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MassDEP demos revamped data portal; adds faster status refresh, chemical and ZIP searches
Summary
MassDEP's Enterprise Information Office demonstrated recent upgrades to its public data portal, including more frequent regulatory-status refreshes, a chemical search field, ZIP-code search, and improved filtering; attendees flagged address-search limitations and mapping limits for large cities.
At a Wayside Cleanup Advisory Committee meeting, MassDEP’s Enterprise Information Office (EIO) reviewed recent improvements to the department’s public data portal and asked advisory-committee users for prioritized feedback.
What EIO showed: Shannon Smith, director of the EIO, and Matt Cogliano from BWSC information technology described several practical updates: the portal now refreshes many regulatory-status fields nightly (cutting lag from hours to minutes), a chemical-name search (for example, "PFAS") is available, ZIP-code and neighborhood-level searches were added, and search-filter behavior was improved so users can refine queries iteratively without losing prior filters.
User feedback and limitations: Committee members said address-number searches remain challenging — entering a full street address does not always return the expected site because many records are address-matched inconsistently or use historic parcel notations. Attendees also noted a mapping limitation: the portal shows a maximum of 200 mapped points for a query page and some towns (especially Boston) have many more sites; staff explained the map is intentionally limited to preserve performance but said they are working to add more complete GIS layers.
Why it matters: The portal is a primary public interface for site status and remediation data. Faster updates and chemical searches make it easier for practitioners and the public to find sites of concern, but attendees stressed that address accuracy, the sorting logic for street/address columns, and exportable GIS layers remain high-priority improvements.
Next steps: EIO solicited written feedback and offered contact information for follow-up. Matt said the developers are working to publish more complete GIS site layers and to fix sorting bugs so street and number columns sort more intuitively.
Ending: The department invited advisory-committee members and other users to continue sending specific, prioritized requests to EIO so future portal changes can be targeted to the most common user problems.
