Especially troubling were the different nomenclatures used on the databases. That's when we got the idea to build a centralized data warehouse and link it to the World Wide Web so that information could be made available to the general public and to EPA's 17,000 employees. Reports on everything from air pollution levels and water-discharge permit compliance to hazardous waste site assessments can be retrieved quickly and easily. Instead of memorizing complex database languages, users can send queries by completing online forms requesting facility names and addresses. Internally, EPA employees use the site to closely track hazardous waste and a variety of air, water and ground pollutants.
External users rely on the site to keep up to date on regulatory data.
Since building the data warehouse and linking it to the Web, most of our Freedom of Information Act requests have gone away. Data warehousing is revolutionizing the way federal agencies access and use information. Government organizations are consolidating disparate databases running on incompatible computer systems and forming centralized data repositories that enable quick information retrieval. Specialized tools are being used to manipulate data in those repositories to reveal patterns that can help executives make decisions and ultimately boost efficiency and cut costs. Best of all, data warehouses make a variety of information readily available to a variety of people.