Environment

Environmental Protection Agency
• The EPA data warehouse features data and maps on air quality, water, toxic releases and a wide range of environmental topics. Data is searchable by city or county, making it an excellent jumping-off point.
• The EPA also provides downloadable maps and data sets for a variety of topics, including county-specific air quality, statewide trends and hazardous pollutants. And the agency’s Toxics Release Inventory records annual toxic-chemical releases and waste-management activities at certain industrial and federal facilities.
• Under the Toxic Substance Control Act, the EPA requires U.S. chemical makers, importers, processors and distributors to disclose evidence if their products could pose a danger to human health or the environment. The site is searchable and can be sorted by month of submission.
• In 1980, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, commonly called Superfund, was established to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites. Information from the EPA on Superfund sites and other environmentally contaminated locations can be found here, sorted by geographical region. The site also provides information about remediation processes.

California Office of Planning and Research
The state clearinghouse for California, CEQAnet, provides information about construction projects, including environmental impact statements, reports or negative declarations.

USA Today
In December 2008, USA Today published a series of stories along with an interactive database looking at air quality around the nation’s public and private schools. The interactive database allows readers to plug in the name and location of a school and get a national air-quality ranking. The database also provides readers with a list of chemicals that are produced near schools and chemicals that have been found in the air.

Environmental Working Group
The Environmental Working Group provides water-quality information for more than 40,000 water districts nationwide, including contamination figures and safety violations.