EPA MCP Server

Overview

EPA environmental data across five federal programs — facility compliance (ECHO), toxic chemical releases (TRI), Superfund cleanup sites, drinking water systems (SDWIS), and environmental-justice screening (EJScreen) — plus real-time air quality via AirNow. Search facilities by location or compliance status, pull inspection and enforcement history, track toxic releases across a region, and screen a point for environmental-justice risk from any MCP client. Runs as a stdio process or a local Streamable HTTP server.

Tools

Resources

All resource data is also reachable via tools — use epa_get_facility and epa_search_superfund for programmatic access in tool-only MCP clients.

Related MCP server: mcp-epa-envirofacts

Capability reference

epa_search_facilities tool

• Geographic filters: ZIP code, state, city (pair with state), or latitude + longitude + radius_miles (max 100 miles) for proximity search — at least one is required

• Optional programs filter narrows to CAA, CWA, RCRA, TRI, or SDWA registrants; has_violation surfaces only non-compliant facilities

• Returns registryId for epa_get_facility, plus fipsCode when available for Census chaining

• Up to 100 results per call (default 50)

epa_get_facility tool

• Input: registry_id, obtained from epa_search_facilities

• Aggregates 3–5 ECHO DFR endpoints in parallel — program flags and TRI totals, compliance summary, inspection/enforcement history, CAA details, CWA/NPDES permit details

• Uses Promise.allSettled — partial data is returned even when one upstream endpoint fails

• airCompliance / waterCompliance are present only when the facility is registered under that program

• facility_not_found when ECHO has no record for the Registry ID

epa_search_violations tool

• At least one of state or zip_code is required

• program filter covers CAA, CWA, RCRA, SDWA, CERCLA, FIFRA, or TSCA; case_type is civil, criminal, or all (default all)

• Date range filter by filing date (ISO 8601 date_filed_start / date_filed_end)

• facilityName and registryId are not populated by ECHO's enforcement-case endpoint — chain into epa_get_facility for facility detail

• Up to 100 cases per call (default 50)

epa_get_air_quality tool

• Provide zip_code or both latitude and longitude

• mode: current (default) or forecast (requires forecast_date, ISO 8601)

• Per-pollutant AQI (PM2.5, ozone, CO, SO2, NO2) with numeric categoryNumber (1 Good – 6 Hazardous) and categoryName

• distance_miles sets the reporting-station search radius (default 25, max 300)

• Data is preliminary — informational use only, not for regulatory decisions; responses are cached ~1 hour

• Only registered when AIRNOW_API_KEY is set

epa_get_tri_releases tool

• facility_id is the TRI facilityId from epa_search_tri_releases; optional year (1987–2030, defaults to all available years) and chemical_name (partial match)

• Per-chemical breakdown by medium — air, water, land, underground injection — plus a separate one-time/non-routine release total

• TRI data lags ~18 months; the most recent available year is typically 2 years prior to the current year

epa_search_tri_releases tool

• state is required (2-letter); optional county (partial match), year, and chemical_name

• Up to 200 records per call (default 50); an enrichment flag marks the result truncated when it hits the limit

• Complement to epa_get_tri_releases — use this for area discovery, then drill into a specific facility

epa_search_superfund tool

• Two input shapes: state/city/zip_code, or latitude+longitude+radius_miles (0.1–500 miles) — one is required

• npl_status filter: listed, not-listed, proposed, or all (default all)

• Up to 200 sites per call (default 50)

epa_search_water_systems tool

• At least one of state or zip_code is required

• has_violation surfaces only systems with active violations; pws_type filters to community, non-transient, or transient (output type reports the SDWIS codes CWS / NTNCWS / TNCWS)

• Up to 200 systems per call (default 50)

epa_get_ejscreen tool

• Input: latitude, longitude, distance (default 1), and unit (miles or kilometers, default miles); kilometers are converted to miles before the request, and the buffer is capped at 15 miles

• Returns 13 environmental and 6 demographic indicators, each with national/state percentiles, plus the Demographic Index and Supplemental Demographic Index

• Points outside US coverage return coverage.valid: false with a note instead of fabricated indicators

• Data source: EJScreen v2.2 (2022) via the community-maintained EJAM API (Public Environmental Data Partners) — not a live EPA endpoint

epa://facility/{registry_id} resource

• Same data as epa_get_facility; registry_id comes from epa_search_facilities

• Errors when the Registry ID has no ECHO record

epa://superfund/{site_id} resource

• Same data as epa_search_superfund records; site_id comes from epa_search_superfund

• Errors when the site ID has no SEMS record

Features

Built on @cyanheads/mcp-ts-core: stdio and Streamable HTTP transports, pluggable auth (none / jwt / oauth), swappable storage (in-memory, filesystem, Supabase, Cloudflare KV/R2/D1), structured logging with optional OpenTelemetry tracing.

EPA-specific:

• Multiple environmental data sources unified behind a single epa_ tool surface: ECHO (facility compliance), Envirofacts DMAP (TRI, Superfund, SDWIS), AirNow (real-time air quality), and the community-maintained EJAM API rehosting EJScreen data (v2.2, 2022)

• Parallel ECHO DFR aggregation in epa_get_facility — 3–5 upstream calls resolved concurrently with Promise.allSettled

• AirNow response caching (~1 hour TTL) to stay within per-key rate limits

Agent-friendly output:

• Facility search supplies registryId for compliance lookups and fipsCode when available for Census queries; TRI search supplies facilityId for release details

• Structured partial failure — epa_get_facility returns available program data even when one DFR endpoint is unavailable, with airCompliance/waterCompliance present only when that program applies

• Recovery-hint messages on empty results — every search tool returns a message field that echoes the applied filters and suggests how to broaden the search

Getting started

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file. An AirNow API key is optional — set AIRNOW_API_KEY to enable epa_get_air_quality (register free at docs.airnowapi.org); without it the server starts with the other 8 tools. ECHO, DMAP, and EJScreen tools work without authentication.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "epa-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@cyanheads/epa-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "AIRNOW_API_KEY": "your-airnow-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with npx (no Bun required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "epa-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@cyanheads/epa-mcp-server@latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE": "stdio",
        "MCP_LOG_LEVEL": "info",
        "AIRNOW_API_KEY": "your-airnow-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or with Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "epa-mcp-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run", "-i", "--rm",
        "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=stdio",
        "-e", "AIRNOW_API_KEY=your-airnow-key",
        "ghcr.io/cyanheads/epa-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Streamable HTTP, set the transport and start the server:

MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE=http MCP_HTTP_PORT=3010 AIRNOW_API_KEY=... bun run start:http
# Server listens at http://localhost:3010/mcp

Prerequisites

• Bun v1.4.0 or higher (or Node.js v24+).

• (Optional) An AirNow API key to enable epa_get_air_quality — register free at docs.airnowapi.org/account/request. Without it the server runs the other 8 tools. ECHO, DMAP, and EJScreen tools require no API key.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/cyanheads/epa-mcp-server.git

2. Navigate into the directory:

cd epa-mcp-server

3. Install dependencies:

bun install

4. Configure environment:

cp .env.example .env
# optionally set AIRNOW_API_KEY to enable the air quality tool

Configuration

All configuration is validated at startup via Zod schemas in src/config/. Key environment variables:

See .env.example for the full list of optional overrides.

Running the server

Local development

• Build and run:

  # One-time build
  bun run rebuild
  
  # Run the built server
  bun run start:stdio
  # or
  bun run start:http

• Run checks and tests:

  bun run devcheck   # Lint, format, typecheck, security
  bun run test       # Vitest test suite
  bun run lint:mcp   # Validate MCP definitions against spec

Docker

docker build -t epa-mcp-server .
docker run --rm -e AIRNOW_API_KEY=your-key -p 3010:3010 epa-mcp-server

The Dockerfile defaults to HTTP transport, stateless session mode, and logs to /var/log/epa-mcp-server. OpenTelemetry peer dependencies are installed by default — build with --build-arg OTEL_ENABLED=false to omit them.

Project structure

Development guide

See CLAUDE.md for development guidelines and architectural rules. The short version:

• Handlers throw, framework catches — no try/catch in tool logic

• Use ctx.log for request-scoped logging, ctx.state for tenant-scoped storage

• Register new tools and resources via the barrels in src/mcp-server/*/definitions/index.ts

• Wrap external API calls: validate raw → normalize to domain type → return output schema; never fabricate missing fields

• ECHO searches must enforce at least one geographic parameter — unscoped queries time out against the live API

Contributing

Issues are welcome. Run checks and tests before submitting:

bun run devcheck
bun run test

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.