Navigating Local Water Quality Information
| The new interactive mapping program was one of four projects recently selected to receive a State Program Innovation Award at the national 2010 Environmental Council of States (ECOS) annual meeting. ECOS is the national non-profit non-partisan association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders. Read more about ECOS at www.ecos.org. The following interactive maps are available to view: |
An interactive mapping program developed by Ohio EPA is the latest tool available online to help Ohioans become familiar with local waterways.
Ohio EPA Director Chris Korleski said, “I am excited to offer this tool that lets Ohioans get familiar with their area environmentally. They can see what regulated facilities are around them, and use that knowledge to improve their watershed.”
The maps are built atop Google Maps, an interface familiar to many users. By applying the technology to environmental uses, Ohio EPA’s interactive mapping can be used to:
- locate where combined sewer overflow outfalls are located;
- find concentrated animal feeding operations and biosolids land application sites;
- locate individual wastewater discharge permittees with a link to U.S. EPA’s enforcement compliance history for each permit holder;
- see the stream reaches where fish consumption advisories are in place;
- check on a local stream’s biological monitoring and assessment data to learn how healthy it is (this has been called one of the larger biological databases in the world); and
- learn about water chemistry and stream sediment data for further detail on waterways.
Maps can be loaded for a base, roadmap-type view, a terrain view or an imagery view which is from a satellite photo. Ohio EPA plans to continue adding to the system, incorporating more data.
Targeted programs include tracking for storm water permits and water quality certifications, progress on watershed cleanup plans and enforcement activities and locations.
An example of the Biological Monitoring and Assessment Map.