II.A: Transparency History and Baseline

Each year take concrete steps to function more transparently to support our effort to be fair, open and inclusive.

Other Information:

Each year EPA takes concrete steps to function more transparently to support our effort to be fair, open and inclusive. We leverage emerging and proven technologies and were early adopters of the Internet, creating the first EPA home page (www.epa.gov) in 1994. One of the cornerstone laws compelling EPA’s early campaign of openness was the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), the primary purpose of which was to make environmental data available to the public and local communities. One program established by EPCRA is the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which requires EPA to provide the public with information about releases and waste management of over 600 toxic chemicals. EPCRA also requires that industrial plants provide important information to local firefighters and emergency responders so they are better prepared if an emergency arises at their plants. Our experience with the success of EPCRA prompted us to work internationally to promote transparency. The result is that countries around the world began to promote public access and adopt systems like TRI. The success of EPCRA underscores how transparency and public access empowers communities to take action to protect their local environment. As part of EPA’s overall effort to make our data more accessible to the public, we created a variety of online search tools. For example, we have worked to make data available online, including Surf Your Watershed (http://cfpub.epa.gov/surf/locate/index.cfm), which allows the public to find their community’s watershed profiles. The EPA’s National Library Network also provides public access to environmental information for decision making and environmental awareness (www.epa.gov/libraries/). We have developed an online search tool that allows citizens to search for reported releases by ZIP code, year, state, etc. (www.epa.gov/triexplorer). EPA has also taken the next step in transparency by creating search tools that bring together data from multiple data sources. The intent of these integrated search tools is to make sure citizens have a more comprehensive picture of the environmental issues in their community. The Envirofacts website search tools (http://www.epa.gov/enviro/), and the underlying database warehouse, provide the public with a single point of access to a diverse set of EPA information about environmental activities that may affect air, water, and land anywhere in the United States. MyEnvironment (www.epa.gov/myenvironment/) is an application that pulls data stored in Envirofacts as well as other sources. Cleanups in My Community (http://iaspub.epa.gov/Cleanups/) allows users to map or list cleanups for EPA's cleanup programs, with a link to additional data.

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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