Since joining EPA I've been engaged in a wide variety of projects and efforts - one which we are currently getting out the door is an upgraded mapper for EPA projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), otherwise known as Stimulus or the Recovery Act.
The major categories of projects receiving EPA funding via ARRA include Superfund Hazardous Waste Cleanup, Leaking Underground Storage Tanks, Clean Water State Revolving Fund (typically wastewater treatment), Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (potable water), National Clean Diesel Campaign, and Brownfields.
The idea was to provide more granular data across the various programs where EPA has been getting ARRA funding to projects.
The mapper reports on a quarterly basis, in concert with the ARRA reporting requirements, and was built on the ESRI Flex API. As a quick overview, it shows statewide figures, as choropleth map, with summary tables:
Visitors can click on the menu to view awards by program category, or to view all awards, for example:
The pushpins indicating awards can then be selected, and info boxes will pop up with the details. In the example below, we asked the mapper to show "Chelsea, MA" and turned on Clean Diesel awards, and clicking on the map pin, we get the goods, two awards for Chelsea (note, spelling of "Collabrative" comes directly from the database):
This application should improve transparency, with the direct intent of showing tangible benefit to users in showing what's going on right at the community level. As for lessons learned, the technology was far less of a challenge than the learning curve of how government works, and navigating my way through various EPA offices and stakeholders and gaining their acceptance and participation. My many thanks to all those who helped out.
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