About ZipCheckup: Our Mission & Data

Our mission, data sources, and editorial standards.

Our Mission

ZipCheckup helps homeowners understand the safety of their home and community. We translate complex government data into clear, actionable reports — free of charge.

What We Cover

Water Quality — Tap water contaminants, EPA violations, and treatment data for your ZIP code
Product Recalls — CPSC recalls for appliances, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing products
Energy Rebates — Federal and state rebate programs for energy-efficient home upgrades
Regulations — Local requirements like backflow testing, lead pipe replacement, and gas stove rules
Emergency Alerts — Seasonal safety alerts, boil water advisories, and storm preparation

Methodology

Home Safety Score — How we calculate the composite 0–100 safety rating for each ZIP code

Data Sources (50+)

All data on this site comes from official federal and state databases. No proprietary data, no user-submitted content.

Environmental & Water Quality

EPA SDWIS (Safe Drinking Water Information System) — water quality data for 150,000+ public water systems
EPA ECHO (Enforcement and Compliance History Online) — facility compliance and enforcement actions
EPA UCMR5 — PFAS and unregulated contaminant monitoring
EPA LCR (Lead and Copper Rule) — 90th percentile lead and copper levels
EPA TRI (Toxic Release Inventory) — facility-level chemical releases
EPA Superfund NPL — National Priorities List hazardous waste sites
EPA EJScreen — environmental justice screening tool
EPA Radon Zones — county-level radon risk classification
CCR Reports — 1,021+ Consumer Confidence Reports parsed directly

Climate & Weather

NOAA Climate Normals — temperature, precipitation, humidity baselines
NOAA AirNow — real-time Air Quality Index (AQI)
NWS Alerts — boil water advisories, storm warnings, emergency alerts
FEMA NRI — National Risk Index (earthquake, wildfire, flood, tornado)
FEMA NFIP — National Flood Insurance Program claims data
NIFC — wildfire perimeters and smoke exposure

Infrastructure & Safety

PHMSA — gas pipeline incidents and safety data
NBI — National Bridge Inventory structural ratings
CPSC — product recall database for home equipment
DOE / EIA — energy codes, utility rates, efficiency standards
NRC — nuclear power plant proximity data

Health & Demographics

CDC PLACES — community health estimates (asthma, cancer, heart disease)
CDC Blood Lead — childhood blood lead level surveillance
Census ACS — housing age, income, home values (B25077), demographics
IRS SOI — ZIP-level income statistics
BLS — cost of living and employment data

Other

DOE / Rewiring America — federal and state energy rebate programs
USGS — groundwater levels and geological hazard data
Congressional voting records — environmental policy scores

See our Methodology for how we weight and combine these sources into the Home Safety Score.

Open Data on AWS

The U.S. Home Environmental Risk Compilation is listed in the Registry of Open Data on AWS. The registry entry is the canonical AWS identity for the public dataset; release metadata shipped with each artifact identifies the exact version and source coverage.

Editorial Standards

We do not accept payment to influence our reports or rankings
Data is updated daily from government sources
All claims are sourced and linked to original government data
We clearly label advertising and sponsored content

Who Built This

Artem Akulov is the sole founder of ZipCheckup. He also runs Lira Agency, a digital marketing firm where he has spent 19+ years running PPC and Local SEO campaigns for U.S. home services businesses (HVAC, plumbing, electricians, handymen, locksmiths). That vantage point — helping these contractors reach homeowners — made the public-data gap obvious.

ZipCheckup is one person, 50+ government databases, and a lot of code. No fake advisory board, no ghost-written content — just public data made accessible.

Contact

For corrections, data questions, or partnership inquiries: [email protected]

For press inquiries: [email protected]