February 12, 2013

January 24, 2012

Hydraulic fracturing (also called hydrofracking or fracking) is a process in which millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart rock in order to release oil and natural gas.

The US EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program requires facilities in certain industries that manufacture, process, or use significant amounts of toxic chemicals, to report annually on their releases of these chemicals. Hydraulic fracturing is currently not a TRI-covered industry and so is not represented in TOXMAP.

EPA scientists are conducting a study of hydraulic fracturing to better understand any potential impacts on drinking water and groundwater. Congress has released a report on hydraulic fracturing (PDF, 156 KB) [Download Acrobat Reader] that lists 29 toxic chemicals used in fracturing (see Table 3 of this report). Click on the links in the table below for additional information on these chemicals:

February 7, 2011

July 26, 2010

• handling of simple variant chemical names;
• links to AirNow (for air quality data) and NCEA's HERO (for risk assessments); and
• additional classroom exercises.

January 19, 2010

• the ability to view search results in Google Maps and Google Earth; and
• a new look for the TOXMAP FAQ.

July 6, 2009

• the ability to enter map descriptions to saved search results;
• the TOXMAP widget and toolbar; and
• several bug fixes.

The TOXMAP Toolbar lets you search TRI releases, Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) sites by contaminant, or TRI facilities and Superfund NPL sites by ZIP code-- all from your browser search box.

For installation help, see the toolbar's Help and Troubleshooting page, or contact us.

July 6, 2009

The TOXMAP widget allows you or your users to launch a TOXMAP search from your blog, wiki, or Web page. Enter a ZIP code into the widget to see a map of TRI facilities and Superfund NPL sites, or click "More info" to go to the TOXMAP home page.

To add the widget, you must be able to edit your Web page. (If you need help in adding a widget to your Web page, contact your Webmaster or service provider.) For the TOXMAP widget, copy and paste this code into your Web page:

<iframe frameborder="0" width="170" height="100" id="toxmapwidget" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" src="http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov/toxmap/widgets/toxmapWidget.html"> </iframe>

The EPA Widgets page provides other environmental widgets.

June 10, 2009

March 23, 2009

• save your search results to a comma-delimited file;
• toggle county and Congressional district boundaries via "Reference Data" link; and
• zoom to Indian reservations via "Zoom to a Place" link.

September 22, 2008

Other recent changes include:

• Ability to view TRI facilities reporting releases in a particular TRI year
• Inclusion of links to TRI state fact sheets from EPA
• Ability to zoom to US national parks via "Zoom to a Place"
• Ability to toggle on and off the "auto-zoom" behavior in the main Search page
• Section 508 compliance improvements

April 14, 2008

TOXMAP now contains updated cancer and other mortality data. TOXMAP also now shows more detailed roads at a variety of map scales. Roads and other reference data can be hidden from maps via the Other Data subtab.

Other recent changes:

• Redesigned Search and Set Region pages
• Facility details include latitude/longitude and links to Google Maps
• Site Map, "go to" search results page number, and "delete user-defined region" link
• Aggregate release data values in downloadable TRI facility data.

GIS Day is November 14th, 2007. According to http://www.gisday.com, "on any given day, more than two million people around the world use GIS to improve the way their organizations see [users]. GIS Day provides an international forum for users of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to demonstrate real-world applications that are making a difference in our society."

See http://www.gisday.com for the latest GIS Day news or to register your own GIS Day event (http://www.gisday.com/events/register.html).

• More search options: search TOXMAP by CAS/RN, TRI facility name/ID, release medium, release year ranges, release amount, Superfund NPL site name/ID, and Hazard Ranking System (HRS) score.
• Geographic regions: create your own geographic region, or select a pre-defined region from a list. Setting a geographic region limits search results to those inside the specified region. Regions can be saved for future access and a provided URL will start TOXMAP with your region already selected.
• Regional TRI summary tables: view summary (aggregate) TRI release amounts for any geographic region
• Updated Superfund data.

April 13, 2007

• TRI releases summary table for each TRI facility showing all years and chemicals in table format;
• Larger default maps (with the option for small maps);
• Enhanced homepage map;
• Auto-completion of chemical names in text entry fields (like Quick Search);
• A "For Teachers" page that includes a downloadable sample assignment.

April 13, 2006

• Direct links to TOXMAP and the MapIt button from TOXNET®/TRI now bring up TRI/Superfund combination maps;
• The TOXMAP Tour has been updated to include Superfund features;
• Redesigned "Health Data" page;
• Metadata added to shapefile download.

• Superfund data: maps, chemical search, information, and related links
• Additional demographic layers: age, gender, income, cancer mortality, disease mortality
• "Map Controls" for easier one-click navigation
• Expanded links to chemical resources
• Glossary of terms

July, 2005

July, 2005

July, 2005

March 24, 2005

March 24, 2005

November 24, 2004

October 22, 2004

September 16, 2004

TOXMAP has added TRI 2002; it now includes reporting years 1987-2002. TRI 2002 contains 93,380 records; TRI 1987-2002 has over 1.3 million records.

TOXMAP facilities maps and associated chemical summaries now include TRI 2002 data, the default file year for TOXMAP releases maps. Previous years can be selected via the "year" tabs on the Releases pages. TOXMAP trends maps also now include releases data from 2002.

At this time, TOXMAP uses reported on-site releases only.

TRI contains information on the annual estimated releases of toxic chemicals to the environment and is based upon data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

October 29, 2004

TOXMAP now lets you create maps from your web site. A simple link takes your user to a custom map in TOXMAP, where they can zoom in and out, pan the map, and get more information about the chemical and area you've selected.

Full instructions are provided in the TOXMAP FAQ entitled "How can I link my site to TOXMAP?". Examples are also included.

June 19, 2004

Thanks for your interest in TOXMAP!

If you're new to TOXMAP, we welcome you and look forward to your feedback.

If you've been using TOXMAP any time since its beta launch in January 2003, you should notice some changes to the design of this site. These changes were inspired by feedback from you and from usability testing we conducted.

Please let us know if you like the new design or if you have any trouble making your way around.