A San Francisco-based environmental information management service has recently expanded its Web-based, map-referenced products to serve up U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund data referenced on Google Maps.

Subscribers to Locus Technologies' LocusFocus ePortal services can access a site that references data EPA began posting for download in January to Google Maps displays. In a process Webheads call a "mash-up," users then can search for EPA Superfund data in a rich map interface. It is providing fast, easy access to data, some of which has been buried deep in governmental data silos for a decade or more. Searches can be done by map location, zip code or state.

"We are pretty happy with Locus," says Patrick J. Garvey, national manager of EPA's facility registry system. "This is going to be the new wave of government information being posted to the Internet."

Garvey says other companies also are downloading the data, and he hopes enough of them will create delivery products around it that a Web-based environmental channel can be established. But he notes that Locus was one of the first out of the box. The data can be downloaded in several formats from www.epa.gov/enviro.

According to Garvey, EPA continues to add information to its site. And Locus says its mash-up will grow to display the new information.

Customers who already use Locus' Environmental Information Management system can also mash up their own site data and view it through the Locus interface. Zooming in on a site, customers can click on soil boring and groundwater-monitoring well locations to retrieve analytical, geotechnical, geological, or any other data available. The LocusFocus ePortal Google Maps Mashup can be viewed at www.locustec.com.