EPA: Data Standards
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Data Standards

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The vision for the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) data standards program is to promote the efficient sharing of environmental information among EPA, states, tribes, and other information partners through the cooperative development of data standards. In partnership with the Environmental Data Standards Council (EDSC), the EPA is developing data standards for environmental information collection and exchange. The use of common data standards among partners will foster consistently defined and formatted data elements and sets of data values, and provide public access to more meaningful data. The data standards are developed by EDSC sponsored action teams that include members representing states, tribes, and federal agencies. All proposed data standards are submitted for public review before adoption by the EDSC and the EPA. The links below enable users to quickly access key components of final EPA standards and standards under development. Data standards being adopted by the EDSC can be found at www.envdatastandards.net.

EPA Final Standards

The following data standards have been adopted by the EPA for use by Agency program offices. Specific usage and implementation instructions can be found in the EPA Business Rules associated with each final data standard. For each data standard there are data element lists and related standard documents such as EPA Business Rules and implementation fact sheets describing how a data standard is to be used by Agency programs. Data standards, EPA business rules, and data elements are available for viewing and downloading in several file formats. The final standards and associated documents are also available in zipped, preformatted file formats for easy download and use.

Attached Binary Object (Ver 1)
Bibliographic Reference (Ver 1)
Biological Taxonomy (Ver 2)
Chemical Identification (Ver 2)
Compositing Activity (Ver 1)
Contact Information (Ver 2)
Enforcement/Compliance (Ver 1)
Environmental Sampling, Analysis and Results Data Standard - Overview of Component Data Standards (Ver 1)
Environmental Sampling, Analysis and Results: Analysis and Results (Ver 1)
Environmental Sampling, Analysis and Results: Field Activity Data Standard (Ver 1)
Environmental Sampling, Analysis and Results: Monitoring Location (Ver 1)
Environmental Sampling, Analysis and Results: Project (Ver 1)
Equipment (Ver 1)
Facility Site Identification (Ver 2)
Institutional Control (Ver 1)
Latitude/Longitude (Ver 2)
Measure (Ver 1)
Method (Ver 1)
Permitting Information (Ver 2)
Quality Assurance and Quality Control (Ver 1)
Representation of Date and Time (Ver 1)
SIC/NAICS (Ver 2)
Sample Handling (Ver 1)
Tribal Identifier (Ver 2)
Well Information (Ver 1)

All Final EPA Data Standards

All Final EPA Data Standards Data Elements
All Final EPA Data Standards Download Files
All Final EPA Data Standards XML Tags (.pdf)

The Implement Standards page provides assistance to users in implementing the above data in their information systems and checking their systems for conformance to standards. Program systems may only apply for a data standard conformance waiver using the steps outlined in Procedures for Requesting a Data Standard Conformance Waiver, Office of Information Collection/Data Standards Branch approved by the Agency Chief Information Officer on September 12, 2002.

EPA Standards Under Development

The following data standards are under development jointly by the EDSC and the EPA action teams. As the development process moves forward, each of the topic areas may have lists of draft data elements, proposed business rules, and frequently asked questions about the data standard. For additional information on the data element administrative and registration status terms, visit the Help section of EDR.

Reporting Water Quality Results for Chemical and Microbiological Analytes

EPA Superceded Standards

The following data standards have been superceded jointly by the EDSC and the EPA action teams.

Biological Taxonomy (Ver 1)
Chemical Identification (Ver 1)
Contact Information (Ver 1)
Date (Ver 1)
Facility Identification (Ver 1)
Federal Facility Identification (Ver 1)
Latitude/Longitude (Ver 1)
Permitting (Ver 1)
Permitting Information (Ver 1)
SIC/NAICS (Ver 1)
Tribal Identifier (Ver 1)

Program Specific Data Standards

Some program offices within the EPA have adopted program specific data standards. Some standards are being prepared for posting in the EDR and will be posted in this section.

EPA Office of Water Data Standards

Data Standards Process

EPA has developed a process for developing, implementing, and reviewing data standards. The EPA data standards process is described and graphically depicted

Data Standards References

Information also is provided on Data Standards Publications and Guidances. For current information on the EPA Data Standards Program, read the Registry Update.

 

 
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Last updated on Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
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