Lara Abrams Communications

States own the data they generate, and provide additional data on demand. Since the information need not be transcribed, errors don’t creep in casually — this efficiency removes the traditional bottlenecks of merging data in various forms into the EPA’s system. Naturally information arrives cheaper and faster, since it is immediately accessible through the Internet.

"In the long run, it’s going to change the way we do business rather than just simplify things," said Mitch West, information services manager of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. He cites relations with the state of Washington, which shares the same watershed in the portion of the network that deals with exchanging hazardous waste management data.

Each state records its data in a slightly different format for internal purposes, but converting the information for intergovernmental sharing is a one-time process, and each state reformats its own data. Thus, Oregon regulates producers shipping hazardous wastes to receivers in Washington by providing access to balancing documents that show the materials arrived where they were supposed to. Much of Oregon’s waste ends up in Arkansas, however, where such confirmation is not yet available. The exchange network’s development promises to tighten that loose end, achieving the "cradle-to-grave" hazardous waste management optimistically mandated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976.

As it developed, the network suggested other imaginative applications of its potential, such as the New Jersey Beach Monitoring System (NJBMS), a partnership pioneered in 2002 between the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and Earth 911, a clearing-house for community-specific environmental information.

Local monitors can record water sampling results on handheld PDAs, instantly transmitting them to the state’s data management system through a completely paperless process, so it’s ready for immediate laboratory analysis. The system provides recommendations on beach closings to local authorities, who make their decisions instantly available to the public.

The NJBMS resulted from a grant to New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, Georgia and California to develop an automated exchange between the states and the EPA. In some ways, the program’s growth and extension of its beneficial results parallel those of the exchange network itself. Health officials, the public and other states enjoy free and timely access to its data.

The Garden State has been monitoring beach conditions since 1974. Its Cooperative Coastal Monitoring Program (CCMP), with the participation of local environmental health agencies, provides a model for the EPA’s Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act. Now technology allows it to work faster, and with better data. "Now historical conditions at monitoring stations can be documented and reviewed as necessary," said Research Scientist Virginia Loftin, manager of the CCMP. "The NJBMS and the exchange network have enhanced and streamlined the operations of the beach monitoring program, and automated data reporting to EPA."

As New Jersey’s program shows, the network already reaches beyond environmental agencies to address related concerns, such as those of health departments, which can now access environmental data. O’Neill points to the Centers for Disease Control Public Health Tracking Program as a complementary initiative to bring together data that environmental and health agencies must share to make well informed decisions. Such vital interagency sharing, forwarded by the exchange network, has emerged in Washington, Oregon and New Jersey initiatives, as well as some others. State agriculture or natural resource agencies are candidates to partner as well.

The exchange is clearly evolving at a remarkably fast pace, spinning off applications as it develops in a kind of creative chaos.

When the EPA’s Nelson came into office in late 2001, she claims she was "given the ball on the 2-yard line," but observers think her claim regarding the exchange is modest. She helped create the exchange as a Pennsylvania state official prior to moving to Washington, D.C., where she is now working to bring it to maturity.

But Luttner is puzzled by the lack of curiosity among other federal agencies to consider the exchange as a model. "It’s the most advanced system of its kind," he said. "We’d be delighted to share our experience."

So far, there have been no takers.

In a way, success has been overwhelming. The problem now is keeping up with the growth and the avalanche of data, said O’Neill.

The exchange network has become the poster child for how agencies can craft an intergovernmental solution. Its Web site is neither a federal nor a state Web site, but a site run by officials communicating "out of the box."