can tell those facilities that have reported information by the existence of a green ring. 

When you see such a ring, some data will be reported in the operations tab for that facility.  Check out what they are doing and compare it to others.  It may also be informative just to see who is reporting!

Emissions Details and Comparison Data

You may also want to check out the emissions data and the comparison graphs.  These tabs reveal information about the main chemicals the facility releases to the air.  We chose to use air emissions because those are the bulk of the US emissions.  We plan to include other types of emissions in the next revision.

The comparison tab allows you to see how the facility compares to others in its region and industry. 

This trend compares the facility's emissions over time to the average facility in its industry.  In this industry, both the focal facility and the industry on average are improving.

We examine all facilities in the focal facility's industry (SIC 2 digit), and identify the one with the highest emissions. We divide this number by six to create six emissions ranges (bins). We then categorize all facilities in this industry into these 6 ranges and plot the results as a histogram. This histogram shows how many are in each bin.  This facility is in the highest level which is labeled >83%. That is, it is in a group of facilities numbering a few less than 124 who emit between 83 and 100% of the emissions released by the largest emitter in the industry.