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Have you ever wondered:. “ Is our local lake clean and healthy?”. “Have the streams in my neighborhood ever been tested for pollution?”. “ If my dog drinks from this pond, can that be harmful to him?”. “Is there any risk to my kids if they play in the creek?”.
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Have you ever wondered: “ Is our local lake clean and healthy?” “Have the streams in my neighborhood ever been tested for pollution?” “ If my dog drinks from this pond, can that be harmful to him?” “Is there any risk to my kids if they play in the creek?” “How can water pollution damage human health or harm the economy?” “Is anyone doing anything to fix water pollution problems?”
How’s My Waterway (www.epa.gov/mywaterway) • EPA’s Office of Water designed How’s My Waterway to help the public get their answers and be: • easy • local • fast • map or list format • in plain English • scientifically accurate
Begin here (web/app version)… …or touch the map (kiosk version)… …then dig a little deeper…
…for waterway-specific details, and more … …all in plain English
Risk & Novelty Efficiency & Effectiveness • All existing EPA data, architecture, services • Cost-free public outreach for 50 states • Non-tech press coverage (3 million+ Google hits) showed ‘they get it’ • Risk: Public not knowing polluted waters • Sci/tech translated to public/non-tech, nationally • First EPA plain-English water pollutant descriptions • Among first EPA platform-independent websites, kiosks Collaboration & Engagement Transferability & Scalability • All states data • Engagement: what’s being done, how you can help • Kiosk partners NOAA, Smithsonian, museums • Multi-skilled team product (coding, science, outreach, web design) • Model for science agencies to achieve vital public outreach more clearly • Design elements being adopted in tech database revisions • Plain English writeups used by educators