A plethora of cool new data tools to help environmental reporters was on display at a meeting in Washington, DC, November 1-3, 2010. The WatchDog attended and offers a preview in this issue.

Every year EPA holds a training conference for government workers on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). It serves as a convention for the larger community of people involved with TRI: state officials, industries who report data to TRI, community groups who use TRI, environmentalists, contractors, and environmental data geeks of various stripes.

This year, the meeting took a new tack with extra emphasis on environmental justice and EPA data tools ranging far beyond TRI.

Here's a sample:

• As TRI Goes Electronic, Speed Records Fall [2]

• Envirofacts Warehouse Gets Geographic Makeover, Update [3]
• TRI Offers New "Comparative Query" Tool [4]
• EPA Gives Public an Environmental Justice Mapping Tool: EJView [5]
• MY-RTK Lets Users Probe Toxic Emissions from Their Smartphones [6]
• Sneak Peek of New Pollutant Loading Tool Could Raise TMDL Ruckus [7]