Friend and colleague Gabriel Eckstein just sent me an email about a new WWW site he's developed, the Micropollutants Clearinghouse. It is a project of the Texas Tech Center for Water Law and Policy, which Professor Eckstein directs.
From the homepage:
The purpose of the Micropollutants Clearinghouse Project is to provide an on-line, publically accessible, research resource on the legal, regulatory, institutional, policy, and related scientific aspects of micropollutants in fresh water systems. It is designed as a dynamic and robust database of documents, reports, information, analyses, articles, and other materials that:
- relate to micropollutants -- such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, and personal care products -- that affect fresh water quality;
- address existing, proposed, and alternative legal, regulatory, and institutional mechanisms for dealing with water quality issues;
- present the scientific underpinning for existing, proposed, and alternative legal, regulatory, and institutional mechanisms for dealing with water quality issues; and
- address related decision-making mechanisms or processes.
The long-term objective of the Micropollutants Clearinghouse project is to continue building on the existing knowledge of information and to expand the contents available in the Clearinghouse on this important topic. This is critical for developing and evaluating water laws, regulatory actions, and policies relevant to the presence and effects of micropollutants in fresh water systems.
The expected audience that may be interested in and should benefit from the Micropollutants Clearinghouse include the general public, academic and industry researchers, legislators and legislatures, government agencies at all levels of civil society, and stakeholders involved in various decision-making scenarios related to micropollutants in fresh water systems. It should prove especially useful for individuals and groups involved in the development and implementation of water laws, regulations, and policies throughout the United States and internationally.
The Micropollutants Clearinghouse was developed as part of a Study Grant provided through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that was designed to undertake three distinct but interdependent components.
- Project 1 involved the development of this database as an on-line, publically accessible, research resource on the legal, regulatory, institutional, policy, and related scientific aspects of micropollutants in fresh water systems.
- Project 2 entailed a field study in Lubbock, TX that focused on improving our understanding of the fate, transport, and presence of mixtures of micropollutants in the environment.
- Project 3 involved analyzing existing and alternative legal and regulatory strategies for addressing the presence and effects of micropollutants in fresh water systems.
As the outcomes and work-product of Projects 2 and 3 are finalized, they also will be presented on this website.
In order to achieve this objective and to provide visitors to the Clearinghouse with an updated and productive experience, we ask that anyone identifying material that is missing from or that otherwise should be included in the database, please kindly submit this information to us (see Contact Us page).
This looks like an incredibly valuable resource.
"When water chokes you, what are you to drink to wash it down?"-- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 384-322 BCE
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