USGS Water Database Project
In the past, every state agency that dealt with water maintained its own database with information about Minnesota waters. However, a goal of the Clean Water Fund is to centralize water information within and between agencies. This database improves government efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency. The USGS database project is just one part of the Clean Water Fund’s centralization goals, but it shows how agencies can cooperate to create shared information databases.
Contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) are contaminants that come from non-traditional sources such as pharmaceuticals, consumer products, or pesticides. Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) staff rely on other scientists’ data to determine which CECs are commonly found in the environment in Minnesota.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is the main agency collecting data about CECs in water sources. They’ve been collecting CEC data since 1995 from over 200 sites in Minnesota. However, these data are not easily accessible. The goal of this project is to compile all published CEC data from the USGS into a single electronic database.
With guidance from MDH, the US Geological Survey (USGS) is putting all of its Minnesota CEC data into a database. The resulting database of hundreds of CECs will include hundreds of thousands of individual measurements of chemicals in water. As each study is added to the database, it’s examined to ensure consistency in reporting. Once the database is compiled, it will be available to multiple state agencies that need CEC information, and USGS will continue to update the database with any new or different CEC information.
This project:
- Allows multiple agencies to easily access all of the USGS’s published data on Minnesota CECs.
- Makes CEC data retrieval much more efficient.
- Promotes interagency communication about CECs.
$1,150,000 the first year and $1,150,000 the second are for addressing public health concerns related to contaminants found in Minnesota drinking water for which no health-based drinking water standards exist, including accelerating the development of health risk limits, including triclosan, and improving the capacity of the department's laboratory to analyze unregulated contaminants.
$1,100,000 the first year and $1,100,000 the second year are for addressing public health concerns related to contaminants found in Minnesota drinking water for which no health-based water standards exist, including accelerating the development of health risk limits and improving capacity of the department's laboratory to analyze unregulated contaminants.
The commissioner shall contract with the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota to provide an independent review of the department's drinking water contaminants of emerging concern program. The review must include an assessment of the process used by the department to rank contaminants that are threats to drinking water supplies and include a comparison of efforts at the department with efforts by other states and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The review must be submitted to the Clean Water Council and the chairs and ranking minority members of the House of Representatives and Senate committees and divisions with jurisdiction over environment and natural resources by June 1, 2016.