You most likely hear news reports about water pollution in your area from time to time, but you've probably never had an easy way to find out what's going on in your local waterways. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency made this a little easier by releasing the test version of a web tool that lets you search pollution levels in your area, and they are looking for public feedback on it. The Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool, as EPA has dubbed it, provides 2007 waste water discharge amounts from over 20,000 industrial and municipal facilities with Clean Water Act licenses. The tool's audience is water pollution experts and the public. To simplify things for folks like you and me, they have set up an "EZSearch" so you can search the database for information by zip code, pollutant and even industry.
The tool was created as part of EPA's Clean Water Action Plan, which seeks to improve transparency of information and public knowledge about pollutant releases that may cause water impairment. Since this is a test version, there are potentially errors and areas for improvement. EPA accepts comments and questions on the tool at waterloadings-AT-epa.gov. After the public comment period passes on February 4, the EPA plans to add more yearly data to the tool.
I searched my zip code and found nothing which makes sense since I am land locked. My hometown zip code provided a lot of interesting information on the top pollutants where I grew up. You should take a look! What do you find about water pollution near your home?
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