diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index d4d69d12b5bf8e8bc519347c13f75fc9ff866daa..837afddca5026e69ffcfd1c171313ca5914f1bc2 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: dataRetrieval
 Type: Package
 Title: Retrieval Functions for USGS and EPA Hydrologic and Water Quality Data
-Version: 2.1.1
+Version: 2.1.2
 Date: 2015-02-01
 Authors@R: c( person("Robert", "Hirsch", role = c("aut"),
     email = "rhirsch@usgs.gov"),
diff --git a/R/getWebServiceData.R b/R/getWebServiceData.R
index 5405b4b9c783694ae78e9a79d7c96c8adf08b0e9..a4e5737737b27e8f0d0af30480834bc11b43ea53 100644
--- a/R/getWebServiceData.R
+++ b/R/getWebServiceData.R
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 getWebServiceData <- function(obs_url){
   possibleError <- tryCatch({
     h <- basicHeaderGatherer()
-    returnedDoc <- getURI(obs_url, headerfunction = h$update)      
+    returnedDoc <- getURI(obs_url, headerfunction = h$update, encoding='gzip')      
   }, warning = function(w) {
     warning(w, "with url:", obs_url)
   }, error = function(e) {