Sometimes the best way to show the impact of toxics on the environment is to see it on a map. Even better, to see how close it might be to your home! This is a great tool to use with students so they can “personalize” the reality of the impact of industry on their lives. It’s called MapEcos and it allows you to find out whether there are any high toxic risk industrial facilities in your neighborhood. It’s a Google Maps mashup based on the EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data.
It’s built on top of Google Maps and users are able to search by location (address, zip code, city) or simply zoom in on the map. The application will display all toxic facilities for any requested area presenting them using red (high emission levels) and blue (low emission levels) markers.
Now you’re curious! So click this link and see for yourself. You’ll be surprised to find what’s not to far from where you live. Show it to your students and encourage them to learn more about their environment.
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Hi – saw your post about the mapecos toxic maps – “Never Before Seen…”. These sort of maps have been seen before but it\’s been awhile. Post 9/11 put a lot of fear in folks and online maps of hazards suffered. They have been seen before. In 1996 I developed the Santa Cruz TRI – the first U.S. Based Toxic Release maps on the internet. In 1997 I created the interactive maps for Environmental Defense Fund\’s very popular scorecard project. Between then and now I’ve created many interactive toxic maps for the internet. Check http://www.mapcruzin.com/projects/ for some of this. Most recently I’ve created Google Earth TRI maps and TRI maps base on google maps at http://www.toxicrisk.com. Soon we’ll be adding superfund, hazardous waste, water pollution, demographics, schools and playgrounds to the data. Toxicrisk also has a searchable database of EPA Risk Management Plans. Lots to do but all worthwhile. Thanks.
The MapEcos site is wonderful and I’m sure they’ll be updating it soon. Right now it is based on 2005 data. We just completed toxicrisk.com. It is based on Google Maps as well and uses the latest (released 3/19/2009) TRI data. We also have a searchable database of EPA Risk Management plans. Visit http://www.toxicrisk.com to view the site and find the latest information on toxics in your neighborhood. We are also adding superfund, water pollution and hazardous waste.