What is WATERS?
How clean is your local lake or the stream
that travels through your favorite park?
Is your favorite ocean beach safe for
swimming?
Which waters in your state are considered
impaired?
You can find answers to these and many other
questions at the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's Watershed Assessment, Tracking, and
Environmental Results (WATERS) website
(http://www.epa.gov/waters). WATERS
unifies federal and state data from many differ-
ent sources to provide accessible water quality
information for scientists and interested citi-
zens alike. It uses a Geographic Information
System (GIS) application known as EnviroMap-
per for Water to create customized maps that
display this information.
What kinds of data are available
through WATERS?
Using WATERS, you can view and map a wide
range of information. For instance, you can
learn about:
• The uses assigned by your state to local
waters (for example, for fishing or swim-
ming);
• Waters that are impaired and do not support
their assigned uses;
• The reasons why waters are impaired (i.e.
the causes and sources of pollution in
impaired waters);
• Water monitoring information;
• Closure of swimming beaches; and
• The location of dischargers.
It is important to note that this information may
not yet be available for all states. From the
WATERS homepage, click on "Data" in the left
hand column, then click on "Availability of
Data" to find out which sets of data are avail-
able for your state.
EPA is always adding more database links and
new features to WATERS, so be sure to re-visit
the site in the future if you don't find the infor-
mation you're looking for!
Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (4503T)
EPA841-F-03-011
September 2003
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Navigating WATERS
Your first step in navigating the WATERS
website should be to check out the introductory
explanations and descriptions of databases. Go
to www.epa.gov/waters and click on "About
WATERS" and "Overview"
Interested in finding out what WATERS can
tell you about streams and lakes in your neigh-
borhood? Fire up your computer, go to
www.epa.gov/waters, and follow this sample
pathway (there are many other paths you could
take):
1. Click on "Tools" in the left hand column.
2. Click on "EnviroMapper for Water."
3. Click on the map to launch EnviroMapper.
(For tips on using EnviroMapper, click on
the "Help" button below the map).
4. Scroll down to the "Zoom to Area" menu
below the map.
HINT: To label the
waterbodies on your map,
first click on the "Surface
Waters" triangle in the
left hand column to see a
menu of waterbody types
(such as streams, lakes, and
wetlands). Specify the ones
you want to be labeled.
5. Click on the "Zip Codes" button and then
type your zip in the box on the right (on the
same line).
6. Scroll down and click on the "Zoom to
Selected Area" box to pull up a map of your
zip code. Then check the Map Features you
want to see displayed or labeled (such as
impaired waters, watershed boundaries, or
facilities).
7. Hit "Update Map" to display your desired
features on the map.
8. To find out more about any one of these
features, click on the "Active" button for
the appropriate feature layer (e.g., impaired
waters), then on the "Identify Active
Feature" button in the right hand column.
Then simply click on the feature on the
map itself. A brief report will appear in
the message area below the map, including
links to more detailed information.
C [J C * Water Quality Stations
4 MMes Wjde (Local)
' Identify Artiue Featu
C (Add _^J Active Feature Label
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Questions or comments about WATERS? Send us an email by clicking on "Contact Us"
at the top or the bottom of the main WATERS page at www.epa.gov/waters.
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