In My Backyard (Part 1): Locally Grown: Federal Information
Sources for your Neighborhood Jennie Gerke, Head of White Business
Library, University of Colorado at Boulder Lisa Nickum, Government
Publications Librarian, Colorado School of Mines Barbara Whalen,
Collection Specialist, Denver Public Library
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Overview We will introduce some quick sites on local
information from a variety of agencies We will also go more
in-depth on Climate.gov and MyEnvironment from the EPA
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U.S. Government and Local Data Federal government has been
collecting data for decades in order to govern effectively
Government lacked effective methods to distribute massive amounts
of data to the public Technology over the past 5- 10 years has
allowed greater dissemination of this data, including previously
hard to find local data
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Weather.gov http://www.weather.gov Everyday weather site Local
forecast by zip code or by city, state Other local weather features
also available Radar & Satellite Images Hourly Weather Graph
National Digital Forecast Database
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Information Center http://www.weather.gov/informationcenter
All-in-one current weather source Data from multiple agencies Fire
Weather Hurricanes Space Aviation Marine
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Whats new? Data is FREE to allincluding, as of the end of the
month Local Climatological Data. Integrated Map Application shows
weather stations and available data. But Map interface can be
daunting. Data retrieval and presentation differs among
products.
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Integrated Map Application
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CoCoRaHS stands for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail
& Snow network. It is a unique, non-profit, community-based
network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together
to measure and map precipitation (rain, snow and hail). GHCN =
Global Historical Climate Network. Most of the blue dots are NOAA
cooperative observer stations which provide temperature (usually
maximum and minimum) in addition to precipitation data. These
include some automated stations (ASOS stations) such as official
stations at airports.
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Some data, like these graphs are available immediately
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Runs of data from NCDC may take a few minutes
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Bonus: Daily past weather by zip code
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Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy DOE initiative -
encourage energy literacy to understand energy and its interaction
with the economy and environment Help the public to discover if any
energy efficient financial assistance is available locally Energy
Savers: Rebates, Tax Credits, & Financing
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Energy Savers http://www.energysavers.gov/financial/ Valuable
energy efficiency information for all types of places (home,
vehicle, workplace) Find Incentives .. that apply to you # of
incentives by state Also has free search widget
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DSIRE Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy
http://www.dsireusa.org Select by state Gives number of incentives
List of incentives organized by funding source All types of funding
Federal, state, and local Also has free search widget Beware!! not
all funding is currently available
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My Environment from EPA
http://www.epa.gov/myenvironmenthttp://www.epa.gov/myenvironment OR
Enter your location on the EPAs home page
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What will you find? Maps, Air, Water, Energy, Health, Land,
Environmental Reports and Community Events Each page on the web
site retains this bar each icon corresponding to one of these
topics.
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Commerce City, CO Toxics from Suncor refinery spill still
seeping into water; Colorado vows to "accelerate" response Denver
Post, January 21, 2012
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19787661http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19787661
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I want details!
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Water
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Trust meits on the map Whenever you get overwhelmed, see if
there is a map of the issue you are examining. In this case Toxic
Releases to Water.
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Facility Information, Result 1 On the map you can find Suncor,
this links you to information on the facility with queries from all
the EPA databases. This is not as useful as you imagine. Note how
the results are not in date order.
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Facility Information, Step 2 If you click on EPA Facility
information you will get a list of all enforcement groups, as well
as information on the facility such as addresses, alternative
names, NAICS and contact information. Here you can finally get some
RELEVANT data : Toxic Release Inventory (number of toxins released
back to the 1990s) National Polluant Discharge Elimination
System
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National Polluant Discharge Elimination System Penalties:
Compliance: Finally, this tiny note:
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ButI didnt get the actual violation! In Colorado the agency
that handles this issue is the Colorado Department of Public Health
and the Environment. You can find more info by searching Suncor on
their web site. http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/
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Some other hidden treasures Find this at the bottom of the
compliance page (the last page we visited in the Suncor demo)
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Overlay data on Map Superfund sites and cancer risk by
tract
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Compare Sometimes you think your area is bad, but maybe it is a
statewide problem.
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Bureau of Land Management Important agency for our six states
for public land management (large parts of all 6 states) All 6
states have their own separate BLM page organized by the BLM state
office Public land management includes energy, recreation, grazing,
fire, wild horses, planning, etc. State BLM sites are a better bet
for state and local information than overall BLM website
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State BLM Websites Arizona http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en.html
Colorado http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en.html
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State BLM Websites (cont.) New Mexico
http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en.html Utah
http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en.html
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U.S. Geological Survey Not just geologic data agency also
covers science topics like climate change, invasive species, water
quality, energy, and minerals Due to wide range of activities,
U.S.G.S. often works with other agencies Desires to get agency data
out to public and works cooperative with partners in state and
local governments as well as with other entities
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Science in Your Backyard U.S. Geological Survey database that
covers geology, mineral, and water resources by state Allows one
place to find data from an agency with such a broad mission
Available on main U.S. Geological Survey website hard to locate
(bottom right) Libraries may want to highlight because of placement
on website
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Science in Your Backyard http://www.usgs.gov/state/ All data
for states organized similarly o New releases of interest for state
o Real-time information for water, floods, streamflow, drought,
earthquakes o Highlighted state links o Map with general geographic
data Example of Wyoming News Release o Stream-water quality changes
from coalbed gas development o Easily found in the Wyoming page o
Very difficult to find on main agency page
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Federal Cooperation on Data Some individual agencies worked on
creative dissemination methods to distribute more of their data to
citizens Most agencies are aware of the new demands of data, data,
data by the general public Some projects create central
repositories for data from multiple agencies This is a win-win
situation for everyone involved
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Questions? Jennie Gerke, Lisa Nickum, and Barbara Whalen