MNRG - 2005 Cumulative Impacts Conference
Resources for Cumulative Impact Analysis - EPA Web links
- Where you live
- Envirofacts Data Warehouse
- Window to My Environment
- EnviroMapper StoreFront
- Surf Your Watershed
- Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO)
- Environmental Justice Geographic Assessment Tool
Where You Live
epa.gov/epahome/whereyoulive.htm
This website is the home for accessing an incredible number of EPA environmental databases and easily-used integrated spatial graphical systems. You can begin your search by simply inserting your zip code, city or county, by state, many homepages for subsequently accessing more detailed databases.
Envirofacts Data Warehouse
Provides access to several EPA databases to provide you with information about environmental activities (pollution, hazardous waste sites, and other regulatory information) that may affect air, water, and land anywhere in the U.S. "Quick Start" allows you to retrieve a sampling of information pertaining to your area; "Topics" provides more in-depth questions and answers from EPA regulatory databases on:
Waste
- Biennial Reporting System [BRS] data on the generation, management, and minimization of hazardous waste from large quantity generators and treatment, storage, and disposal facilities; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act [RCRAinfo] contains inventories about hazardous waste handlers; Superfund [CERCLIS] includes information regarding CERCLA sites.
Water
- Drinking Water Microbial and Disinfection Byproduct Information Collection Rule [ICR] can be used to help assess the potential health effects of pathogens and disinfection byproducts for making regulatory and public health decisions;
- National Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence Database [NCOD] contains occurrence data from public water systems and other sources on physical, chemical, microbial and radiological contaminants;
- Permit Compliance System [PCS] provides information on companies which hasbe been issued permits to discharge waste water into rivers;
- Safe Drinking Water Information System [SDWIS] contains information about public water systems and their violations of EPAs drinking water regulations.
Toxics
- Toxic Release Inventory [TRI] contains information about more
than 650 toxic chemicals used, manufactured, treated, transported or released
into the environment.
Air
- Aerometric Information Retrieval System [AIRS]/AIRS Facility Subsystem [AFS] contains information on air releases and pollution from stationary sources;UV Index predicts the ultraviolet radiation to reach the earth at any given time to help people determine appropriate sun-protective behaviors;
- Environmental Radiation Ambient Monitoring System [ERAMS] is a national network of monitoring stations that regularly collect air, precipitation, drinking water, and milk samples for analysis of radioactivity to provide an information base for making decisions necessary to ensure the protection of public health;
- Radiation Information Database [RADINFO] contains information about facilities that are regulated by EPA for radiation and radioactivity.
Land
- Facility Registry System [FRS] is a centrally managed database that identifies facilities, sites or places subject to environmental regulations or of environmental interest;
- Locational Information [LDIP] for EPA-regulated facilities is developed from many sources, including EPA federal program systems and EPA regional offices, and states.
EPA Grants
- Grants Information and Control System [GICS] which awards, administers, and monitors EPA grants in support of EPAs environmental programs.
EnviroMapper is a powerful tool used to map (topographical and orthophotographs) various types of environmental information, including air releases, drinking water, toxic releases, hazardous wastes, water discharge permits, and Superfund sites.
The Envirofacts Multisystem Query integrates information from the databases and latitude and longitude information, as well as being fully integrated with EnviroMapper. Envirofacts provides users with the ability to generate a variety of maps using data from the Envirofacts Data Warehouse, as well as from other sources. Using these applications, you can map a specific area and determine the environmental conditions and features of that area, use GIS functional spatial data at the county, state, and national level, display multiple spatial layers, and query single data points. Mapping applications available from Envirofacts include EnviroMappers, Window to my Environment, and OpenLink.
Window to My Environment
This site is a powerful web-based tool that provides a wide variety of federal, state, and local information about environmental conditions and features, and can be accessed using your zip code, or city/town and state. You can choose to use the site in three ways:
- State of the Art Interactive Maps which shows the location of regulated facilities, monitoring sites, water bodies, population densities, streets and schools, counties, perspective geographic views, with hotlinks to state/federal information about items of interest, including three-dimensional views of the local land use patterns.
- Your Window provides selected geographic statistics about your area including estimated population, county/urban areas designations, and local watersheds and waterbodies.
- Your Environment links information from federal, state, and local partners on environmental issues such as air and water quality, watershed health, Superfund sites, fish advisories, impaired waters and local services working to protect the environment in your area of interest.
You can also link to EPA's Envirofacts, TRI Explorer, and Surf Your Watershed tools, as well as state environmental tools.
EnviroMapper StoreFront
Using your zip code, you can map EPA-regulated facilities, link to Window to My Environment, Environmental Justice geographic assessment information, Brownfields Tax Incentive Zones, Surface Water, and Superfund cleanup sites.
Surf Your Watershed
This home site accesses four spatial tools for watersheds:
- Locate Your Watershed You locate your area by zip code, state, county, tribal nation, watershed number, or stream name.
- Watershed Atlas This is a catalog of geo-spatial displays and analyses of information and data important for watershed protection and restoration. It is accessed via geography, theme, key word, source/organization. It includes the following "themes"
- General water: information on specific watersheds nationwide with point of contact and URL
- Condition: same as above
- Downstream Effects: information on two specific projects with point of contact and URL
- Demographics: information on specific databases and projects with point of contact and URL
- General other: links to resources nationwide
- Ecological health: links to resources nationwide
- Response program: New York United Watershed Assessment
- Geographically organized maps: includes a national atlas of the US (USGS) and index of watershed indicators, state maps, large ecosystems, and national estuary programs, and watershed maps
- Use of Resources: includes a list of specific watershed resources, including maps, databases and URLs
- Vulnerability (stressors and pressures): includes links to specific resources and projects, with points of contact and URLs
- Local involvement: includes links to specific public involvement projects with points of contact and URLs
- Human Health: Links to specific public health resources and projects with points of contact and URLs
Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO)
ECHO can be used to determine whether compliance inspections have been conducted by EPA or state/local governments, if violations were detected, and what enforcement actions were taken and penalties were assessed in response to violations. Searches can be conducted by zip code, city, size of facility, type of data, and EPA cases.
Environmental Justice Geographic Assessment Tool
epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/assessment.html
This tool provides information relevant to any area in the continental us, including factors such as environmental, health, social, and economic. The conditions these factors integrate include, but are not limited to, adverse health impacts, environmental impacts, cumulative impacts, unique exposure pathways, vulnerable or susceptible populations, or lack of capacity to participate in decisionmaking processes. The smallest unit of geographic resolution is the census block. This tool is meant to serve as a module to be incorporated on the front end (for example, during screening) of all Agency assessments. You can zoom in to a particular geographic area biz city, county, state, zip code, watershed, EPA region, latitude/longitude, facility, or address.
This GIS-based system (EnviroMapper) includes map features such as schools, churches, streets, watersheds, political boundaries, monitoring stations, water bodies, flood zones, and impaired water bodies. Using census data, it can display demographics such as population density, per capita income, percent minority, percent below poverty level, level of education, age, and percent of homes built before 1950. Since the site uses EnviroMapper, it can also integrate information from the Envirofacts Warehouse databases. It also allows you to draw and digitize the project location on a map, which can then be queried for EJ-related information. The basemaps can be either topographical or orthophotographs.