The Data Liberation Project — National Water Use Inventory

This request is a collaboration with Maddy Varner of The Markup.

42 U.S. Code § 10368, introduced by the Secure Water Act of 2009, requires the Secretary of the Interior to establish a “national water availability and use assessment program.”

The law requires the program to include “the maintenance of a comprehensive national water use inventory to enhance the level of understanding with respect to the effects of spatial and temporal patterns of water use on the availability and sustainable use of water resources[,]” as well as “the integration of any dataset maintained by any other Federal or State agency into the dataset maintained by the Secretary[.]”

Our FOIA request 📄 to the Department of the Interior (DOI) seeks a full copy of all database records corresponding to that inventory and those dataset integrations. It also seeks all relevant database documentation.

Note: We sent our initial FOIA request 📄 (tracking number DOI-OS-2023-002629) to DOI’s Office of the Secretary, which said it had no responsive records but suggested we resubmit to the US Geological Survey (USGS). See the updates section below for details.

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Updates

Appeal Filed • On May 23, 2024, the Data Liberation Project submitted an appeal of USGS’s withholding of site identifiers (names, IDs, locations) 📄, arguing that the cited exemptions do not apply. The appeal has been assigned tracking number 2024-120.
Records Published • On April 8, 2024, the Data Liberation Project published the responsive records, documentation describing what it has learned about the data, as well as a GitHub repository combining and assessing the records.
Records Provided • On March 6, 2024, USGS provided a final response letter 📄, accompanied by responsive records, which the Data Liberation Project began reviewing.
Acknowledgement of Clarified Request • On March 29, 2023, following a March 27 conference call regarding this request, USGS emailed a “Acknowledgement of Clarified Request” letter. The letter reflects the clarifications we made on the call — chiefly that we’re seeking “[a]ll high-resolution water use data which contributed to the aggregated water use inventory,” rather than the aggregated statistics already available online. The letter also notes that USGS has not yet made a determination on our request for a fee waiver," that “your request falls into the Extraordinary processing track, and that “[t]here are 40 requests pending ahead of yours in our overall processing queue.”
Request Resubmitted • On March 13, 2023, following the suggestion in letter referenced in the prior update, we resubmitted the FOIA request 📄, with minor changes, this time sending it to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
“No Responsive Records,” Resubmission Suggested • On March 1, 2023, DOI’s Office of the Secretary emailed a final disposition letter 📄 indicating that, “After a thorough search of our files, it has been determined that the Office of the Secretary has no records responsive to your request.” The letter, however, also suggested that, “To the extent responsive records exist, the records you have requested may be maintained by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). As such, you may wish to submit your request(s) to that agency’s FOIA office[.]”
Request Acknowledged, Assigned to “Complex” Track • On February 17, 2023, DOI emailed a letter acknowledging our request 📄 and noting the request has been assigned to the “Complex processing track.”