EPA Releases New Tool with Information about Water Pollution Across the U.S.

Have you ever wondered where all that information you report on your Discharge Monitoring Report goes? Or have you simply wondered, perhaps, about the actual quality of the waterways in your local area?

Well, the USEPA has just released a new tool that will provide the public with just that type of information. The USEPA has dubbed the tool “the Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool” and it  brings together millions of records and allows for easy searching and mapping of water pollution by local area, watershed, company, industry sector, and pollutant. Americans can use this new tool to protect their health and the health of their communities.

According to a USEPA Press Release:

“Transparency leads to greater accountability and better information about pollution in our nation’s communities,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “By making the data we collect available in easy to use tools, we are keeping Americans informed about the health of the environment in their neighborhoods.”

Searches using the DMR Pollutant Loading Tool result in “top ten” lists to help users easily identify facilities and industries that are discharging the most pollution and impacted waterbodies. When discharges are above permitted levels, users can view the violations and link to details about enforcement actions that EPA and states have taken to address these violations.

Facilities releasing water pollution directly into our nation’s waterways, such as wastewater treatment plants or industrial manufacturers, must receive a permit to discharge under the Clean Water Act. Each permit sets specific limits for how much can be discharged. It also requires the permittee to frequently sample their wastewater discharges and report the data to their state or EPA permitting authority.

A link to the new tool can be found on EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) website, which provides information about inspections, facility compliance, and state and federal enforcement actions. EPA has also released several new ECHO features, including a search for criminal enforcement cases and web developer tools that make it easy to tap into ECHO reports and maps.

DMR Pollutant Loading Tool: http://www.epa.gov/pollutantdischarges
ECHO: http://www.epa-echo.gov/echo

More information about new features in ECHO: http://www.epa-echo.gov/echo/recent_additions.html