White House orders agencies to collect water quality data
National environmental indicators intended to help decision-makers, public.
The White House on Tuesday directed federal agencies to begin producing consistent information about water availability, including quality and quantity. The pilot program, which will be led by the Forest Service, is part of a broader plan to develop a set of national indicators that will chart environmental trends.
The national environmental status and trends indicators, or NEST, as the broader plan is known, are to be used to create "high-quality, scientifically based statistical measures of selected conditions of our environment and natural resources" that government officials, lawmakers and others can use to assess the impact of federal programs.
Federal agencies and their nongovernment partners collect an enormous amount of environmental data for research, programmatic and regulatory missions, but the data are often difficult to find, combine, compare and aggregate.
"Today it is virtually impossible to broadly describe, consistently characterize or confidently assess the condition of air, land and water over time, at any national or regional scale, despite the magnitude of monitoring data collected and compiled throughout the nation," according to a White House policy memo on NEST.
Such indicators are critical to assess the effectiveness of government policies, said Clay Johnson, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. "We currently lack consistent information on the environment and natural resources to analyze national trends," he said.
The pilot program was conceived by OMB, the Council on Environmental Quality, and the Office of Science and Technology based on recommendations by the National Academy of Public Administration in December 2007. In a letter to agency administrators, the White House offices said the pilot "will demonstrate the collaborative interagency processes that will be used to select and implement indicators and will improve the consistency and interoperability of data."
In addition, agencies are to work cooperatively through an executive management team to convene a national forum that will identify the topics and questions that the indicators of water availability should address.
Based on the results of the pilot project, agencies are to develop standards and protocols for collection, archiving and delivery of data, which will be done under the auspices of the National Science and Technology Council. The NEST indicators are to be developed using data provided by ongoing federal and state environmental and natural resource inventory and monitoring programs to the extent possible.
If it turns out that consistent indicators cannot be created by modifying existing programs, then the White House would consider expanding existing data collection programs or creating new ones.