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EPA simplifies multistate data exchange with XML: a pilot project. (Data Exchange).

Article Excerpt
A massive government agency isn't the first place you'd think of to find leading-edge use of XML. But then that's just the type of setting where the emerging standard for cross-platform data exchange is needed most.

Picture this: in each of the 50 states, there is at least one environmental agency responsible for enforcing state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations. From the corner gas station to the local manufacturing plant, thousands of businesses and organizations nationwide are responsible for meeting strict environmental guidelines and reporting their compliance regularly to these state agencies. On a monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly basis, they send data in hard-copy reports with details such as their air emissions, pollutants discharged into bodies of water, hazardous waste disposal--any activities that could affect environmental integrity.

In turn, states must pass that data on to the EPA in Washington, DC. Traditionally, data exchange between states and the EPA, and vice versa, has been a painstaking, resource-intensive manual process. That's because the EPA and state environmental agencies all have different legacy database systems, from Oracle to SQL to DB2.

Because the systems can't easily communicate with each other, environmental organizations nationwide have resorted to rekeying information or translating data into another format to send to the national office. Forget exchanging...

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