The Freshwater Explorer is an interactive mapping tool for visualizing water quality. States, Tribes, and other groups contribute water quality information to a database through the Water Quality Exchange (WQX). To make it easier to visualize these data, EPA scientists developed this interactive web-based mapping tool.
In its first public release, Freshwater Explorer provides information about background and observed conductivity, a measure of salt content, for freshwater streams, lakes, and wells in all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Salts can harm aquatic life and can be indicative of the presence of other pollutants. Data for nutrients will be added in 2022.
Freshwater Explorer is useful to assess water quality and share watershed and regional stories. It enables WQX contributors to spot data integrity issues and improve data quality hosted on the WQX. In this webinar, the functionality of the Freshwater Explorer is demonstrated using national and localized examples for condition, causal, predictive, and outcome assessment. For example, users can modify what is shown on a customizable map and pull in data from other EPA sources.