Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Toxic Water Polluters on Google Maps

NY Times Toxic Waters Map

The New York Times has compiled data on more than 200,000 facilities that have permits to discharge pollutants and have collected responses from states regarding compliance. The paper has made all of this data available via a very cool Google Maps mashup.

It is possible to search the map by city or zip code or by selecting a state. Violations are shown on the map by small orange map markers. When you roll over the markers an information window opens with the violation details.

Facilities are also listed below the map, with information about their last inspection and the number of violations of the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Also See
  • MapEcos - Another map of the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) dataset from the EPA.
  • American towns damaged by toxic waste - Google Maps and YouTube videos.. created by The Center for Public Integrity.
  • Toxic Risk -map showing all of the US states based on the EPA Toxic Release Inventory

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3 comments:

Michael Schnuerle said...

We also have the EPA's toxic release inventory for the Ubited States mapped at Your Mapper, with an API, kml and rss feeds, and a mobile version.

http://www.yourmapper.com/y/6

Metro Mapper said...

The New York Times map is especially impressive from a technical standpoint due to the sheer volume of data shown on the map at once.

Here is the full link to the Your Mapper toxic release inventory map with 22,880 data points (I tried to post the previous comment via tiny mobile screen):

www.yourmapper.com/map/14b7ccaa3c315ed748cc4dbf306f25e8a5e046d2/toxic-pollution-emissions/epa039s-2006-toxic-pollution-emission.htm

Use the links below the map to get KML and RSS feeds.

Here is the mobile version:

www.yourmapper.com/m/index.php?id=14b7ccaa3c315ed748cc4dbf306f25e8a5e046d2

Mike Meuser said...

Also, check out ToxicRisk.com. We've used the latest full release of the toxic release inventory data (2007), done some custom programming with Perl to create a Google Map mashup showing facilities,amounts released, chemical data and schools within 1 mile and 5 miles of each facility in the U.S.

http://www.toxicrisk.com