CIMC - Map Hints and How Tos

• Helpful Hints
• Setting and Changing the Geographic Area
• Displaying Cleanup Sites, Facilities and Properties
• Displaying Brownfields Grant Locations
• Seeing Detailed Information about Locations on the Map
• Changing the Background and Features of the Map

Helpful Hints

• If you only want to see certain types of cleanups, choose the "Cleanups" tab.
• Note that larger geographic search areas and more program types will cause the map to load more slowly.
• You may need to disable popup blockers in your browser.
• When searching by Cleanup Name, use similar or exact, partial or full name.  Map will display matching sites with yellow circles.

Setting and Changing the Geographic Area

You can adjust the geographic area through zoom and pan tools provided by the map or by using the Define Your Community tool.

Zoom In or Zoom Out
Use the zoom slider located in the upper left corner to zoom in and out. To zoom continuously, use the mouse scroll button and scroll in or out. You can also double click on the map can to zoom in center at the mouse location. Finally, you may click the map the press shift+ and shift- to zoom in or out.

Recenter
Click the map to activate the "cross" cursor, then drag the map to the desired position. You can also click the map, then use the arrow keys to pan up, down, left or right.

Rubber Banding
Rubber banding allows you to zoom in on a portion of the map. This is done by pressing the shift key, then clicking and dragging the mouse over the map. When you release the mouse button, the map will redraw automatically showing the geographic box you have selected.

Define Your Community
You can choose a different area to view by selecting from the Define Your Community drop down menu, located above the map. After making a selection from the drop down list, fill in the text box(es) or drop down menu with your input search, then press the "Map It" button. For more information on selecting geographies, please see that section of the About the Data page.

Street Address
When defining a community using the street address, use as much of the street address as you can (street number, street name, city, state, and ZIP Code). The more of the address you include, the more precise the system will be. If the information is unique (like a street name and city), the system will be able to show you that general vicinity along with the specified radius. When identifying an intersection, do not include both streets. For example, instead of "Intersection of I40 and First Street", search only for "First Street."

States, Territories and Commonwealths
The 'State' dropdown list includes states, commonwealths and territories of the United States.

 

Displaying Cleanup Sites, Facilities and Properties

By default, the map will display all cleanup sites we have available. For information on the current scope of CIMC, please see the About the Data page. You can filter the cleanups via the Filter Cleanup Type button located above the map and the Basic and Advanced tabs within that filter. To view information for a cleanup location, click the location on the map. Detailed information on the cleanup may be obtained by clicking the hyperlink in the info window that appears. You can turn on/off the cleanup sites via the checkboxes located above the map.

In some cases, the same cleanup may be known by many different names or aliases. The names that appear on the map and in the listing are the ones that are used in EPA’s Facility Registry System (FRS). Cleanup aliases may be found using the Facility Table Query Form. Simply copy the name of the cleanup from the info window on the map and paste it into the Facility Identification Option Value in the form and click on “Search” at the bottom of the form. When the list of areas comes up, click on the facility’s name, and you will see the facility detail report. At the bottom of that report is the list of alternative names, if there are any, for that facility.

Displaying Brownfields Grant Areas

By default, the map will not display the Brownfields grant coverage areas (called jurisdictions), but these can be added by clicking the checkbox for that option on the map view. You can filter in/out specific types of Brownfields grants by going into the "Brownfields Grants" tab on the map view. Once the Brownfields grants option is turned on, you can drill down to additional information about each grant by clicking on the grant area on the map, or the report options in the list.

Seeing Detailed Information about Locations on the Map

To view more information for a cleanup, grant, monitoring station, or other locational information checked in the list above the map, click once on the map at the location of interest. An information window will appear with basic information and links for that location. You may even see things listed in the information window that were hidden from view on the map by other things layered on top. We have added category headings in the bubbles to clarify where the data are housed or the type of data it is. For instance:

• "Federal" means the data are reported to and housed by federal agencies.
• "Tribal" means you are looking at tribal boundaries.

Obtain detailed information by clicking the hyperlinks in the information window:

• RCRA Hazardous Waste and Brownfields profiles are displayed from within CIMC.
• Superfund, Enforcement, STORET Water Monitoring, Removals and Impaired Waters links go to reports within EPA, but outside of the CIMC system.

If you have additional, official cleanup locations or additional, official information about these locations that you would like us to link to, please contact us.

Site boundaries will be provided in CIMC for sites that EPA regions have already made available on the Internet. These boundaries can include whole site boundaries as well as the boundaries of institutional and engineering control areas. We use the files or Web services provided by EPA Regions to map the boundaries on the CIMC main map and, where feasible, in the smaller maps provided in RCRA Corrective Action profiles. We now provide access to site boundaries for EPA Regions 1 and 3.

Changing the Background and Features of the Map

Change Background
You can change the map background between Street and Aerial photo and Hybrid views. This can be done via buttons located at the top right of the map.

Selecting Other Data
The "Layers" section of the map view in CIMC provides options for you to display information that isn't specifically about cleanups, but can help put cleanup locations and cleanups in perspective. Options include congressional district boundaries and labels, tribal areas and labels, STORET Water Monitoring Stations, Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) System and Impaired Waters. A checkbox can only be used if it is black, not gray. If the checkbox for a specific item listed under "Layers" is gray, you will need to zoom in until the checkbox is activated (until it is has a black border). This limitation is based on the services we tap into to provide these data layers to you.

Go to MyEnvironment
MyEnvironment (MyE) is an EPA web application that provides interactive mapping and allows the display of many other types of cleanups besides cleanups for which EPA collects information, and has different linking features. If you would like to use MyE to view the same map area, click on the “View this map in MyEnvironment” link located below the CIMC map. This will display a map of the same geographic area, but in the MyE application. MyE also links to other federal, state and local government information on the web about the geographic area displayed on the map.