Creating EPA’s DMR Pollutant Loading Tool

Tens of thousands of regulated entities regularly monitor their wastewater pollutant discharges and report these data to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Under the Clean Water Act Action Plan, EPA wanted to make these data widely available—something it had not previously done due to their volume and complexity. EPA’s Office of Compliance turned to ERG for help.  

Working closely with EPA, ERG developed the Discharge Monitoring Report Pollutant Loading Tool to improve public access to information about pollutant discharges. This tool uses compliance monitoring data to calculate discharge quantities, and combines data from other EPA databases to create new insights on point source pollution. Available on EPA’s website since 2012, the tool is widely used by government agencies, environmental groups, regulated facilities, and the general public.