Source: MapCruzin
Published Apr. 13, 2009
In 1997 MapCruzin.com created the first interactive maps for Environmental Defense’s Scorecard project. Since then Michael Meuser, founder of MapCruzin, has done many other map-based environmental projects on the internet. After the 911 terrorist attacks and the beginning of the War on Terror, many map-based sites like these became hard to find or totally unavailable to the public. MapCruzin believes that the risk is NOT the information itself, but rather, is the amount of onsite toxic chemicals. The publicly available EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) has proven to be effective in reducing the amount of onsite chemicals over time. ToxicRisk.com will increase public awareness, encouraging dialogue between citizens, local government and toxic facilities, resulting in reduced risk to those who live, work and play nearby.
ToxicRisk.com was launched today by MapCruzin.com, a firm with a long history of dedication to Community Right-To-Know. ToxicRisk.com allows people in the U.S. and her territories to locate potentially risky toxic facilities in their communities where they live,
work and play.
Using publicly available Toxic Release Inventory data released by EPA on March 19, 2009 ToxicRisk.com launched on April 13, 2009. They were encouraged by the present presidential administration emphasis on transparency and openness and EPA adiminstration’s emphasis on Right-To-Know.
Visitors to ToxicRisk.com learn more about toxic chemicals in their neighborhoods. They may search by city, state, zipcode or place or drill down through the maps with the Google zoom and pan controls.
The base maps are served by Google Maps with the MapCruzin toxic facility overlay. Once a facility is located a click brings them to
comprehensive reports from RTKNet.org. MapCruzin.com has also made available Google Earth maps of Toxic Release inventory facility
sites.
MapCruzin.com was founded by Michael Meuser in 1996. Michael and his son, Aran Deltac, developed ToxicRisk.com. Meuser is an environmental sociologist who has been doing online GIS development and environmental justice and toxic chemical research since the early 1990s. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California. Aran Deltac has been developing web sites and programming since 1994 and has been the technical guru powering MapCruzin since its inception.
MapCruzin created the very first U.S. based online interactive toxic maps – their Santa Cruz Toxic Release Inventory. They went on to develop the interactive maps for Environmenal Defense’s Scorecard project in 1997. Scorecard was an immediate success in bringing toxic chemical information to the masses.
In the future ToxicRisk.com will expand to add several other EPA databases including hazardous waste, water pollution, criteria pollutants, superfund and risk management plans as well as demographics. This is the first in their new series of Community Right- To-Know Toxic Inventory using Google Maps. Caliper Corporations Maptitude GIS was used to create the required geospatial data files from the raw EPA data.