API archive entry · source-reported
U.S. EPA Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) - Safe Drinking Water Act
Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) is a tool developed and maintained by EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance for public use. ECHO provides integrated compliance and enforcement information for over 1 million regulated facilities nationwide. SDW Rest Services provides multiple service endpoints, each with specific capabilities, to search and retrieve data on public water systems regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The returned results reflect data drawn from EPA's Federal Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) database. \ The get_systems, get_qid, and get_download end points are meant to be used together. \ The recommended use scenario for get_systems, get_qid, and get_downoad is: \ 1) Use get_systems to validate passed query parameters, obtain summary statistics and to obtain a query_id (QID). QIDs are time sensitive and will be valid for approximately 30 minutes. 2) Use get_qid, with the returned QID, to paginate through arrays of water system results. 3) Use get_download, with the returned QID, to generate a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file of water system information that meets the QID query criteria. \ \ Use the qcolumns pa
Plan the first integration safely
The access fields below come from the connected directory. Their likely implementation impact is explained without assuming provider-specific behavior.
Authentication
OAuth is reported. Confirm flows, scopes, consent, token lifetime, and refresh rules.
Transport
HTTPS is not confirmed. Do not send credentials or production data until secure transport is verified.
Browser access
CORS is unknown. Treat direct browser access as unconfirmed and test before choosing a client-only architecture.
First-request sequence
- Identify the current base URL, version, and endpoint for the use case.
- Confirm how credentials are issued and where they may be stored.
- Test success, invalid input, throttling, unavailable data, and timeouts.
- Record response fields, pagination, caching, and error shapes.
- Add monitoring, retries with backoff, and an appropriate fallback.
Questions to resolve before production
Pricing and quotas
Confirm current plans, free-tier limits, overages, and request ceilings.
Endpoint coverage
Check that the operations and response fields match the intended workload.
Reliability
Look for uptime history, a status page, support routes, and service commitments.
Data and privacy
Review retention, licensing, regional processing, and compliance requirements.
Versioning
Confirm the active version, change policy, deprecation window, and migration guidance.
Developer experience
Validate SDKs, examples, error formats, pagination, and test environments.
Source reference
This page separates source-reported facts from questions that need live provider verification.