Improving Quality with the Substance Registry Services (SRS)

John Harman

U.S. EPA

May 14, 2009

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Agenda

• Background• SRS information• Managing SRS information• Using SRS to foster quality

– validating substance identities– improving quality substance identification– improving public access– providing quality information about substances

• Future enhancements to improve quality

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Background

• EPA created SRS to meet three primary objectives– Enable cross-walk of substance identification

• Many EPA programs and environmental statutes• Many substances tracked or regulated• Many names used for each substance

– Support two data standards• Chemical Identification Data Standard• Biological Taxonomy Data Standard

– One-stop source for substance metadata

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SRS Information

• Approximately 100,000 substance records– One substance per record– Core information about a substance– Programmatic information about a substance

• Multiple ways to find substance records in SRS– Exports into pdf, Excel or csv

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SRS Information – cont’d

• Core substance information– CAS name– CAS number and former CAS numbers– SRS Registry Name– Internal tracking number

• SRS Identifier to enable system-to-system communication on substances

– Molecular weight, molecular formula

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SRS Information – cont’d

• Additional chemical information– Identifies groups or waste of which a chemical

is a member– Fact sheets from EPA and elsewhere

• Programmatic information– Statutes, EPA systems, other sources that

track or regulate substance– Synonyms used by those sources– Program-specific characteristics

• E.g., program identifiers, reporting end date

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Managing SRS Information - Stewardship

• SRS data managed by program stewards– Stewards can maintain their program lists

• Synonyms• Program-specific information

– Stewards can request creation of new substance records and new lists

• Steward can track status of requests• Can create ad hoc lists that are not publicly visible

– Stewards can generate reports in pdf or Excel

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StandardizingSubstance Identities

• Chemical Nomenclature Assessment– For selecting SRS Registry names

• Supporting Chemical ID Data Standard

– For standardizing substances that do not have Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) Numbers

• New Initiatives– Begin assigning quality to synonyms

• Valid vs misspelled, ambiguous, inaccurate

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ManagingSubstance Identities

• Managing substance identification information in SRS– Use web services to pull programmatic list– Programmatic substance identities kept in sync

with core metadata for substance• SRS Registry Name• CAS information

– Enables states, industry, other users ability to access same list information

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Reporting Correct Substance Identities

• Submitters of EPA or partner data use SRS to report substance identities– Use SRS Web services– Select accurate (e.g., correctly spelled)

substance identities– Ensure quality substance identification before

data sent to EPA• Reduces programmatic time/cost to correct

incorrect substance identification information

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• Facilities subject to EPA’s MSGP are required to submit discharge monitoring data to EPA

• Monitoring data may include chemicals, physical properties

Reporting Correct Substance Identities

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Reporting Correct Substance Identities

• eNOI uses the SRS Web Service to assist facilities in reporting additional parameters

• Single substance– Chemical

substances– Other substances

and/or services to be evaluated for future

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ValidatingSubstance Identities

• Partners (e.g., states, industry) improve their substance identities– Use web services– Pull substance identification information to

validate their substance identities against the information in SRS

– Pull substance identification information to augment their substance identities

• E.g., add CAS numbers, SRS Internal Tracking Numbers

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IntegratingSubstance Identification

• Customers can bring together data from different sources– Different sources using different synonyms– SRS Internal Tracking Number uniquely

identifies a substance• Required of EPA systems by Chem ID data standard

– EnviroFacts, MyEnvironment

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Improving Public Access

• Customers use synonyms available in SRS to facilitate discovery of substance information– Use SRS web services to pull all synonyms– Customers do not need to search using only

the substance synonyms used by the particular program

– HPVIS already has implemented this service• HPVIS uses only CAS names

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Increasing Public Access

• A one-stop tool for program offices and regions and states to use to improve public access to substance information

• A doorway to environmental information, via substances, across EPA

• A doorway to government information, via substances across the federal government

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Direct Link“My Environment”

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Direct Link“My Environment”

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Direct Link“My Environment”

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Direct LinkFrom Other Federal Sites

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Direct LinkFrom Other Federal Sites

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Direct LinkFrom/To Other Federal Sites

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Direct LinkTO Other Federal Sites

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Automated Services

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SRS Web Services

• Originally implemented at request of states– Ability to pull programmatic lists from SRS

• What are substances on list• What are synonyms used on that list• What are identifiers used by that list

• Updated web services rolled out in February– Node 2.0 compliant

• Documentation available at Exchange Network: http://www.exchangenetwork.net/exchanges/cross/index.htm

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SRS Web Services

• Three broad types– Query web services

• Pulling single substance information from the SRS– Then submit correct substance identity to programs

– Solicit web services• Pulling lists of substances and substance information

from the SRS

– Submit web services• Adding a new substance to an existing list in SRS

– Keeping list current in SRS

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Managing SRS Information - Enhancements

• Reports– Core metadata report– Synonym by list report– Comparison reports

• Comparing data on Excel file against data in SRS

• Uploads– Multiple substances to an existing list in SRS– Changes to multiple substances on a list

• E.g., ability to upload programmatic identifiers