IDEA

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The Integrated Data for Enforcement Analysis system (IDEA) is a comprehensive single-source of environmental performance data on regulated facilities within the EPA. With IDEA you can obtain a comprehensive historical profile of inspections, enforcement actions, penalties assessed, toxic chemicals released, and emergency hazardous spills for any EPA regulated facility. This single point of access provides information from the Agency's Air, Water, Hazardous Waste, Toxic Chemical Release Inventory, and Emergency Response Notification Systems.

Historically, data systems within the EPA were developed to meet the needs of the individual program offices and the related environmental legislation. In most cases, these data systems were developed without central coordination in the Agency. As a result, the program office data systems operate on different computer platforms and in different software environments. Often the individual program offices track data on the same facilities without an easy way to cross-reference or link the data.

Implemented in early 1991, IDEA supports a multimedia approach to the analysis of environmental problems by retrieving data about facilities across program office databases. IDEA accesses the following multimedia information:

IDEA was developed, and still resides, on EPA's mainframe computer located at the National Computer Center (NCC) at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. This platform provides the required power to process hundreds of thousands of records and return the results in seconds. EPA's telecommunication network has empowered IDEA users nationwide with access to the same system. Users from the public sector can also access IDEA via the internet using IBM's Host-On-Demand.

IDEA uses "logical" data integration and maintains copies of the source data systems that are updated monthly. This supports the highly interactive data analysis requirements. Since IDEA's implementation, it has undergone numerous enhancements both in terms of its capability and ease-of-use. IDEA continues to be a comprehensive single-source of environmental data within the EPA.

We welcome your comments or questions, including sugguestions on how we can improve our web site. Our goal is to provide answers to all requests or comments, or give appropriate referrals as soon as possible.

Please submit your eletronic request to curtis.mary@epa.gov.