I've been thinking, recently, that the various state/local/fed govts should have to eat their own dog-food: there should be a govt API that is: (1) publicly available; and, (2) the only legal way to access data and make changes (when I'm feeling frustrated, this includes criminal consequences for govt employees that circumvent the system).

Want to get a new well? You can add a well-review task to the queue just as easily as a govt epmloyee. Want to know when your well request will get reviewed? The queue is available.

This is true. Other companies in this space spend a lot of time writing import routines for the old system's data.

Also, the other companies in this space suck too, for most of the same reasons.

I see. Makes sense. Thanks.

Not entirely true. Acquisitions they've made in the past few years are focused on making data easier to access by the public.

Making data more available to the public is not the same as making it easy to import into a new system.