Environment: EPA Adds New Water Pollution Data Search and Download Features to “Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO)” Database
From the ECHO Web Site:
This new Water facility search interface is tailored to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) industrial stormwater program and makes it easier to find information about facilities that discharge under EPA’s Multi-Sector General Permit for industrial stormwater discharges. It sets the stage for enhanced transparency of new data that will be submitted electronically as a result of NPDES Electronic Reporting Rule implementation.
New data available through this interface include certain elements from Notices of Intent for permit coverage, such as information related to stormwater pollution prevention plans. Please note that benchmark limits and exceedances are not yet displayed in ECHO and the goal is to add them later this year.
Also, a new Data Downloads feature allows users to download the Water datasets by state under ‘Download Data by Jurisdiction’. The data download files are large data sets that may be of particular use to academics and analysts. An ECHO goal is to provide data as broadly as possible, and these files, along with the web interface and services, offer a variety of ways to consume EPA’s enforcement and compliance data. This feature responds to user requests to separate the Water Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) datasets into smaller files.
See Also: Read About a New Map Feature Coming to ECHO This Fall (via Our Planet, Our Home Blog)
Filed under: Data Files, News, Patrons and Users

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.