FRS (Facility Registry Service)

The Facility Registry Service (FRS) is a system EPA uses to gather the physical site information reported to federal, state, local and tribal program systems into one database, and to try to match the records that describe the same place (EPA, FRS Description).

What puts a property on this record

• The feeding systems. EPA says data from 90 systems make up FRS, and calls each a program system: EPA's own, the Toxics Release Inventory among them, and state systems. A site comes into FRS through a record in one of them (EPA, FRS Description).
• The FRS ID. FRS gives an incoming program record an FRS ID, also called a Registry ID, and tries to match the new site to sites already registered; program records are linked to the ID (EPA, FRS Description).
• The program systems stay the source. EPA treats the data its program systems capture as the authoritative version; FRS tries to add data to each program record it takes in, such as coordinates for a new address, and to match similar sites. EPA staff cannot change a source system's record inside FRS (EPA, FRS Description).

What a listing shows, and what it does not

By EPA's account, FRS holds site identification: standardized names and addresses, locations, and links from each FRS ID to program records and to environmental interests, meaning permits or regulatory programs (EPA, FRS Description). EPA's FRS pages do not describe it as holding release, cleanup or compliance information; for questions about a business, EPA points to ECHO (EPA, Facility Registry Service).

FRS takes updates from its connected systems on schedules running from continuous to monthly, so a change a business reports does not reach FRS at once (EPA, Facility Registry Service; EPA, FRS Description). EPA's pages make no claim that every regulated site is in FRS (EPA, FRS Description).

In a Phase I ESA

FRS is not a standard source of Table 2, and Table 3, the standard's examples of additional records, does not name it (E1527-21, 8.2.2, Table 2, Table 3). Additional records are checked when the environmental professional judges them reasonably ascertainable, useful, accurate and complete enough for the purpose of the records review, and generally obtained in initial site assessments for the type of transaction involved, under local good commercial and customary practice (E1527-21, 8.2.4). The standard notes that record information is often inaccurate or incomplete; the professional need not hunt for mistakes, but makes a reasonable effort to make up for those that other information the professional actually knows makes obvious (E1527-21, 8.1.3).

An FRS entry points to program records (EPA, FRS Description), and the answer turns on what they show: which programs are linked to the FRS ID, and what each program's record and the agency's file show of hazardous substances or petroleum products used, stored, released or cleaned up. Where a linked program is a record type Table 2 lists, such as hazardous waste generators, a supplementing source should not be searched to a shorter distance than Table 2 gives, as adjusted (E1527-21, 8.2.4, Table 2); see RCRA Generators.

For an entry at the subject property, its address and location are read against the subject property's current boundaries, which define it whatever its past address or layout (E1527-21, 8.3.2). The site visit covers current and past uses involving hazardous substances or petroleum products (E1527-21, 9.4.1, 9.4.2), and before it the owner, the key site manager if one is identified, and the user if not the owner are asked whether documents such as environmental permits and agency notices of violations exist (E1527-21, 10.8, 10.8.1). Where the linked records show a release that left hazardous substances or petroleum products present or likely present at the subject property, the condition is listed in the Conclusions as a recognized environmental condition (REC) unless judged a de minimis condition or a historical REC, and the professional should give an opinion on additional investigation, if any (E1527-21, 3.2.20, 3.2.39, 3.2.73, 12.7, 12.8).

A listing of the subject property, or of another site inside the approximate minimum search distance, from any source the assessment uses gets the professional's judgment on its significance (E1527-21, 8.1.10). See adjoining or nearby property.

The report gives, for each source checked, the dates the source and any original source behind it last updated the information (E1527-21, 8.1.9).

What the federal rule says

The inquiry rule does not name FRS. Its review of government records opens:

Federal, tribal, state, and local government records or data bases of government records of the subject property and adjoining properties must be reviewed

40 CFR 312.26(a), edition revised as of July 1, 2025

The paragraphs after it list the kinds of records the review should include (40 CFR 312.26(b), (c)). The rule lets the procedures of E1527-21 be used to comply with its sections 312.23 through 312.31 (40 CFR 312.11(a)).

Where the record is kept

EPA's Office of Information Management runs FRS (EPA, FRS Description). EPA publishes FRS data through search tools, downloads and web APIs, and recommends that business users searching by address without an FRS ID start with ECHO (EPA, Search for FRS data).

EPA pages read: Facility Registry Service, last updated September 1, 2026; FRS Description, last updated September 1, 2026; Search for FRS data, last updated August 20, 2026. Each was read October 16, 2026.

This page is general reference for environmental professionals. It does not classify any property. ASTM E1527-21 is the standard and is not reproduced here; the judgment of the environmental professional on the facts governs.