The
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (
EPA or sometimes
USEPA) is an
agency of the
federal
government of the United States charged to protect human health
and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on
laws passed by Congress. The EPA was proposed by President
Richard Nixon and began operation on December
2, 1970, when its establishment was passed by
Congress, and signed into law by
President Nixon, and has since been chiefly responsible for the
environmental
policy of the United States. It is led by its
Administrator,
who is appointed by the
President of the United
States. The EPA is not a
Cabinet agency, but the Administrator
is normally given cabinet rank.
Lisa
P. Jackson is the current
Administrator. The agency has approximately 18,000 full-time
employees.
Also see
U.S. Census Bureau spreadsheet
History
On July 9, 1970, President Nixon transmitted
Reorganization Plan No. 3 to the United States Congress by
executive order,
creating the EPA as a single,
independent
agency from a number of smaller arms of different federal
agencies. Prior to the establishment of the EPA, the federal
government was not structured to comprehensively regulate the
pollutants which harm human health and degrade the environment. The
EPA was assigned the task of repairing the damage already done to
the natural environment and to establish new criteria to guide
Americans in making a cleaner, safer America.
EPA offices
- Office of Administration and Resources
- Office of Air and Radiation
- Office of
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
- Office of Environmental Information
- Office of Environmental Justice
- Office of the Chief Financial Officer
- Office of General Counsel
- Office of Inspector General
- Office of International Affairs
- Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances
- Office of Research and Development
- Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
- Office of Water
Each EPA regional office is responsible within its states for
implementing the Agency's programs, except those programs that have
been specifically delegated to states.
- Region
1 - responsible within the states of Connecticut
, Maine
, Massachusetts
, New
Hampshire
, Rhode Island
, and Vermont
.
- Region
2 - responsible within the states of New Jersey
and New
York
in addition it's also responsible for the US
territories of Puerto Rico, and the
U.S.
Virgin Islands
.
- Region
3 - responsible within the states of Delaware
, Maryland
, Pennsylvania
, Virginia
, West
Virginia
, and the
District of
Columbia
.
- Region
4 - responsible within the states of Alabama
, Florida
, Georgia
, Kentucky
, Mississippi
, North
Carolina
, South Carolina
, and Tennessee
.
- Region
5 - responsible within the states of Illinois
, Indiana
, Michigan
, Minnesota
, Ohio
, and
Wisconsin
.
- Region
6 - responsible within the states of Arkansas
, Louisiana
, New
Mexico
, Oklahoma
, and Texas
.
- Region
7 - responsible within the states of Iowa
, Kansas
, Missouri
, and Nebraska
.
- Region
8 - responsible within the states of Colorado
, Montana
, North Dakota
, South
Dakota
, Utah
, and
Wyoming
.
- Region 9 - responsible within the states of
Arizona
, California
, Hawaii
, Nevada
, and the
territories of Guam
and
American
Samoa
.
- Region 10 - responsible within the states of
Alaska
, Idaho
, Oregon
, and
Washington
.
Each regional office also implements programs on Indian Tribal
lands, except those programs delegated to Tribal authorities.
Related legislation
The
legislation here is general environmental protection legislation,
and may also apply to other units of the government, including the
Department of the Interior
and the Department of Agriculture
.
Air
Water
Land
Endangered species
Hazardous waste
Programs
Energy Star
In 1992 the EPA launched the Energy Star program, a voluntary
program that fosters energy efficiency.
Pesticide Registration
EPA administers the
Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) (which is
much older than the agency) and registers all
pesticides legally sold in the United
States.
Environmental Impact Statement Review
EPA is responsible for reviewing projects of other federal
agencies'
Environmental
Impact Statements under the
National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA).
Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative
Through the
Safer Detergents
Stewardship Initiative (SDSI), EPA's Design for the Environment
(DfE) Program recognizes environmental leaders who voluntarily
commit to the use of safer surfactants. Safer surfactants are
surfactants that break down quickly to non-polluting compounds and
help protect aquatic life in both fresh and salt water.
Nonylphenol ethoxylates, commonly
referred to as NPEs, are an example of a surfactant class that does
not meet the definition of a safer surfactant.
The Design for the Environment Program has identified safer
alternative surfactants through partnerships with industry and
environmental advocates. These safer alternatives are comparable in
cost and are readily available. CleanGredients is a source of safer
surfactants.
Fuel economy testing and results
Manufacturers selling automobiles in the USA
are
required to provide EPA fuel
economy test results for their vehicles and the manufacturers
are not allowed to provide results from alternate sources.
The fuel economy is calculated using the emissions data collected
during two of the vehicle's
Clean
Air Act certification tests by measuring the total volume of
carbon captured from the exhaust during the tests.
The
current testing system was originally developed in 1972 and used
driving cycles designed to simulate
driving during rush-hour in Los Angeles
during that era. Prior to 1984 the EPA
reported the exact fuel economy figures calculated from the test.
In 1984, the EPA began adjusting city (aka Urban Dynamometer
Driving Schedule or UDDS) results downward by 10% and highway (aka
HighWay Fuel Economy Test or HWFET) results by 22% to compensate
for changes in driving conditions since 1972 and to better
correlate the EPA test results with real-world driving. In 1996,
the EPA proposed updating the Federal Testing Procedures to add a
new higher speed test (US06) and an air-conditioner on test (SC03)
to further improve the correlation of fuel economy and emission
estimates with real-world reports. The updated testing methodology
was finalized in December, 2006 for implementation with model year
2008 vehicles and set the precedent of a 12 year review cycle for
the test procedures.
As of the early 2000s, most motor vehicle drivers report
significantly lower real-world fuel economy than the EPA rating;
this problem is most evident in
hybrid
vehicles. This is mainly because of drastic changes in typical
driving habits and conditions which have occurred in the decades
since the tests were implemented. For example, the average speed of
the 1972 "highway" test is a mere , with a top speed of . It is
expected that when the 2008 test methods are implemented, city
estimates for non-hybrid cars will drop by 10-20%, city estimates
for hybrid cars will drop by 20-30%, and highway estimates for all
cars will drop by 5-15%. The new methods include factors such as
high speeds, aggressive accelerations, air conditioning use and
driving in cold temperatures.
In February 2005, the organization launched a program called "
Your MPG" that allows drivers to add real-world fuel
economy statistics into a database on the EPA's fuel economy
website and compare them with others and the original EPA test
results.
Air quality and air pollution
The Air Quality Modeling Group (AQMG) is in the EPA's Office of Air
and Radiation (OAR) and provides leadership and direction on the
full range of
air quality models,
air pollution dispersion models and
other mathematical simulation techniques used in assessing
pollution control strategies and the impacts of air pollution
sources.
The AQMG serves as the focal point on
air pollution modeling
techniques for other EPA headquarters staff, EPA regional Offices,
and State and local environmental agencies. It coordinates with the
EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) on the development
of new models and techniques, as well as wider issues of
atmospheric research. Finally, the AQMG conducts modeling analyses
to support the policy and regulatory decisions of the EPA's Office
of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS).
The AQMG
is located in Research Triangle Park
, North Carolina
.
Oil pollution prevention
SPCC - Spill Prevention Containment and Counter Measures. Secondary
Containment mandated at oil storage facilities. Oil release
containment at oil development sites.
WaterSense
The
WaterSense program is designed to encourage
water efficiency through the use of
a special
label on
consumer products. Products include
high-efficiency
toilets (HETs),
bathroom sink faucets (and accessories), and
irrigation equipment. WaterSense is a
voluntary program, with EPA developing
specifications for water-efficient products
through a
public process and product testing
by independent
laboratories. The
program was launched in 2006.
Safe Drinking Water
EPA ensures safe
drinking water for
the public, by setting standards for more than 160,000
public water systems throughout the
United States. EPA oversees states, local governments and water
suppliers to enforce the standards, under the
Safe Drinking Water Act. The program
includes regulation of
injection
wells in order to protect underground sources of drinking
water.
Research vessel

OSV
Bold docked at Port
Canaveral, FL
On March 3, 2004 the United States Navy transferred
USNS Bold, a
Stalwart class ocean
surveillance ship, to the EPA, now known as OSV
Bold.
The ship previously used in anti-submarine operations during the
Cold War, is equipped with sidescan sonar,
underwater video, water and sediment sampling instruments, used in
study of ocean and coastline. One of the major missions of
Bold is to monitor sites where materials dumped from
dredging operations in U.S. ports for ecological impact.
Advance Identification
Advance Identification, or ADID, is a planning process used by the
EPA to identify wetlands and other bodies of water and their
respective suitability for the discharge of dredged and fill
material. The EPA conducts the process in cooperation with the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers and
local states or
Native American
Tribes. As of February 1993, 38 ADID projects had been
completed and 33 were ongoing.
Controversies
Air quality standards review
Since its inception the EPA has begun to rely less and less on its
scientists and more on nonscience personnel. EPA has recently
changed their policies regarding limits for
ground-level ozone,
particulates,
sulfur
dioxide,
nitrogen oxides,
carbon monoxide and
lead. New policies will minimize scientist interaction
with the agency and rely more on policy makers who have minimal
scientific knowledge. This new policy has been criticized by
Democrats. On March 12, 2008, the
Federal government of
the United States reported that the air in hundreds of U.S.
counties was simply too dirty to breathe, ordering a
multibillion-dollar expansion of efforts to clean up
smog in cities and towns nationwide.
Fuel economy
In July 2005, an EPA report showing that auto companies were using
loopholes to produce less fuel-efficient cars was delayed. The
report was supposed to be released the day before a controversial
energy bill was passed and would have provided backup for those
opposed to it, but at the last minute the EPA delayed its
release.
The state of California sued the EPA for its refusal to allow
California and 16 other states to raise fuel economy standards for
new cars. EPA administrator
Stephen
L. Johnson claimed that the
EPA was working on its own standards, but the move has been widely
considered an attempt to shield the auto industry from
environmental regulation by setting lower standards at the federal
level, which would then preempt state laws. California governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger, along
with governors from 13 other states, stated that the EPA's actions
ignored federal law, and that
existing California
standards (adopted by many states in addition to California) were
almost twice as effective as the
proposed federal
standards. It was reported that Stephen Johnson in making this
decision, ignored his own staff.
Global warming
In June 2005, a memo revealed that
Philip
Cooney, former chief of staff for the White House
Council on Environmental
Quality, and former
lobbyist for the
American Petroleum
Institute, had personally edited documents, summarizing
government research on
climate
change, before their release. Cooney resigned two days after
the memo was published in
The New
York Times. Cooney said he had been planning to resign for
over two years, implying the timing of his resignation was just a
coincidence. Specifically, he said he had planned to resign to
"spend time with his family." One week after resigning he took a
job at
Exxon Mobil in their public
affairs department.
In December 2007, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson approved a
draft of a document that declared that climate change imperiled the
public welfare - a decision that would trigger the first national
mandatory global-warming regulations. Associate Deputy
Administrator Jason Burnett e-mailed the draft to the White House.
White House aides - who had long resisted mandatory regulations as
a way to address climate change - knew the gist of what Johnson's
finding would be, Burnett said. They also knew that once they
opened the attachment, it would become a public record, making it
controversial and difficult to rescind. So they didn't open it;
rather, they called Johnson and asked him to take back the draft.
U.S. law clearly stated that the final decision was the EPA
administrator's, not President Bush's. Johnson rescinded the draft;
in July 2008, he issued a new version which did not state that
global warming was danger to public welfare. Burnett resigned in
protest.
Greenhouse gas emissions
The
Supreme Court
ruled on April 2, 2007 in Massachusetts
v. Environmental
Protection Agency that the EPA has the authority to
regulate the emission of
greenhouse
gases in automobile emissions, stating that "greenhouse gases
fit well within the
Clean Air Act
capacious definition of air pollutant." The court also stated that
the EPA must regulate in this area unless it is able to provide a
scientific reason for not doing so.
Jason K. Burnett, former EPA deputy associate administrator, told
the
United States Congress
that an official from Vice President
Dick
Cheney's office censored congressional testimony by Julie L.
Gerberding, director of the
Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Reportedly, the testimony excluded said
that "CDC considers climate change a serious public health
concern."
Libraries
In 2004, the Agency began a strategic planning exercise to develop
plans for a more virtual approach to library services. The effort
was curtailed in July 2005 when the Agency proposed a $2.5 million
cut in its 2007 budget for libraries. Based on the proposed 2007
budget, the EPA posted a notice to the
Federal Register, September 20, 2006 that
EPA Headquarters Library would close its doors to walk-in patrons
and visitors on October 1, 2006. The EPA also closed some of its
regional libraries and reduced hours in others, using the same FY
2007 proposed budget numbers.
On
October 1, 2008, the Agency re-opened regional libraries in
Chicago
, Dallas
and
Kansas City and the library at its
Headquarters in Washington, DC
.
Mercury emissions
In March 2005, nine states (California, New York, New Jersey, New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Mexico and
Vermont) sued the EPA. The EPA's inspector general had determined
that the EPA's regulation of
mercury emissions did not follow the Clean
Air Act, and that the regulations were influenced by top political
appointees.
The EPA had suppressed a study it
commissioned by Harvard University
which contradicted its position on mercury
controls. The suit alleges that the EPA's rule allowing
exemption from "maximum available control technology" was illegal,
and additionally charged that the EPA's system of pollution credit
trading allows power plants to forego reducing mercury emissions.
Several states also began to enact their own mercury emission
regulations. Illinois' proposed rule would have reduced mercury
emissions from power plants by an average of 90% by 2009.
9/11 air ratings
A report released by the Office of the Inspector General of the
United States Environmental Protection Agency in August 2003
claimed that the White House put pressure on the EPA to delete
cautionary information about the air quality in New York City
around Ground Zero following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Very fine airborne particulates
Tiny particles, under 2.5 micrometres, are attributed to health and
mortality concerns, so some health advocates want the EPA to
regulate it. The science may be in its infancy, although many
conferences have discussed the trails of this airborne matter in
the air. Foreign governments such as
Australia and most
EU states
have addressed this issue.
The EPA first established standards in 1997, and strengthened them
in 2006. As with other standards, regulation and enforcement of the
PM
2.5 standards is the responsibility of the state
governments, through
State
Implementation Plans.
Political pressure
In April 2008, the
Union
of Concerned Scientists said that more than half of the nearly
1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailed
questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of political
interference in their work. The survey included chemists,
toxicologists, engineers, geologists and experts in other fields of
science. About 40% of the scientists reported that the interference
has been more prevalent in the last five years compared to previous
years. The highest number of complaints came from scientists who
are involved in determining the risks of cancer by chemicals used
in food and other aspects of everyday life.
Environmental justice
The EPA has been criticized for its lack of progress towards
environmental justice.
Administrator
Christine Todd
Whitman was criticized for her changes to President
Bill Clinton's
Executive Order 12898 during 2001, removing
the requirements for government agencies to take the poor and
minority populations into special consideration when making changes
to environmental legislation, and therefore defeating the spirit of
the Executive Order.O’Neil, S. G. (2007).
Superfund: Evaluating the Impact of Executive Order
12898. Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 115, Number 7,
pgs 1087–1093 In a March 2004 report, the
inspector general of the
agency concluded that the EPA "has not developed a clear vision or
a comprehensive strategic plan, and has not established values,
goals, expectations, and performance measurements" for
environmental justice in its daily operations. Another report in
September 2006 found the agency still had failed to review the
success of its programs, policies and activities towards
environmental justice. Studies have also found that poor and
minority populations were underserved by the EPA's
Superfund program, and that this equity was
worsening.
List of EPA administrators
See also
References
- EPA SDSI Home Page
- CleanGredients Home Page
- EPA Fuel Economy
- www.crcpress.com
- www.air-dispersion.com
- EPA. "WaterSense."
- EPA > Wetlands > Wetlands Fact Sheet
- C&E News, December 18, 2006, page 15
- CNN, March 13, 2008
- U.S. Official Edited Warming, Emission Link -
Report, Reuters, June 8, 2005
- White House Official Resigns After Climate
Documents Flap, Agence France Presse, June 12,
2005
- Ex-White House environment official joins
Exxon, Reuters, June 15, 2005
- "Notification of Closure of the EPA Headquarters
Library" (pdf), September 20, 2006
- Letter to Appropriations Committee, Interior and
Related Agencies Subcommittee, June 29, 2006 (pdf), from
leaders of 16 local EPA unions
- EPA Newsbrief, October 1, 2008. Retrieved
January 17, 2009.
- Proposed Mercury Rules Bear Industry Mark,
Washington Post, January 31, 2004
- EPA Inspector Finds Mercury Proposal Tainted,
Washington Post, February 4, 2005
- New EPA Mercury Rule Omits Conflicting Data,
Washington Post, March 22, 2005
- States Sue EPA Over Mercury Emissions, LA
Times, March 30, 2005
- Governor Blagojevich and Illinois EPA Propose
Aggressive Mercury Controls For Illinois Power Plants,
Environmental Progress, Spring 2006, page 12
- Reasons Why Particulate Matter (PM) Should be
Included in EPA Settlements with Electric Utility
Companies
- PM Standards Revision - 2006 | Particulate Matter |
Air & Radiation | US EPA
External links