Charts on this page are regenerated automatically each week from the latest available data. For full analysis and narrative context, follow the links in each section.
MA DEP Staffing
DEP staffing levels directly determine the agency’s capacity to review permits, investigate violations, and enforce environmental law.
Data: MA DEP staff payroll records — VisibleGovernment through 2016, MA Comptroller (SODA API) 2010–present. Full analysis: Staff Changes at the MADEP Over Time.
About this data and methodology
Payroll records from two sources are merged on employee name and calendar year, allowing a continuous series from 2004 onward. Staffing counts are tabulated by calendar year. Funding data comes from the MassBudget environmental appropriations database, inflation-adjusted to 2015 dollars using the SSA Average Wage Index. Seniority is estimated as the number of years each employee appears in the combined dataset relative to 2004, the first year of records. MA Comptroller payroll data has a publication lag of approximately 15 months. Data is currently available through calendar year 2024; records for 2025 are expected to appear in the API in approximately early 2027. The correlation between annual DEP headcount and total agency budget is 63% (p=0.21). Note that the budget series uses reported administrative appropriations and may not capture all funding sources. See the 2017 staffing post for detailed caveats on data completeness and the merger of the two payroll sources.Overall staffing levels
Staffing vs. agency funding
⚠️ Staffing bars update weekly. Budget line reflects 2023 data (MassBudget source unavailable since 2026) and does not update automatically.
Staff seniority over time
Note: Seniority data is only available through 2016 from VisibleGovernment payroll records. While staffing levels have been updated with more recent Comptroller data, seniority calculations are not available after 2016.
MA DEP Enforcement Actions
Enforcement actions measure whether DEP is actively holding polluters accountable.
Data: MA DEP enforcement actions. Full analysis: Changes in Enforcement by MA DEP Over Time.
About this data and methodology
Enforcement counts use EEA Data Portal records spanning 1996 to present. Routine administrative notices (Notice Of Non-Compliance, Field NONs, Boil Orders, and federal notices) are excluded—these are issued at high volume and do not reflect investigative or enforcement officer effort. Substantive enforcement actions counted include consent orders, unilateral orders, and penalty notices. Budget data is the same inflation-adjusted MassBudget series used in the staffing section. The correlation between annual enforcement counts and agency budget is 27%. Administrative Consent Orders with Penalties (ACOPs) are identified as a subset of consent orders; penalty amounts are estimated using bootstrap resampling with 90% confidence intervals. Topic breakdown (wetlands, NPDES, Chapter 91, etc.) uses the older MADEP press-release dataset and is only available through 2017; see the 2017 enforcement post for the full methodology.Total enforcement actions
Enforcement actions vs. agency budget
Note: budget data shown reflects 2015 inflation-adjusted values and does not update automatically. Current MassBudget source is unavailable as of 2026.
Enforcement actions by topic
State Environmental Agency Budgets
State environmental agency budgets vary widely per capita; Massachusetts has the lowest per-capita environmental spending among New England states.
Data: ECOS State Environmental Agency Budget Report and US Census state population estimates.
About this data and methodology
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) collects annual budget survey data from state environmental agencies. Per-capita figures are calculated by dividing each state's reported agency budget by the Census Bureau's annual state population estimate. Massachusetts is highlighted for easy comparison. Cross-state comparability is imperfect: states define the scope of their "environmental agency" differently — some include health, energy, or natural resources functions, others do not. Year-over-year trends within a single state are more reliable than cross-state point-in-time comparisons. Budget figures are adjusted for inflation using the SSA Average Wage Index.Per-capita environmental spending by state
⚠️ ECOS budget data is updated manually, not weekly. Check commit history for the last update date.
CSO Discharge Trends
Combined sewer overflows discharge untreated sewage into waterways during rain events. The charts below reflect conditions since the 2020 Sewage Notification Act took effect.
Data: MA EEA Data Portal — CSO discharge reports, covering June 2022 to present under the Sewage Notification Act (Chapter 322 of 2020). Full analysis: (DRAFT) Three years of MA sewage pollution data.
About this data and methodology
Regulated sewer operators report CSO and SSO discharge events to the EEA Data Portal within 24 hours of occurrence. Each record includes event type, estimated discharge volume, affected waterbody, and operator identity. Rainfall data comes from NOAA ACIS, averaging daily precipitation across Massachusetts GHCN and NWS COOP weather stations. Discharge counts and volumes are tabulated by month and year. The rainfall chart uses a 48-hour lookback window for precipitation totals, following Bizer & Kirchhoff (2022). Operator volumes are shown as annual trends for the top 10 operators, illustrating how each operator's discharge volumes change year-to-year. Note that 2022 data covers only the second half of the calendar year; the first full calendar year of data is 2023.Annual discharge volume and rainfall
Monthly discharge counts and rainfall
Discharge volume by operator over time
Data Quality Indicator: Estimated vs. Measured Discharge Volumes
Data: MA EEA Data Portal — CSO discharge reports.
About this data and methodology
When operators report discharge volumes rounded to the nearest 1,000 gallons, this likely indicates estimation rather than direct measurement. A higher fraction of estimated reports means less precise discharge accounting for that month. CSO operators may estimate discharge volume when direct measurement is not available, particularly during early-response phases of an event.Monthly fraction of estimated vs. measured discharge reports
Discharge by Watershed
Data: MA EEA Data Portal — CSO discharge reports.
About this data and methodology
Discharge volumes are aggregated to the watershed level using outfall location data from a state permittee and outfall list. The chart shows monthly cumulative discharge volume for the 8 watersheds with the highest total discharge over the full reporting period to date.Monthly discharge volume by receiving watershed
Charts regenerated weekly from the latest available data. Last update visible in the Actions log.