About the Byline
Every figure on PlainLakes traces back to a named public source, computed by documented pipelines. PlainLakes publishes under one organizational byline rather than personal ones: the publisher is accountable for the data framing, methodology, and corrections you read here.
Every figure published on PlainLakes is traced back to its official public source and computed by deterministic pipelines, not hand-entered. Our methodology sets out exactly how each dataset is sourced, computed, and refreshed, and the about page explains how we handle corrections when a reader flags something. The byline below is the publishing organization itself, not an individual writer: these pages are generated from documented pipelines rather than individually reported, so accountability for the framing and for correcting it sits with the publisher. Corrections sent to the address on the about page reach a monitored inbox.
In practice that means two upstream sources and no third. Assessment decisions come from what states and territories report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Clean Water Act sections 303(d) and 305(b), on each state's own multi-year reporting cycle. Water levels come from daily-value observations in the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Information System. Neither is edited here: the verdicts, causes and measurements are the agencies' own. What PlainLakes adds is the framing around them: the rankings, the comparisons to state and national context, and the plain-language explanations. Any error in that framing is the publisher's to correct.
- PlainLakes
Public-data publisher · Water-quality and hydrology data analysis
PlainLakes publishes source-linked reference material on U.S. lakes and reservoirs, assessment status, impairment causes, fish-consumption use verdicts, and water-level records, compiled from EPA ATTAINS and USGS National Water Information System data. Its pages identify the source data, calculation limits, and correction route. The publisher does not accept paid placement from entities it covers.
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PlainLakes is a data-journalism publisher: we compile public datasets, verify them against their official sources, and present them in plain language. Editorial standards, sourcing, and how we handle corrections are described on our about and methodology pages.