News and Updates

Dear Friends: Greetings and Happy New Year to the growing number of partners supporting E-Enterprise for the Environment (EE). As Co-Chairs of the E-Enterprise Leadership Council (EELC), we extend our heartfelt appreciation to the entire EE community, recognizing both our significant accomplishments to date and the new priorities we are energized to undertake in 2022-23....

EPA, state, local, and tribal agencies continue to turn to the E-Enterprise Community Inventory Platform (EECIP) to share our know-how and experiences. EECIP has four major cornerstones – enter and share information, solve problems, save time and money, and build community.   Engage with your colleagues today by joining the discussion thread on Managing Renewable Energy Waste Streams! It...

In the United States, there are 574 federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native tribes and villages. Although each is unique, there are commonalities in the challenges they face. Tribes collect data to assess the environmental conditions that impact their lands, resources, and their communities, but often have limited capacity to fully support this work with their available...

At the 26th Annual Inter-Tribal Environmental Council (ITEC) webinar series this past summer, attendees participated in a roundtable on E-Enterprise and Exchange Network that showcased opportunities for tribes to get involved and activities of the Tribal Exchange Network (TXG). The virtual meeting also featured the recently released Citizen Science tribal case studies compilation that highlights best practices from successful citizen...

In September, ECOS convened the leaders of 46 state environmental agencies, top-ranking EPA officials, and others for a lively Fall Meeting on innovation that frequently touched on E-Enterprise activities.     The lineup of prominent keynote speakers included Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe, EPA Co-Chair of the E-Enterprise Leadership Council (EELC), who welcomed the ECOS meeting theme of Better, Faster, Smarter. She...

Massachusetts Bays National Estuary Partnership (MassBays) is pleased to share a new web-based application to support monitoring project managers in plan sampling and quality assurance activities. AquaQAPP generates tailored Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs) for marine and freshwater systems, encompassing both water quality and benthic monitoring parameters for freshwater and estuarine/marine systems.  With funding from the Exchange...

Over the past few years, wildfires have become more severe, and the fire season has gotten longer. In addition to the direct hazards presented by the fires, the resulting smoke makes air quality worse, posing risks to people’s health, especially those with heart or lung disease or other respiratory problems. Given the scale and magnitude...

In April, the E-Enterprise Leadership Council offered support to the EPA Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA) as it undertook the development of a Compliance Learning Agenda (CLA) to inform future data-driven decision-making on national enforcement and compliance activities. The CLA will provide a framework to test new and existing innovative technologies and policies; use data to optimize...

  Committed to enhancing the EPA-tribal partnership, the EPA Region 8 Tribal Affairs Branch launched the virtual Tribal Resource Center (TRC) in September. The TRC is a centralized EPA informational resource, accessible to all Tribal Nations within Region 8.  The online center provides regional and national tribal-related information that includes, but is not limited to, EPA tribal policies and...

In late August, the Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) Modernization Executive Steering Committee (ESC) approved the SDWIS Modernization Project Plan for Design and Development. The SDWIS Modernization ESC is co-chaired by Benita Best-Wong, Deputy Assistant Administrator for the EPA Office of Water, and Vaughn Noga, EPA’s Chief Information Officer. A Technical Review Team of EPA and state drinking...

In November, EPA convened a virtual multi-stakeholder workshop geared toward improving data management practices for community and citizen science data. Ideas from the session also will inform a roadmap as well as an EPA strategic plan on community and citizen science data management.   Attended by EPA, states, tribes, academia, and nongovernmental organizations, the workshop delved into case studies and technical aspects of managing community and citizen science...