The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced the release of a new resource designed to provides the public with important information about pollutants that are released into local waterways. This resource, the Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool, brings together millions of records and is designed to allow for easy searching and mapping of water pollution by local area, watershed, company, industry sector, and pollutant.
Searches using the DMR Pollutant Loading Tool result in “top ten” lists to help users easily identify facilities and industries that are discharging the most pollution 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.
Facilities releasing water pollution directly into our nation’s waterways, such as wastewater treatment plants or industrial manufacturers, must receive a permit to discharge under the Clean Water Act. Each permit sets specific limits for how much can be discharged. It also requires the permittee to frequently sample their wastewater discharges and report the data to their state or EPA permitting authority.
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 that make it easy to tap into ECHO reports and maps.
Background information:
EPA: Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool
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