In 1990, several states asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help them share information about fish consumption advisories, so EPA's Office of Science and Technology called on Research Triangle Institute for technical support. RTI researchers developed the Listing of Fish and Wildlife Advisories, which contains information about the locations of advisories, fish species under advisories, chemical pollutants that triggered the advisories, and the populations at risk. These populations may include all members of the general public when contamination is severe or may include only specific subgroups. Over the past few years, RTI staff have continued to update and improve the Advisory listing. In 1993, Randall Williams built querying and mapping capabilities into the database, which EPA distributed to all 50 states and interested individuals.
Users can download the listing and view on-screen maps of advisories by state.
Or they can query the database about advisories in specific waterbodies. In 1996, RTI added Canadian advisories to the listing, bringing the total number of advisories in the two countries to close to 5,000. By early 1999, the listing will be posted on the World Wide Web in an interactive form, making it even more available to government officials, environmental groups, recreational fishers, and the general public. Copyright 1998 Research Triangle Institute. All rights reserved.