New Tools to Explore Pollution in Your Neighborhood

Today Coosa Riverkeeper published two new interactive maps to its website. These maps allow you to explore permitted polluters that are in your neighborhood. One map lists all of the 850 permitted polluters in the Middle & Lower Coosa Basins where Coosa Riverkeeper works. Another shows just the 67 permitted sewer plants. Coosa Riverkeeper encourages you to see what pollution exists in your neighborhood and places you enjoy recreating so you’ll be better informed about what you’re swimming, fishing, or boating in! Just zoom in to your area, and click around. An icon pops up telling you the name of the facility. If you want to learn more about a facility, and check their compliance status, simply Copy the “NPDES Permit Number,” go to EPA ECHO, click on “Explore Facilities,” and Paste the permit number into the search field.

To be clear, some business are required to get pollution permits even though they cause very little pollution (and they are therefore included on this map), while some facilities or operations cause pollution but don’t have a permit (and they are therefore not included on this map). If you see pollution, help us stop it by reporting it to us!

All permitted polluters in the Middle & Lower Coosa Basin:

All permitted sewer plant in the Middle & Lower Coosa Basin:

The source of the data for both maps is the EPA’s ECHO (Enforcement and Compliance History Online) Database which features many tools that we use to help focus our efforts on enforcing the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws. While the data is pretty good, there are a few inaccuracies that we have noted, such as the location of the icons may not always be exactly where the facility is located. If you notice an error like this, please let us know by dropping us a line at [email protected].

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