The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a new tool that provides the public with information about discharges into local waterways. The Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool brings together millions of records and allows for searching and mapping of water discharges by local area, watershed, company, industry sector, and pollutant.
Searches using the DMR Pollutant Loading Tool result in “top ten” lists to help users identify facilities and industries that are discharging the most pollutants 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.
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 for ECHO reports and maps.