Subject: RE: Question for Sept 19: What about EPA's info?
I agree that the national databases, such as those you can access through Envirofacts, have problems with data quality and timeliness. In addition, I would agree that the information that can be gleaned from these systems doesn't necessarily tell us everything we need to know. Much of the data, afterall, is facility-specific and cannot be readily linked to ambient conditions.
Still, there is a wealth of information that could be used in these systems, and I am certain that the more they are used, the greater will be the incentives to make improvements -- including incentives for states to assure timely and correct updates to various fields. I certainly hope EPA will continue to use and advertise the availability of these databases at the same time they work on improvements.
These databases need to be used with some level of caution and the appropriate caveats, but the data can nonetheless be used to solve problems, tell stories and ask probing questions.
One example: In my long years with a national environmental groups, I heard countless complaints from local activists who learned to late about permit hearings and proceedings at the state level. I can't tell you how many times someone wanted to FedEx me several inches of paper so that I could review it and help them write testimony for a permit hearing three days later. When Envirofacts went up, I figured I might be able to help folks deal with the timing issue -- at least for permit renewals. While working for Friends of the Earth, I queried Envirofacts for every state to download a list of expiration dates for all major wastewater permits. I took the data in CVS form from the EPA web page, dropped it into a database, sorted each state by the date of the permit expiration and posted the list for each state on the Friends of the Earth website. From that site, local groups and individuals can take a look at what's coming due. We provided a small amount of background info and urged folks to get in touch with the state permit writers well before the expiration date. Unfortunately, the large number of expired permits throws the validity of the repermitting schedule out the window for many facilities. (But that fact generated its own report.) Unfortunately, it was a bit of a headache to run all the needed queries and reformat all the data, but ideally FoE or someone else could rerun this data at 3 or 6 month intervals and people could think about upcoming permits rather than panic when they receive a 30-day notice for public comment. If states are uncomfortable with the status of the EPA databases for one reason or another, I think it would be great for state permitting agency's to, themselves, offer this sort of "alert" service. They could also help out on new permits by making a posting everytime a new permit application is received. That would allow local folks to start reviewing the information and collecting their thoughts and ideas before the draft permit is already written and the comment period restricted.
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