Comments on: Welcome to the Data Finder Forum

By: emcmah02

emcmah02 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:32:20 +0000

For wsunderland: We’re looking into ways to search for data sources that have information about specific substances like asbestos. In the meantime, here are websites that have information about asbestos:

Where can I find an accredited laboratory to test for asbestos?
http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/help.html#labs

EPA Asbestos site:
http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/

I hope that helps.

By: emcmah02

emcmah02 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:26:01 +0000

For Dean Gee: Data Finder is a new product so this is its first design. We’re looking into ways to search for data sources that have information about specific substances like VOCs. I’ll email you so I can understand what you’re looking for.

By: w sunderland

w sunderland — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:59:53 +0000

I am concerned about ceiling tiles in a property that I recently purchased. I entered “asbestos” in your data finder and got no hits?
I entered “asbestos testing”and got no hits. My inquiries are so fundamental, I’m surprised there are no referrals at all.

By: Dean Gee

Dean Gee — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:35:32 +0000

new website is not very useful compared to previous design, had difficulty finding info on VOCs (volatile organic compounds), direct links to major subjects such as air, waste, water, etc. have been removed.

By: emcmah02

emcmah02 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:37:20 +0000

For John Harding: Thanks for taking a look at EPA’s Data Finder. We’re always looking for ways to improve it.

Data Finder points to the web sites where you can download EPA’s data, particularly if they’re in the form of datasets. At this point, EPA does not have many datasets about carbon dioxide, so Data Finder shows no results. However, I found a few sites, many of which I found with EPA’s search engine, that may interest you:

Carbon Dioxide sources, etc.:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/co2.html

Carbon Dioxide emissions:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/globalghg.html

2009 U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report (pdf):
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreport.html

2009 U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, tables of data that are compressed in zip format:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads/2009-main-tables.zip

Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, part of U.S. Department of Energy:
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/

We plan to provide links to pages such as these to Data Finder. I hope this is helpful. We would like to hear your suggestions for data sources to add to Data Finder.

By: john harding

john harding — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:43:38 +0000

Searching for “carbon dioxide” or even “csrbon” yields zero results. What gives?

By: emcmah02

emcmah02 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:07:03 +0000

for Lynne: I’m assuming you are looking for general information about solid waste generated by households. I’ve included some of EPA’s websites about solid waste, recycling and composting below.

Recycling
This page describes recycling in general and provides links to other resources (see the links on the right of the page).
http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/recycle.htm

Solid Waste
This page describes municipal solid waste in general and provides links to other resources (see the links on the right of the page).
http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/index.htm

Composting
This is EPA’s general page about composting.
http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/composting/

By: emcmah02

emcmah02 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:41:47 +0000

Re: Glenn Fisher’s comment: Thanks for your question. I’m sorry you didn’t find what you were looking for on Data Finder. Data Finder points to EPA pages that have downloadable data sets. We are adding sites about specific chemicals, so the list of sites should grow over time.

If you want to know about mercury, I suggest you try http://www.epa.gov/mercury. This site includes information about the health effects from mercury as well as its sources. Try these other sites for more information.

2002 National Emissions Inventory has data about mercury speciation.
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/net/2002inventory.html

TRI Explorer helps you find facilities that have emitted mercury above a certain threshold amount.
http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/

2002 National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment lets you download a set of data about specific chemicals.
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/nata2002/tables.html#table1

If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, feel free to contact me and I’ll help you find the right resources

By: Glenn Fisher

Glenn Fisher — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:27:18 +0000

I typed in ‘mercury’ into the box in your data finder, and nothing came up at all. You have got to be kidding. Of all the crap about mercury, it came up with nothing? What kind of agency is this? You can have all the fancy facebook pics and hyperlinks and web page fancy stuff, but a person cannot just type in mercury and get anything at all? If I was the director, I would start firing people, until I could get some results, in your data finder. This is a total embarrassment of my EPA. I will have to show this to places around. I wonder, after reading this little note, if anyone has the nerve to actually email me that they have actually updated this. I would imagine the embarrassment of the EPA would be that you will not.

By: emcmah02

emcmah02 — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:11:57 +0000

for Peter Cartwright: The document entitled “Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure: Municipal Handbook: Rainwater Harvesting Policies” is at this URL:
http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/gi_munichandbook_harvesting.pdf