In 1988, public concern in Gaston County about the environmental quality led the Board of County Commissioners to appoint a citizen committee to identify environmental problems and to recommend policies to protect the quality of the air, surface water, and groundwater. The committee, known as the Quality of Natural Resources Commission (QNRC) faced several difficulties, including the fragmentary nature of the data, which was highly technical, and not very useful as such in policy making. To help Gaston County deal with these problems, a multi-disciplinary team from North Carolina State University, headed by the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) was formed to undertake a two-phase study. Phase 1 dealt with a qualitative assessment of air, surface and groundwater quality in Gaston County. Phase 2 involved three steps. The first step was a refinement of the environmental assessment from Phase 1. The second step was an educational program that dealt with Gaston County's natural resources, which included the preparation of educational materials to be distributed to the public. The third step was the development of a public policy education program to assist the QNRC in policy formulation.
GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping was used extensively throughout the two phases of the project, both as an analytical tool early in the project, and as an educational tool during the policy education phase. A few of the GIS maps made for this purpose are below. Click on the thumbnail picture to see the entire map, as well as a map key and a short description of what details are included on the GIS map.
gaston images
animal operations
cercla sites
landfills
mining operations
npdes permit holders
public community well locations
surface water quality monitoring stations
surface water
toxic release inventory
water supply intakes
