Company Profile

Rockwell Information Systems was established in 1985 and incorporated in 1987 - the same year we began working with the EPA.

In 1989, the Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska. After this now-famous accident, the White House called the EPA and asked them: 'Can we trust Exxon to clean up after themselves?' The EPA's response: 'We don't have the ability to tell you.'

The White House was not happy, and EPA's inability to assemble environmental data was declared a "Material Weakness" by the Federal Financial Management Integrity Act (FMFIA). EPA was now under orders to develop a data-integration system, and to do it immediately.

That's where we come in.

In early 1990, our company president, R. Donald Rockwell, sat alone in a room with key EPA enforcement personnel, holding a

blank piece of paper. The meeting that took place that day launched the development of the most powerful enforcement system ever used by the EPA.

When the development was completed, the EPA began using this high-powered, multimedia enforcement system to monitor and target facilities. At the same time, Rockwell Information Systems noticed that almost all the data was - or should be - releasable to the general public.

After several years of discussions, EPA finally agreed that it was perfectly legal and appropriate to allow this data to fall into the hands of the general public - even if that meant there would be an uproar from powerful industry forces, and even if that meant some of EPA's questionable data quality would be brought into public view.

EPA is to be applauded for allowing this data to be released. However, this data is so voluminous and complex that only an expert can determine how to correctly access it. Over two thousand data elements are assembled from over a dozen data systems - each under the jurisdiction of its own program office, and each having its own rules, exceptions, quirks and nuances. This is an ongoing problem, it has no easy solution, and it will not change in the near future.

Rockwell Information Systems is the only company with a full knowledge of this complicated enforcement system and its supporting data. We are and will continue to be the only lifeline between the general public and the EPA.