Frequently Asked Questions

• What is ECSI?
• What kind of information is in ECSI?
• What kinds of sites are in ECSI?
• Does ECSI include leaking underground storage tank sites?
• How does DEQ decide to add a site to ECSI?
• What’s the difference between ECSI and the Confirmed Release List and Inventory?
• How does ECSI differ from the US EPA’s database of contaminated sites?
• How can I obtain information from ECSI?

What is ECSI?
Environmental Cleanup Site Information is an electronic database that the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has used since 1989 to track sites with known, suspected, or cleaned up hazardous substance contamination. ECSI, which assigns unique identification numbers to individual sites, summarizes information about sites and their investigative/remedial status, as well as Cleanup Program recommendations for further action. ECSI also includes sites at which DEQ has determined that no further action is necessary.

What kind of information is in ECSI?
Each ECSI entry contains basic data such as site name and location. For most sites, ECSI also indicates how and when the site became contaminated, qualitative risks the contamination may pose to human health or the environment, investigative and cleanup actions that have occurred, and prioritized further actions, if any, that are required. At many sites, ECSI documents contaminants found in soil, surface water, sediments, and groundwater, with associated concentrations and sampling dates. ECSI categorizes current site status as either: 1) under investigation; 2) on the Confirmed Release List or Inventory of Facilities Needing Further Action (Inventory); or 3) cleaned up to DEQ standards (No Further Action, or NFA). ECSI also lists past and present site operations, owners/operators, and site contacts. The amount of data entered for each site varies greatly and depends on the nature of site issues, how long the site has been active in DEQ’s Cleanup Program, and the priority DEQ has assigned to the site.

What kinds of sites are in ECSI?
Sites in ECSI comprise a wide variety of sizes, locations, features, contaminant profiles, and degrees of Cleanup Program information. What all sites have in common is documented, suspected, or remediated hazardous substance contamination in groundwater, surface water, soil, or sediments. Some ECSI sites have minimal information available and need an initial evaluation, while others have completed investigative and remedial actions, and have earned a NFA decision from DEQ. Sites range from urban industrial complexes to isolated rural facilities contaminated by disposals or spills. Most sites are either industrial or commercial, but the Cleanup Program sometimes adds highly contaminated residential properties to ECSI.

ECSI also includes study areas, which are groups of individual sites that may be contributing to a larger, area-wide problem. For example, when DEQ discovers regional groundwater contamination where the sources of contamination are not known, it will create a study area for this region. Then, DEQ will add sites within the region’s boundaries to this study area, and these sites may be investigated to determine if they’re potential sources of contamination. DEQ has also created study areas of sites that could threaten Vulnerable Areas such as drinking water sources or streams with endangered fish species.

Does ECSI include leaking underground storage tank sites?
Generally, the answer is no. DEQ’s UST Section maintains a separate database of sites with reported petroleum releases from UST systems.

• Leaking Underground Storage Tank Database

However, the Environmental Cleanup Section sometimes takes the lead at sites with leaking USTs, and adds them to ECSI. Examples are sites with releases from USTs containing solvents or other non-petroleum substances; sites contaminated by both petroleum USTs and non-petroleum sources; and high-priority sites at which DEQ’s UST Section has requested Cleanup Program resources. The Cleanup Program also added some leaking UST sites to ECSI in 1988-89 before DEQ created a separate UST Section (many of these sites have since been referred to the UST Section). ECSI includes petroleum bulk plants and other sites where above-ground releases of gasoline, diesel, or oil have occurred or are suspected.

How does DEQ decide to add a site to ECSI?
A site is added to ECSI when DEQ learns that it is contaminated or potentially contaminated with hazardous substances such as solvents, metals, PCBs, or petroleum hydrocarbons. Such site information comes from a number of sources: investigative efforts by DEQ’s Site Assessment Program; referrals from other DEQ programs or from other agencies; reports of chemical spills; citizen reports/complaints; or data submitted voluntarily by site owners/operators. Because ECSI includes potentially contaminated sites as well as sites known to be contaminated, appearance on the ECSI database does not necessarily mean that a site is contaminated.

For more details, refer to DEQ's guidance for adding sites to ECSI.

What’s the difference between ECSI and the Confirmed Release List and Inventory?
Once DEQ adds a site to ECSI, the site remains on the database to provide tracking and historical information. The fact that a site is included in ECSI has no regulatory significance per se, because neither Oregon Revised Statutes nor Oregon Administrative Rules refer to ECSI. Two Cleanup Program lists, the CRL and Inventory, do carry regulatory significance and should not be confused with ECSI. Criteria for listing sites on the CRL or Inventory are different from the criteria for adding sites to ECSI. In addition, the CRL/Inventory listing process includes a formal notification and comment period before sites are actually listed. Furthermore, sites can be delisted from the CRL and Inventory following cleanups, but are not removed from ECSI. (When remediated sites no longer pose risks to human health or the environment, ECSI shows their No Further Action status; retaining such sites in ECSI benefits those seeking historical or "case-study" information on sites that have been through the cleanup process.)

How does ECSI differ from the US EPA’s database of contaminated sites?
For tracking contaminated sites, DEQ’s ECSI database can be considered roughly equivalent to EPA's CERCLIS database. However, there are important differences between the two:

1. In contrast to ECSI, CERCLIS is a formal, statutory list that sets in motion certain required activities and timelines.
2. EPA generally adds sites with confirmed contamination to CERCLIS, while DEQ adds to ECSI sites with suspected contamination as well as those with confirmed contamination.
3. Unlike ECSI, CERCLIS specifically excludes sites with petroleum-only contamination.
4. All CERCLIS (or former CERCLIS) sites in Oregon are added to ECSI, but most ECSI sites are not added to CERCLIS.
5. EPA’s cleanup process uses an "all or nothing" approach – following EPA evaluation, sites in CERCLIS are either proposed for the Superfund list or designated as No Further Remedial Action Planned ("NFRAP"), and transferred to the CERCLIS archives. On the other hand, Oregon recognizes a continuum of site cleanup needs and priorities, and will often determine that federal NFRAP sites require further state action.

How can I obtain information from ECSI?
All data in ECSI is public information. There are several ways to access this data, at different levels of detail.

The easiest and quickest way to obtain data from ECSI is to use the ECSI query. This query, which returns up-to-the-minute data in the database, allows you to conduct a search for ECSI sites, as well as for sites on the CRL and Inventory, by criteria you specify, including: ECSI #; site name; street name or number; zip code; city; county; latitude/longitude ranges; completed site actions; or recorded contaminants. Queries return a one-line listing of sites meeting the search criteria entered and provide links to detailed reports for each site. You can also download comma-delimited record sets of data generated from your queries.

The complete ECSI data set can also be downloaded electronically from the ECSI download page. However, data resulting from this download may not be current (the page indicates the date of the data).

The ECSI database contains only summaries of site information. Therefore, if you need more details on site history or activities, you should contact the appropriate regional office and schedule a file review.

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