I’m currently out of town and not spending as much time on my computer as I have over the last couple months. (It’s what happens when you’re the only one in your department at work and also most of your hobbies involve a computer.) But I wanted to write up something for Statistics Sunday and I recently discovered two R packages I need to check out in the near future.

The first is called echor, which allows you to search and download data directly from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Compliance and History Online (ECHO), using the ECHO-API. According to the vignette, linked above, “ECHO provides data for:

• Stationary sources permitted under the Clean Air Act, including data from the National Emissions Inventory, Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, Toxics Release Inventory, and Clean Air Markets Division Acid Rain Program and Clean Air Interstate Rule. 
• Public drinking water systems permitted under the Safe Drinking Water Act, including data from the Safe Drinking Water Information System. 
• Hazardous Waste Handlers permitted under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, with data drawn from the RCRAInfo data system. 
• Facilities permitted under the Clean Water Act and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES) program, including data from EPA’s ICIS-NPDES system and possibly waterbody information from EPA’s ATTAINS data system.”