Imagine the possibilities...

I keep finding painful reminders that we're only just now coming to terms with how much progress has been erased in the past 8 years.

Case in point, the US EPA EMPACT grants, R.I.P. 2001:

EMPACT Metro Grants support locally proposed and managed environmental monitoring and communication projects that emphasize active partnerships between local and state government, research institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, and the Federal Government. The EMPACT Program funded projects in three main categories: (1) EMPACT Metro Grants, (2) EPA-Sponsored EMPACT Projects (includes Technology Transfer & Integration projects...

Local environmental quality monitoring! Communication and technology transfer?! Active partnerships! You must be kidding...

It gets better when looking at some of the catalyst projects the grants once funded:

- Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network (BASIN): - Boulder, CO. Improve existing environmental monitoring to provide credible, timely and usable information about the watershed to the public. Create a state-of-the-art information management and public access infrastructure using advanced, web-based computer technologies.

- Burlington Eco Info: Community Based Environmental Monitoring in the Burlington Ecosystem, The Next Step in Building a Sustainable City: Burlington, VT. Engages citizens in developing environmental information accessible to a broad cross-section of residents and using this information to inform collaborative actions that address priority problems in the urban ecosystem.

Sigh. Not...sure..I..can..keep....reading...(or viewing websites that look like they were last touched in '99). Continuing on:

- Environmental Monitoring and Awareness Program (E-MAP) for Healthy Water: Cheyenne, Wyoming. Provides a community-based approach to protecting the health and welfare of Cheyenne and Laramie County, WY residents by building public capacity and desire to participate in environmental issues related to water.

Wyoming?! I bet you can guess who 404'ed that one...

- Detroit-Ann Arbor Metro Public Information Project: Detroit-Ann Arbor, Michigan. Aims to bring together essential environmental data and create a mechanism for its easy access by the public in a timely fashion, to interpret the information in a way that is understandable by the public, and to provide an intensive public outreach and education campaign regarding community-based environmental information.

Easily understood and accessible data and public environmental education!? Wha?!!!

- Community Water Quality Information System for a New and Sustainable Water Supply (Tucson, AZ) - The objectives of this project are to: 1) expand monitoring of water quality parameters in potable water supplies, discharges, and streams, 2) set up near real-time information access to monitoring data, and 3) communicate the information to citizens with particular emphasis on Hispanic, Native American and medical communities.

- ECOPLEX-Environmental Conditions On-Line for the Dallas-Fort Worth MetroPLEX: Denton (Dallas/Fort Worth), TX. Informs citizens of the current, historical, and near-term forecasts of environmental conditions to which they are exposed, including water, land, sun and air.

Looks like those two survived in some crippled state, but phew, I've gotta stop before I hyperventilate. (Those are only some examples within the water section!)

Pardon the hyperbole, but let's be honest. Imagine what these programs could become with today's possibilities for open communication and planning. So while I'm holed up in the studio thinking I'm doing something new and innovative pertaining to citizen-generated urban environmental data, I need look no further than that gaping hole called the past 8 years.

Oh yeah, President-Elect Obama, if you're reading this, I'm positive that myself and the rest of the bloggers on this site have no less than 4,621 great ideas to put this type of funding to productive use should you be so gracious to reinstate. Fingers crossed!