1977 to present data on municipal wastewater treatment plants discharging into marine waters under the Clean Water Act Section 301(h) waiver program. The dataset, managed by SCIOPS and sourced from NASA EarthData, contains monitoring information for facilities granted modified permits waiving secondary treatment requirements.
Use Cases
- Analyze compliance trends by comparing reported biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids (SS) levels against permit limits.
- Model the environmental impact of marine discharges using permit data, location information, and reported pollutant concentrations.
- Assess the geographic distribution and operational characteristics of Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) with 301(h) waivers.
- Track changes in wastewater treatment performance over time using time-series data on key parameters like pH, BOD, and SS.
Strengths
- Long-term program with data collection mandated since the 1977 amendments to the Clean Water Act.
- Focuses on specific, regulated pollutants (BOD, SS, pH) with defined monitoring requirements.
Limitations
- Specific row count, column details, and sample data are unavailable, limiting assessment of dataset scope and structure.
- Temporal coverage start date is known, but recency and update frequency of the records are unknown.
Provenance
- Source
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1 301(H) Monitoring Program, via NASA EarthData.
- Collection Method
- Regulatory monitoring data submitted by Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program.
- Time Range
- 1977 to present
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- EPA Region 1 (New England), focusing on marine dischargers.