Question of access is political science not rocket science

[Mike Meuser <meuser@mapcruzin.com>]

Making data available to the public is not rocket-science,
but it may be political science.  Maybe rather than talking
about what is not available and in what form it should be
in and the like, we should be talking about the political
forces -- the power -- that created the access we see now
and prevents us from getting what we need in the future.

An example of how this is not rocket-science is as follows
(forgive me, I'm a map guy and yes it'll be about maps again).
It took me about 20 hours to get the data from RTK, deal
with the longitudes and latitudes to create my free 1998
TRI map layers.  In a few months I could do the same for
all TRI reporting years plus do maps that showed trends
over time for various releases and chemicals like I have
done for 97 to 98 at 
http://www.mapcruzin.com/1998_tri_maps/index.html 
but at much more detail. Or I could do something like my 
Santa Cruz TRI that shows all releases for all years, for
the nation - see 
http://www.mapcruzin.com/scruztri/scruztri.html
If I had the locational data (which I'm sure EPA has) I 
could use RTK's data to do the same for TSDs, accidental 
releases, all varieties of superfund (npl, nnpl, nfa) and 
more.  In say 6 months one guy could create all this, put 
it online for download -- the works. And it's not only maps.  
Each arcview shapefile has an associated dbf file that is 
viewable with excel. Anyone could map multiple releases, 
sites and sources like I did at 
http://www.mapcruzin.com/svtc_mult/ for silicon valley 
(note that I link to RTK net for detailed reports and 
Scorecard for health effects. Is EPA's budget big enough 
to do this? One would think. Sure, this would put guys like
me out of work. But then again, I'm lucky if I get paid for
10 hours out of 100 and I'd finally have time to finish
up my dissertation, "Right to Know or Left to Wonder? Public
Disclosure of Environmental Information in the Information Age".

I'm oversimplifying, I know.  There's more to it of course,
but is there that much more to it?  Point is the answer to
our access problems is not in the mechanical skills, knowledge,
and resources to do the job.  It's whether or not EPA has the 
ability and the will to stand up to political pressure and 
do the right thing for society in general rather than the
minority with the economic and political power.