The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established a single portal on the Web for all environmental data entering the agency. The Central Data Exchange (CDX) offers companies, states, and other entities that provide data to EPA a faster, easier, and more secure reporting option, according to EPA information.
The portal also includes built-in data quality checks, web forms, standard file formats, and a common, user friendly approach to reporting data across vastly different environmental programs, such as the toxic release inventory, unregulated contaminant monitoring rule, risk management plans, and public water system supervision.
According to the agency, CDX saves money by reducing redundant infrastructure. CDX currently accepts data for certain air, water, waste, and toxic programs; and will gradually expand to support all agency environmental reporting by 2004. Though the current focus is electronic, CDX will eventually incorporate a facility for paper data collections as well. More information is available at www.epa.gov/cdx.