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Methodology and sources

The published standards.
No proprietary scoring.

LSARS analysis follows methodology published by the U.S. EPA, California OEHHA, and CARB. Every calculation traces back to a citable source. The applicant funding the work cannot change the inputs, the formulas, or the outputs. The agency reviewing your permit reads the same numbers your community does.

Applicant pays. Numbers do not change.

The economic model is borrowed from independent audit. The buyer commissions the work. The methodology is published. The output is identical regardless of who is reading it.

Public methodology. Reproducible analysis.

Every input, formula, and output traces back to a federal or state regulatory framework. An opposing expert can reproduce the analysis without changing the conclusions.

Citation pills on every output.

Reports and dashboards display the source for each number inline. There is no opaque score, no proprietary index, no aggregated rating without the underlying calculation visible.

Regulatory frameworks LSARS aligns to.

Each framework links to the authoritative source. Click through to verify any claim against the source document.

EPA AirToxScreen

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

National-scale screening assessment of cancer and non-cancer risk from inhalation of air toxics. LSARS uses the published methodology, emission inventory, and risk-equivalent calculations to produce census-tract level outputs that match agency review expectations.

CA-OEHHA Air Toxics Hot Spots Program (AB2588)

California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment

Cancer potency factors, reference exposure levels, and the standardized risk assessment guidelines used in California air toxics analysis. LSARS implementations follow the OEHHA Risk Assessment Guidelines and AB2588 reporting structure.

CEQA Health Risk Assessment Guidance

California Environmental Quality Act

Environmental review requirements that include health risk assessment for projects with significant air quality impacts. LSARS produces CEQA-aligned HRA outputs suitable for inclusion in EIR and Mitigated Negative Declaration filings.

EPA Tier IV Diesel Generator Emission Factors

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Federal emission factors for non-road diesel engines, applicable to data center and industrial backup generator fleets. LSARS applies the correct factor set per generator certification tier and runtime profile.

EPA Title V Operating Permits Program

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Major source operating permit framework under Clean Air Act Title V. LSARS produces applicability analyses and permit application support aligned to federal Title V and state-implemented programs.

EPA New Source Review (NSR) Program

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Pre-construction permitting for new and modified major sources, including PSD and Nonattainment NSR. LSARS surfaces NSR significance threshold analysis, BACT review structure, and offset accounting.

EPA EJScreen Successor Datasets

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental justice screening data covering demographic and environmental indicators. EJScreen was retired in February 2025; LSARS integrates the equivalent demographic and pollution-burden datasets used in current EJ analysis.

CARB HARP2 Methodology

California Air Resources Board

Hotspots Analysis and Reporting Program methodology used in California facility-level air toxics risk assessment. LSARS provides cloud-native, browser-accessible HARP2-equivalent functionality with the underlying methodology preserved.

What we do not do.

We do not publish a proprietary score, index, or rating without the underlying calculation visible.
We do not soften outputs for the applicant funding the analysis. The number that goes to the agency is the number that goes to the community dashboard.
We do not produce a developer-facing version and a community-facing version of the same report. There is one report.
We do not write press releases on behalf of applicants. Communication of results is the applicant's responsibility, against an analytical record they cannot edit.
We do not aggregate ourselves into the analysis. LSARS is the platform, not a co-author of the conclusions. The conclusions follow the published methodology.