Inventory of Federal, Provincial and Territorial Environmental and Occupational Health Data
Sources and Surveillance Activities

Inventory of Data Sources

Environment Integrated System (EnvI) (New Brunswick)

Contact
Manager
Information Management and Services Branch
New Brunswick Dept of Environment & Local Govern't
P.O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB
E3B 5H1
Tel: (506) 453-2020

Organization Maintaining the Database
Information Management Services (IMS) Branch
New Brunswick Dept of Environment & Local Govern't (This branch develops and provides support for databases; it is not the end user).

Purpose of Database
This operational data warehouse stores New Brunswick water quality data for monitoring purposes, as well as industrial certificate-of-approval documents.

Content
Data on water quality data (drinking water source and distribution points; surface water (rivers and lakes); industrial, mining, and wastewater treatment plants); and on industrial certificate-of-approval documents. Also data on soil contaminants.

Data types: microbiological, chemical, radiological. Geolocators: municipal codes, postal codes, longitudinal / latitudinal coordinates. Person-level data with identifiers, and person-level data without identifiers; also group-level or aggregate data. Personal data: individual's name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, PIDs, and Well IDs.

Data elements: For water quality data: geo-referenced Stations (locations); data on water quality samples collected at these Stations are entered indicating the sample date and unique Field Number identifier. After analysis at the laboratory the Parameter Results from these Samples are then updated on nightly basis from the LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) to EnvI. Each sample analyzed at the laboratory is assigned a unique identifier called a Lab Number. These parameter results are then quality assured by the sample collector prior to the data being made available to other Department staff.

The number of records in the database as of June 2002: clients (1480), sites (1709), industrial approvals (3161), stations (17,915), samples (119,197), parameter results (1,518,399).

Data coding/classification standards: Leszynski's naming convention, Province of New Brunswick data standards.

Year Database Established
1998

Coverage Period
1975 to 2002 for water quality data (most data are post-1987)

Data Updates
Daily

Data Providers
The New Brunswick Dept of Environment and Local Government collects the data from New Brunswick Health and Community Services, municipalities, volunteer and community groups, and industry. Municipal water systems and Dept of Health investigations are the original sources of the data.

Data Availability
Access is limited to NB Dept of Environment and Local Government (DELG) staff (Head Office and six Regional Offices). There are no external users at this time.

Users require DELG network access with user name and password, Oracle account, an EnvI Staff ID, and EnvI User Roles that are assigned at table level.

Disclosure of data is at the discretion of the applicable business area of the Department, but for water quality data from an individual's domestic well collected under the Potable Water Regulation of the Clean Water Act, this data can only be released to that person. For third party domestic well data requests, the information can be provided only in aggregate form.

The person who is responsible for privacy, use and disclosure of data: Director of Policy and Planning, NB Dept of Environment and Local Government.

Reports
No

Additional Comments
Data on drinking water quality are collected under the authority of the Potable Water Regulation of the Clean Water Act since January 1994. Surface Water: routine baseline monitoring at selected rivers & lakes. Industrial Water Quality Monitoring: audit programs to verify that Certificate of Approval (CoA) guidelines are being met. Occurrences Monitoring - as a result of incidents having a negative impact on the environment (fuel and chemical spills, etc.)

Keywords for searches: program, subprogram, station, client, site, field number, approval number.

Documentation on the database is available in electronic and printed formats.

The database links with information in the Groundwater, Pesticides, and Acid Rain databases. The IMS Branch also provides technical support and maintenance to these and other databases in the Department.