What steps does a user need to take to produce analytically sharp or provocative data visualizations with this data resource?
albrowneThe UI for the portal is straightforward and easy to use and also doubles as a GIS. Through the advanced search function users can use either the criteria or filter tabs to narrow their searches to specific sites. For example when you narrow down the search to RMP facilities only you can quickly pinpoint all of these facilities on a map of an area to show how burdened an area may be with these types of facilities.
What data visualizations illustrate how this data set can be leveraged to characterize environmental injustice in different sett
albrowneThe data can very quickly show you how many facilities a geographical area may have. This can allow users to see how burdened a neighborhood for example may be with specific facilities.
What visualizations can be produced with this data resource and what can they be used to demonstrate?
albrowneOne of the only data visualizations this site offers is plotting down pinpoints on a map showing individual facilities. If there is more than one site in a certain geographical area then it will group the sites together and provide a circle for where the sites are contained with the number of sites listed on the circle. This makes this data resource not super flexible in ways it can display information. However this is a helpful visualization as it can quickly show you how many specific facilities a certain location may have
You can also generate simple graphs with the data that displays the amounts of certain facilities throughout the state. This is a good tool for tracking all regulated facilities which can help users address Ej on a statewide scale.
What can be demonstrated or interpreted with this data set?
albrowneWhat this lacks in visualizations it makes up for drastically in easy to use UI and for creating one location for all of the state's facility data. By using its advanced search tool users can quickly find a plethora of data on extremely specific sites. This tool will show when the facilities had their most recent evaluations and whether or not there were violations, rough estimates on onsite stored chemicals, which regulatory programs they are a part of, CalEnviroScreen percentile ranges, and a contact list for facility employees.
How scales (county, regional, neighborhood, census tract) can be seen through this data resource?
albrowneThis data resource can scale from the state level down to the census tract in terms of facility locations. For data visuals it groups sites together so you can not get a comprehensive visualization of regulated sites beyond the neighborhood and census tract level.
What data is drawn into the data resource and where does it come from?
albrowneCalEPA Regulated Site Portal (CalEPA RSP) does not generate any of their own data but combines data from 7 state data sets and 2 federal datasets.
State Data Sets: Cal/OSHA, CERS, CIWQS, EnviroStor, GeoTracker, SMARTS and, SWIS
Federal Data Sets: EIS and TRI
Who makes this data available and what is their mission?
albrowneCalEPA made this resource in order to create a “...holistic view of regulated activities statewide.”(CalEPA.2022).
What is this data resource called and how should it be cited?
albrowneThis data resource is called ‘CalEPA Regulated Site Portal’.
Recommended Citation: CalEPA. Regulated Site Portal. 2022. https://siteportal.calepa.ca.gov/nsite/map/help.
Safe Side Off the Fence
EfeCengizThe documentary is missing because the documentary is as safe as the fence it mocks in its title.
In the beginning we are asked to bear witness to the construction and use of the most devastation weapon of indiscriminate death the world has ever seen, and all the harm the construction of such a tool, yet its construction and its use is justified near instantaneously by repeating the same old propaganda.
In continuation, we are asked to bear witness to the continuous production of similar weapons and the devastation caused by the mishandling of the waste that accumulated in their production, yet why such a production took place is not only left unquestioned, but simple hints of cold war propaganda is left in their places for safekeeping.
In the end, we are asked to bear witness to a sombre victory, same spectres of patriotism and nation-of-God watching over our shoulder, yet how the pitiful situation of being forced to celebrate even such a small victory is never explored.
To sum up, we are shown people, good people, who struggle against the symptoms of a disease, yet this disease itself never named, nor challenged. It could not have been challenged, as it would force a complete change in their discourse.
If we sincerely would like to critique how the bodies of these workers were made disposable; used, harmed, dislocated and discharged as deemed necessary; if we wish to explore this topic as the necropolitical issue it is, we cannot stop halfway through. This inability to stop chasing connections, relationalities wherever it fits our ideology, is not a call for “objectivism”, it’s a call to respect the term of Anthropocene with all its rhizomatic connections.
An investigation of nuclear waste, that does not factor the use of its product, the socio-political effects of said product, and the historical conditions that even led to the possibility of producing it in such ways and such quantities, are of no use for us. It cannot penetrate the barrier of capitalist realism. If it could, at least a single mention of workers unions would have existed. Instead, it has confessionals by atomic weapons lawyers whose heart goes out to these workers.
An America that refuse to face up to the fact that it is what it is by the great necropolitical project it led for hundreds of years, I struggle to accumulate sympathy for, what I can easily accumulate is rage however, which this documentary is missing..
Wish the documentary would have at least attempted to say something radical, instead of praising these disposable bodies for being patriotic about it. There are lives who never had false fences built as idols for safety, the collective idols of old America, the patriotic nation under God were built upon their broken bodies, what would you ask of them?