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An online master data system of facilities regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency is necessary to allow the public access to reliable environmental data and reduce administrative burdens, according to a report from a coalition of businesses, activists and state government officials.

A centralized, shared data system, accessible on the Internet, would give the public a better idea of the regulatory responsibilities of EPA-regulated facilities from megawatt power plants to neighborhood auto body shops, according to the report.

The system would reduce the administrative burden of reporting to several offices and help agencies manage their regulating responsibilities more efficiently. According to the report, the Office of Management and Budget has urged the EPA to develop a streamlined system for reporting facility data and making it available to the public.

The 86-page report and its eight recommendations are the work of the Environmental Information Consortium, which included representatives from EPA-regulated businesses, environmental groups, state environmental agencies, universities and consulting groups. The study was funded by EPA's Office of Environmental Information.

According to the report, the technical constraints and the structure of the EPA's information systems containing the data on regulated facilities has been "highly fragmented and incomplete." Currently the public lacks a complete picture of an EPA-regulated facility's environmental performance, the report stated, and the data provided by the EPA can inaccurately portray a company's status from time to time.

Separate records on data relating to air, water and waste are kept by state environmental agencies as well as different program offices in the EPA, leading to discrepancies in the data and the necessity for regulated facilities to report to multiple layers of state and federal regulating offices.

Other recommendations included in the report were the development of uniform procedures and definitions for operating the master system and for tracking the changes of identities of facilities' names, operations and ownership. The report also urged EPA to clarify its policies mandating that regulated facilities meet their reporting obligations by submitting their data to the master system.

Rather than creating an entire new system, the proposal suggests that the master data system would link the various systems already up and running. A price for the system detailed in the study and modeled after those already established at state environmental offices was not available.

Diane Esanu, a spokeswoman in the EPA's Office of Environmental Information, said they are reviewing the report and will hold off commenting on it until their assessment is complete.

According to EPA spokeswoman Suzanne Ackerman, the agency has been working on system standardization for five years.

"The data standards require agreement of all partners involved, which includes 50 states, the tribes and other federal agencies," Ackerman said. "Data standards are not something that EPA can decide on its own."

Suellen Keiner, the National Academy of Public Administration's vice president for programs and coordinator of the project, said that the report gives EPA a roadmap for establishing the master file and giving the public access to its data.

"It's pretty remarkable that the stakeholders from all sides of the issue were able to agree for the need of this integrated system," Keiner said. "This single master file will save the EPA a lot of money, and it will reduce the reporting burden on regulated facilities."