EPA Water Quality Assessments and Impaired Waters Listings

Environmental Protection Agency data on surface water conditions across the United States. States report water pollution assessments every two years, identifying impaired waters that do not meet quality standards. The information is publicly available via the ATTAINS web and geospatial services.

Use Cases

• Analyze state-reported water quality assessments to identify trends in impaired waters listings over time.
• Map degraded waters requiring pollution reduction actions using ATTAINS geospatial services data.
• Study the biennial assessment process under the Clean Water Act to evaluate reporting compliance and pollution patterns.

Strengths

• Data originates from the authoritative U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Includes nationwide coverage of surface water assessments reported by states and territories.
• Updated through a mandated biennial reporting cycle under the Clean Water Act.

Limitations

• Specific data structure, column names, and sample size are unavailable from the input.
• The extracted nature of the submission may limit direct access to live ATTAINS system features.
• Potential inconsistencies may arise from varying state-level assessment methodologies.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ATTAINS system

Collection Method

Extracted public data from the EPA's online Assessment, Total Maximum Daily Load Tracking and Implementation System.

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

United States (Nation's surface waters)