United States Environmental Protection Agency

Background , official photographer of recently founded EPA Beginning in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, the US Congress reacted to increasing public concern about the impact that human activity could have on the environment. Senator James E. Murray introduced a bill, the Resources and Conservation Act (RCA) of 1959, in the 86th Congress. The bill would have established a Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President, declared a national environmental policy, and required the preparation of an annual environmental report. The conservation movement was weak at the time and the bill did not pass Congress. The 1962 publication of Silent Spring, a best-selling book by Rachel Carson, alerted the public about the detrimental effects on animals and humans of the indiscriminate use of pesticide chemicals. In the years following, Congress discussed possible solutions. In 1968, a joint House–Senate colloquium was convened by the chairmen of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Senator Henry M. Jackson, and the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, Representative George P. Miller, to discuss the need for and means of implementing a national environmental policy. Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and the law was based on ideas that had been discussed in the 1959 and subsequent hearings. Nixon signed NEPA into law on January 1, 1970. The law established the CEQ in the Executive Office of the President. NEPA required that a detailed statement of environmental impacts be prepared for all major federal actions significantly affecting the environment. The "detailed statement" would ultimately be referred to as an environmental impact statement (EIS). This proposal included merging pollution control programs from a number of departments, such as the combination of pesticide programs from the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of the Interior. After conducting hearings during that summer, the House and Senate approved the proposal. The EPA was created 90 days before it had to operate, 1970s In its first year, the EPA had a budget of $1.4 billion and 5,800 employees. EPA staff recall that in the early days there was "an enormous sense of purpose and excitement" and the expectation that "there was this agency which was going to do something about a problem that clearly was on the minds of a lot of people in this country," leading to tens of thousands of resumes from those eager to participate in the mighty effort to clean up America's environment. When EPA first began operation, members of the private sector felt strongly that the environmental protection movement was a passing fad. Ruckelshaus stated that he felt pressure to show a public which was deeply skeptical about government's effectiveness, that EPA could respond effectively to widespread concerns about pollution. The CWA established a national framework for addressing water quality, including mandatory pollution control standards, to be implemented by the agency in partnership with the states. Congress amended the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) in 1972, requiring EPA to measure every pesticide's risks against its potential benefits. In 1973 President Nixon appointed Russell E. Train to be the next EPA administrator. In 1974 Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act, requiring EPA to develop mandatory federal standards for all public water systems, which serve 90% of the US population. The law required EPA to enforce the standards with the cooperation of state agencies. In October 1976, Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) which, like FIFRA, related to the manufacture, labeling and usage of commercial products rather than pollution. This act gave the EPA the authority to gather information on chemicals and require producers to test them, gave it the ability to regulate chemical production and use (with specific mention of PCBs), and required the agency to create the National Inventory listing of chemicals. It tasked the EPA with setting national goals for waste disposal, conserving energy and natural resources, reducing waste, and ensuring environmentally sound management of waste. Accordingly, the agency developed regulations for solid and hazardous waste that were to be implemented in collaboration with states. President Jimmy Carter appointed Douglas M. Costle as EPA administrator in 1977. To manage the agency's expanding legal mandates and workload, by the end of 1979 the budget grew to $5.4 billion and the workforce size increased to 13,000. 1980s In 1980, following the discovery of many abandoned or mismanaged hazardous waste sites such as Love Canal, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, nicknamed "Superfund." The new law authorized EPA to cast a wider net for parties responsible for sites contaminated by previous hazardous waste disposal and established a funding mechanism for assessment and cleanup. Gorsuch based her administration of EPA on the New Federalism approach of downsizing federal agencies by delegating their functions and services to the individual states. She believed that EPA was over-regulating business and that the agency was too large and not cost-effective. During her 22 months as agency head, she cut the budget of the EPA by 22%, reduced the number of cases filed against polluters, relaxed Clean Air Act regulations, and facilitated the spraying of restricted-use pesticides. She cut the total number of agency employees, and hired staff from the industries they were supposed to be regulating. Environmentalists contended that her policies were designed to placate polluters, and accused her of trying to dismantle the agency. Assistant Administrator Rita Lavelle was fired by Reagan in February 1983 because of her mismanagement of the Superfund program. Gorsuch had increasing confrontations with Congress over Superfund and other programs, including her refusal to submit subpoenaed documents. Gorsuch was cited for contempt of Congress and the White House directed EPA to submit the documents to Congress. Gorsuch and most of her senior staff resigned in March 1983. Reagan then appointed William Ruckelshaus as EPA administrator for a second term. As a condition for accepting his appointment, Ruckleshaus obtained autonomy from the White House in appointing his senior management team. He then appointed experienced competent professionals to the top management positions, and worked to restore public confidence in the agency. Lee M. Thomas succeeded Ruckelshaus as administrator in 1985. In 1986 Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, which authorized the EPA to gather data on toxic chemicals and share this information with the public. In 1988, during his first presidential campaign, George H. W. Bush was vocal about environmental issues. Following his election victory, he appointed William K. Reilly, an environmentalist, as EPA administrator in 1989. At the time, there was increasing awareness that some environmental issues were regional or localized in nature, and were more appropriately addressed with sub-national approaches and solutions. This understanding was reflected in the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act and in new approaches by the agency, such as a greater emphasis on watershed-based approaches in Clean Water Act programs. 1990s In 1992 EPA and the Department of Energy launched the Energy Star program, a voluntary program that fosters energy efficiency. Carol Browner was appointed EPA administrator by President Bill Clinton and served from 1993 to 2001. Major projects during Browner's term included: • Initiation of the Brownfields pilot program in 1995 • Initial hazardous air pollution standards for petroleum refineries in 1995 • Initial lead paint abatement regulations under TSCA in 1996 • Update of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter and ozone in 1997. Since the passage of the Superfund law in 1980, an excise tax had been levied on the chemical and petroleum industries, to support the cleanup trust fund. Congressional authorization of the tax was due to expire in 1995. Although Browner and the Clinton Administration supported continuation of the tax, Congress declined to reauthorize it. Subsequently, the Superfund program was supported only by annual appropriations, greatly reducing the number of waste sites that are remediated in a given year. (In 2021 Congress reauthorized an excise tax on chemical manufacturers.) Taking place In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the Executive Order 12898, which required the federal government to address environmental justice. The order told all federal agencies to consider how their actions might affect minority and low-income communities, especially communities that face higher levels of pollution or other environmental issues. This order had vital connection to the EPA, with the creation of the Office of Environmental Justice. The purpose of this office was to help coordinate environmental justice work across different environmental agencies and support efforts to protect communities that were facing disproportionate environmental burdens. Major legislative updates during the Clinton Administration were the Food Quality Protection Act and the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act. 2000s President George W. Bush appointed Christine Todd Whitman as EPA administrator in 2001. Whitman was succeeded by Mike Leavitt in 2003 and Stephen L. Johnson in 2005. The EPA had suppressed a study it commissioned by Harvard University which contradicted its position on mercury controls. The suit alleged that the EPA's rule exempting coal-fired power plants from "maximum available control technology" was illegal, and additionally charged that the EPA's system of cap-and-trade to lower average mercury levels would allow power plants to forego reducing mercury emissions, which they objected would lead to dangerous local hotspots of mercury contamination even if average levels declined. Several states also began to enact their own mercury emission regulations. Illinois's proposed rule would have reduced mercury emissions from power plants by an average of 90% by 2009. In 2008—by which point a total of fourteen states had joined the suit—the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA regulations violated the Clean Air Act. In response, EPA announced plans to propose such standards to replace the vacated Clean Air Mercury Rule, and did so on March 16, 2011. In July 2005 there was a delay in the issuance of an EPA report showing that auto companies were using loopholes to produce less fuel-efficient cars. 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 the EPA delayed its release at the last minute. EPA initiated its voluntary WaterSense program in 2006 to encourage water efficiency through the use of a special label on consumer products. In 2007 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 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 Johnson ignored his own staff in making this decision. In 2007 it was reported that EPA research was suppressed by career managers. Supervisors at EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment required several paragraphs to be deleted from a peer-reviewed journal article about EPA's integrated risk information system, which led two co-authors to have their names removed from the publication, and the corresponding author, Ching-Hung Hsu, to leave EPA "because of the draconian restrictions placed on publishing". The 2007 report stated that EPA subjected employees who author scientific papers to prior restraint, even if those papers are written on personal time. In December 2007 EPA administrator 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 did not open it; rather, they called Johnson and asked him to take back the draft. 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. 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 had been more prevalent in the last five years than in previous years. President Barack Obama appointed Lisa P. Jackson as EPA administrator in 2009. Between 2011 and 2012, some EPA employees reported difficulty in conducting and reporting the results of studies on hydraulic fracturing due to industry and governmental pressure, and were concerned about the censorship of environmental reports. President Obama appointed Gina McCarthy as EPA administrator in 2013. In 2015, the EPA discovered extensive violations by Volkswagen Group in its manufacture of Volkswagen and Audi diesel engine cars, for the 2009 through 2016 model years. Following notice of violations and potential criminal sanctions, Volkswagen later agreed to a legal settlement and paid billions of US dollars in criminal penalties, and was required to initiate a vehicle buyback program and modify the engines of the vehicles to reduce illegal air emissions. In August 2015, the EPA finalized the Clean Power Plan to regulate emissions from power plants, projecting a 15-year cut of 32%, or 789 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. In 2019 it was voided and replaced by the Affordable Clean Energy rule under the Trump administration, and in 2022 its constitutionality was ruled out by the Supreme Court. In August 2015, the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill occurred when EPA contractors examined the level of pollutants such as lead and arsenic in a Colorado mine, and accidentally released over three million gallons of waste water into Cement Creek and the Animas River. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a branch of the World Health Organization, cited research linking glyphosate, an ingredient of the weed killer Roundup manufactured by the chemical company Monsanto, to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. In March 2017, the presiding judge in a litigation brought about by people who claim to have developed glyphosate-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma opened Monsanto emails and other documents related to the case, including email exchanges between the company and federal regulators. According to The New York Times, the "records suggested that Monsanto had ghostwritten research that was later attributed to academics and indicated that a senior official at the Environmental Protection Agency had worked to quash a review of Roundup's main ingredient, glyphosate, that was to have been conducted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services." The records show that Monsanto was able to prepare "a public relations assault" on the finding after they were alerted to the determination by Jess Rowland, the head of the EPA's cancer assessment review committee at that time, months in advance. Emails also showed that Rowland "had promised to beat back an effort by the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct its own review." On February 17, 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Scott Pruitt as EPA administrator. In 2017, the Presidency of Donald Trump proposed a 31% cut to the EPA's budget to $5.7 billion from $8.1 billion and to eliminate a quarter of the agency jobs. However, this cut was not approved by Congress. Pruitt resigned from the position on July 5, 2018, citing "unrelenting attacks" due to ongoing ethics controversies. President Trump appointed Andrew R. Wheeler as EPA administrator in 2019. On July 17, 2019, EPA management prohibited the agency's Scientific Integrity Official, Francesca Grifo, from testifying at a House committee hearing. EPA offered to send a different representative in place of Grifo and accused the committee of "dictating to the agency who they believe was qualified to speak." The hearing was to discuss the importance of allowing federal scientists and other employees to speak freely when and to whom they want to about their research without having to worry about any political consequences. In September 2019 air pollution standards in California were once again under attack, as the Trump administration attempted to revoke a waiver issued to the state which allowed more stringent standards for auto and truck emissions than the federal standards. 2020s Biden Presidency (2021–2025) President Joe Biden appointed Michael S. Regan to be administrator in 2021. Regan began serving on March 11, 2021. In October 2021 EPA announced its "PFAS Strategic Roadmap." PFASs are organofluorine chemical compounds referred to as "forever chemicals". The roadmap is a "whole-of-EPA" strategy and the agency will consider the full life cycle of PFAS, including preventing PFAS from entering the environment, holding polluters accountable, and remediation of contaminated sites. It also will include drinking water monitoring and risk assessment for PFOA and PFOS in biosolids (processed sewage sludge used as fertilizer). In December 2021 EPA issued new greenhouse gas standards for passenger cars and light trucks. The standards, which will reduce climate pollution and improve public health, became effective for the 2023 vehicle model year. In March 2022 the Biden administration allowed California to again set stricter auto emissions standards. In August 2022 the EPA was allotted a listed ~$53.216 billion in funding pursuant to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The EPA listed 24 total initiatives, the most notable among them being greenhouse gas reduction and monitoring, a superfund petroleum tax, replacing current heavy-duty vehicles with zero-emission vehicles, and a methane incentive program. On February 3, 2023, more than 100 train cars were derailed in East Palestine, and around half of those cars containing chemicals like butyl acrylate, vinyl chloride, and ethylhexyl acrylate. Subsequently, the chemicals combusted into a flame being seen from miles around and the fumes filled the air with residents reporting animals falling ill and a burning sensation in their eyes and nose. The EPA monitered the situation and experts recommended that local residents take part in the EPA's at-home air screening. On April 21, 2023, the White House implemented the Justice40 Initiative as part of its broader effort to improve equality in minority communities. The goal of Justice40 is to make sure that 40 percent of the benefits from major federal investments go to communities that have been ignored. These investments include climate programs, clean energy projects, and efforts to reduce pollution. Justice40 changed the way federal agencies planned their programs and worked with each other. It guided how they identified disadvantaged communities and how they decided where money and support should go. For the EPA, this meant adjusting some of its grant programs and technical assistance, so they clearly supported Justice40’s goals and showed that the benefits were reaching the communities that needed them most. In March 2024, EPA published regulations for tailpipe emissions standards that accelerate the transition to electric vehicles (EVs). The standards require at least two-thirds of all new cars sold in the United States to be zero-emissions vehicles by 2032, in order to reduce air pollution and climate change. The agency projected that the regulations would cut emissions by 7 billion metric tons, or 56% of 2026 levels, by 2032. In April 2024, EPA finalized new standards for power plant carbon emissions, projecting cuts of 65,000 tons by 2028 and 1.38 billion tons by 2047. The agency also issued final drinking water standards for six PFAS compounds. In December, 2024 the EPA announced it approved California's plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035. EPA Administrator Michael Regan granted a waiver under the Clean Air Act to California to implement the plan which was first announced in 2020. It required that by 2035 at least 80% of new cars sold be electric and up to 20% plug-in hybrid models. California's rules were adopted by 11 other states including New York, Massachusetts and Oregon. Second Trump Presidency (2025–) With the second presidential term of Donald Trump, Lee Zeldin began serving as administrator on January 29, 2025. On February 27, 2025, EPA received a White House memo issued by Russell Vought to prepare for mass layoffs. Hours earlier, Trump had said that there would be a 65 percent reduction in its roughly 17,000 personnel, which was later corrected to 65 percent overall agency budget cuts. After these changes, many towns and cities struggled to continue projects related to pollution cleanup, public health, and environmental monitoring because the funding was no longer available. In March 2025 the EPA dropped a lawsuit against Denka, a chemical company, which was intended to reduce emissions of chloroprene at its plant in LaPlace, Louisiana. After the Supreme Court of the United States overturned an injunction against termination of government employees in AFGE v. Trump, the EPA announced in July 2025 that it would be eliminating its Office of Research and Development. The agency had previously denied plans to do so after a leaked memo indicating plans to do so was reported on in March. The EPA released a new proposed rule in July 2025 to repeal the previous endangerment finding that had been established in 2009 that greenhouse gases posed a risk to human health, a basis used in many of the EPA's regulations supporting the Clean Air Act. Zeldin asserted that the impact of these existing regulations was harming American citizens through increased costs, this being his rationale for eliminating the endangerment finding. By late 2025, the EPA had greatly reduced its environmental justice work. As part of the administration’s changes, the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights was shut down, and a large portion of the EJ staff were either reassigned or put on leave. Most EJ grants were also ended, which left many local projects without the funding they depended on. During this time, the EPA also removed EJScreen from its website. This made it harder for communities to access pollution and health data they had previously relied on. Without federal support, many state and local EJ programs began struggling to continue their work. While It was possible to use data from third party EJScreen websites, this information was commonly outdated or inaccurate as data is no longer being collected. Overall, these changes showed a major shift in federal policy away from community environmental protection and equity-based enforcement. ==Organization==

The EPA is led by the administrator, appointed following nomination by the president and approval from Congress. Offices • Office of the Administrator (OA). , the office consisted of 12 divisions: • Office of Administrative and Executive Services • Office of Children's Health Protection • Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee • Office of Civil Rights • Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations • Office of Continuous Improvement • Office of the Executive Secretariat • Office of Homeland Security • Office of Policy • Office of Public Affairs • Office of Public Engagement and Environmental Education • Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization • Science Advisory Board • Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) • Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) • Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) • Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights • Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) • Office of General Counsel (OGC) • Office of Inspector General (OIG) • Office of International and Tribal Affairs (OITA) • Office of Mission Support (OMS) • Office of Resources and Business Operations (ORBO) • Environmental Appeals Board • Office of Federal Sustainability • Office of Administrative Law Judges • Office of Acquisition Solutions (OAS) • Office of Administration (OA) • Office of Human Resources (OHR) • Office of Grants and Debarment (OGD) • Office of Customer Advocacy, Policy and Portfolio Management (OCAPPM) • Office of Digital Services and Technical Architecture (ODSTA) • Office of Information Management (OIM) • Office of Information Security and Privacy (OISP) • Office of Enterprise Information Programs (OEIP) • Office of IT Operations (OITO) in Cincinnati is EPA's second-largest R&D center. • Office of Research and Development (ORD), which , consisted of: • Immediate Office of the Assistant Administrator • Office of Science Advisor, Policy, and Engagement (OSAPE) • Office of Science Information Management (OSIM) • Office of Resource Management • Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure (CCTE) • Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling (CEMM) • Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) • Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response (CESER) • Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM), which , consisted of: • Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation • Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery • Office of Underground Storage Tanks • Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization • Office of Emergency Management • Federal Facilities Restoration and Reuse Office • Office of Water (OW) which, , consisted of: • Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) • Office of Science and Technology (OST) • Office of Wastewater Management (OWM) • Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (OWOW) Regions Creating 10 EPA regions was an initiative that came from President Richard Nixon. See Standard Federal Regions. 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 (New England). • Region 2: responsible within the states of New Jersey and New York. It is 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, the territories of Guam and American Samoa, and the Navajo Nation. • 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. ==Legal authority==

The Environmental Protection Agency can only act pursuant to statutes—the laws passed by Congress. Appropriations statutes authorize how much money the agency can spend each year to carry out the approved statutes. The agency has the power to issue regulations. A regulation interprets a statute, and EPA applies its regulations to various environmental situations and enforces the requirements. The agency must include a rationale of why a regulation is needed. (See Administrative Procedure Act.) Regulations can be challenged in federal courts, either district court or appellate court, depending on the particular statutory provision. Related legislation EPA has principal implementation authority for the following federal environmental laws: • Clean Air Act • Clean Water Act • Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act ("Superfund") • Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act • Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act • Safe Drinking Water Act • Toxic Substances Control Act • Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act There are additional laws where EPA has a contributing role or provides assistance to other agencies. Among these laws are: • Endangered Species Act • Energy Independence and Security Act • Energy Policy Act • Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act • Food Quality Protection Act • National Environmental Policy Act • Oil Pollution Act • Pollution Prevention Act == Programs ==

in Massachusetts EPA established its major programs pursuant to the primary missions originally articulated in the laws passed by Congress. Additional programs have been developed to interpret the primary missions. Some of the newer programs have been specifically authorized by Congress. Former administrator William Ruckelshaus observed in 2016 that a danger for EPA was that air, water, waste and other programs would be unconnected, placed in "silos", a problem that persists more than 50 years later, albeit less so than at the start. Core programs Air quality and radiation protection The Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) describes itself as the official authority in charge of "developing national programs, policies, and regulations for controlling air pollution and radiation exposure." The OAR is responsible for enforcing the Clean Air Act, the Atomic Energy Act, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Land Withdrawal Act, and other applicable laws. The OAR is in charge of the Offices of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Atmospheric Protection, Transportation and Air Quality, and the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air. • Radioactive Waste • Emergency Preparedness and Response Programs Protective Action Guides And Planning Guidance for Radiological Incidents: EPA developed a manual as guideline for local and state governments to protect the public from a nuclear accident, the 2017 version being a 15-year update. • EPA's Role in Emergency Response – Special Teams • Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM) Program • Radiation Standards for Air and Drinking Water Programs • Federal Guidance for Radiation Protection Water quality Science and regulatory standards • The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program addresses water pollution by regulating point sources which discharge to US waters. Created in 1972 by the Clean Water Act, the NPDES permit program authorizes state governments to perform its many permitting, administrative, and enforcement aspects. , the EPA has approved 47 states to administer all or portions of the permit program. EPA regional offices manage the program in the remaining areas of the country. In 2016, there were 6,700 major point source NPDES permits in place and 109,000 municipal and industrial point sources with general or individual permits. and Water quality standards (risk-based standards) for water bodies, under Title III of the CWA • Nonpoint source pollution programs • The CWA Section 404 Program regulates the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States. Permits are issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and reviewed by EPA, and may be denied if they would cause unacceptable degradation or if an alternative does not exist that does not also have adverse impacts on waters. Permit holders are typically required to restore or create wetlands or other waters to offset losses that cannot be avoided. • EPA ensures safe drinking water for the public, by setting standards for more than 148,000 public water systems nationwide. The program includes regulation of injection wells to protect underground sources of drinking water. Infrastructure financing • The Clean Water State Revolving Fund provides grants to states which, along with matching state funds, are loaned to municipalities for sewage treatment projects and development of green infrastructure at below-market interest rates. The revolving fund replaced the Construction Grants Program, which was phased out in 1990. • The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) provides financial assistance to local drinking water utilities. The total appropriation of DWSRF funds available to states, which allocate funds to individual utilities, was US$3.5 billion in 2024. Land, waste and cleanup • Regulation of solid waste (non-hazardous) and hazardous waste under RCRA. To implement the 1976 law, EPA published standards in 1979 for "sanitary" landfills that receive municipal solid waste. The agency published national hazardous waste regulations and established a nationwide permit and tracking system for managing hazardous waste. The system is largely managed by state agencies under EPA authorization. Standards were issued for waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities (TSDFs), and ocean dumping of waste was prohibited. In 1984 Congress passed the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA) which expanded several aspects of the RCRA program: • The Land Disposal Restrictions Program sets treatment requirements for hazardous waste before it may be disposed on land. EPA began issuing treatment methods and levels of requirements in 1986 and these are continually adapted to new hazardous wastes and treatment technologies. The stringent requirements it sets and its emphasis on waste minimization practices encourage businesses to plan to minimize waste generation and prioritize reuse and recycling. From the start of the program in 1984 to 2004, the volume of hazardous waste disposed in landfills had decreased 94% and the volume of hazardous waste disposed of by underground injection had decreased 70%. , the program has led to the cleanup of 18 million acres of land, of which facilities were primarily responsible for cleanup costs. The goal of EPA and states is to complete final remedies by 2020 at 3,779 priority facilities out of 6,000 that need to be cleaned up, according to EPA. • EPA was mandated to conduct a review of landfill conditions nationwide. The agency reported in 1988 that the effectiveness of environmental controls at landfills varied nationwide, which could lead to serious contamination of groundwater and surface waters. EPA published a national plan in 1989 calling for state and local governments to better integrate their municipal solid waste management practices with source reduction and recycling programs. When the program began, EPA had only 90 staff to develop a system to regulate more than 2 million tanks and work with 750,000 owners and operators. The program relies more on local operations and enforcement than other EPA programs. Today, the program supports the inspection of all federally regulated tanks, cleans up old and new leaks, minimizes potential leaks, and encourages sustainable reuse of abandoned gas stations. • Hazardous site cleanup. In the late 1970s, the need to clean up sites such as Love Canal that had been highly contaminated by previous hazardous waste disposal became apparent. However the existing regulatory environment depended on owners or operators to perform environmental control. While the EPA attempted to use RCRA's section 7003 to perform this cleanup, it was clear a new law was needed. In 1980, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as "Superfund". This law enabled the EPA to cast a wider net for responsible parties, including past or present generators and transporters as well as current and past owners of the site to find funding. The act also established some funding and a tax mechanism on certain industries to help fund such cleanup. Congress did not renew the Superfund tax in the 1990s, and subsequently funding for cleanup actions was supported only by general appropriations. Congress restored an excise tax on chemical manufacturers in 2021, which will eventually increase the available budget for site cleanups. Chemical approval, manufacture and usage • EPA regulates pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Food Quality Protection Act. • TSCA required EPA to create and maintain a national inventory of all existing chemicals in U.S. commerce. When the act was passed in 1976, there were more than 60,000 chemicals on the market that had never been comprehensively cataloged. To do so, the EPA developed and implemented procedures that have served as a model for Canada, Japan, and the European Union. For the inventory, the EPA also established a baseline for new chemicals that the agency should be notified about before being commercially manufactured. Today, this rule keeps the EPA updated on volumes, uses, and exposures of around 7,000 of the highest-volume chemicals via industry reporting. Annually, the agency collects data from more than 20,000 facilities. • Compliance assistance. EPA identifies, prevents, and reduces noncompliance and environmental risks by establishing enforcement initiatives and ensuring effective monitoring and assessment of compliance. • Federal facilities enforcement • Environmental Justice program In 2019 the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, "a network of academics, developers, and non-profit professionals", published a report which compared EPA enforcement statistics over time. The number of civil cases filed by EPA have gradually decreased, and in 2018 the criminal and civil penalties from EPA claims dropped over four times their amounts in 2013, 2016, and 2017. In 2016 EPA issued $6,307,833,117 in penalties due to violations of agency requirements, and in 2018 the agency issued $184,768,000 in penalties. EPA's inspections and evaluations have steadily decreased from 2015 to 2018. In April 2025, the Department of Justice suddenly ended a long-running environmental justice settlement in Lowndes County, Alabama. The settlement was supposed to help fix the county’s severe wastewater problems, which had harmed mostly Black and low-income residents for years. Federal officials said they ended the agreement because of a new executive order from the Trump administration that restricted diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The Associated Press then reported that the decision brought strong criticism from environmental and civil rights groups. They said ending the settlement would make the county’s already serious health problems even worse. Many critics from The Associated Press also saw this as part of a larger trend in 2025, where federal agencies were becoming less active in protecting vulnerable communities. Many warned that ending the Lowndes County agreement showed a broader retreat from federal oversight at a time when many EJ communities were still dealing with pollution, failing infrastructure, and a lack of basic environmental protection. EPA's Design for the Environment (DfE) recognizes environmental leaders who voluntarily commit to the use of safer surfactants. Safer surfactants are the ones 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 Safer Choice program identified safer alternative surfactants through partnerships with industry and environmental advocates. These alternatives are comparable in cost and are readily available. The CleanGredients website is an information source about safer surfactants. • The Energy Star program, initiated in 1992, motivated major companies to retrofit millions of square feet of building space with more efficient lighting. , more than 40,000 Energy Star products were available including major appliances, office equipment, lighting, home electronics, and more. In addition, the label can also be found on new homes and commercial and industrial buildings. In 2006, about 12 percent of new housing in the US displayed an Energy Star label. EPA estimates that the program saved about $14 billion in energy costs in 2006 alone. The program has helped spread the use of LED traffic lights, efficient fluorescent lighting, power management systems for office equipment, and low standby energy use. • EPA's Smart Growth Program began in 1998 and was created to help communities improve their land development practices and get the type of development they want. Together with local, state, and national experts, EPA encourages development strategies that protect human health and the environment, create economic opportunities, and provide attractive and affordable neighborhoods for people of all income levels. • The Brownfields Program started as a pilot program in the 1990s and was authorized by law in 2002. The program provides grants and tools to local governments for the assessment, cleanup, and revitalization of brownfields. , the EPA estimates that program grants have resulted in 56,442 acres of land readied for reuse and leveraged 116,963 jobs and $24.2 billion to do so. Agency studies also found that property values around assessed or cleaned-up brownfields have increased 5.1 to 12.8 percent. • EPA's Indoor air quality Tools for Schools Program helps schools to maintain a healthy environment and reduce exposures to indoor environmental contaminants. It helps school personnel identify, solve, and prevent indoor air quality problems in the school environment. Through the use of a multi-step management plan and checklists for the entire building, schools can lower their students' and staff's risk of exposure to asthma triggers. • The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 requires EPA to provide national leadership to increase environmental literacy. EPA established the Office of Environmental Education to implement this program. • Clean School Bus USA is a national partnership to reduce children's exposure to diesel exhaust by eliminating unnecessary school bus idling, installing effective emission control systems on newer buses and replacing the oldest buses in the fleet with newer ones. Its goal is to reduce both children's exposure to diesel exhaust and the amount of air pollution created by diesel school buses. • The Green Chemistry Program encourages the development of products and processes that follow green chemistry principles. These reduce the use or creation of hazardous chemicals, save water, and reduce greenhouse gas release. The program involves states, local beach resource managers, and the agency in assessing risks of stormwater and wastewater overflows and enables better sampling, analytical methods, and communication with the public. • EPA's "One Cleanup Program" initiative was designed to improve coordination across different agency programs that have a role in cleanup at a particular site. The coordination efforts apply to the brownfields, federal facilities, USTs, RCRA and Superfund programs. • EPA reviews environmental impact statements prepared by other agencies and maintains a national EIS filing system. This was designed to encourage, recognize, and celebrate companies that voluntarily found ways to prevent and reduce pollution in their operations. Specifically, it challenged industry to reduce Toxic Release Inventory emissions of 17 priority chemicals by 33% in one year and 50% in four years. docked at Port Canaveral, Florida • In March 2004, the U.S. Navy transferred USNS Bold (T-AGOS-12), a Stalwart class ocean surveillance ship, to the EPA. The ship had been used in anti-submarine operations during the Cold War, was equipped with sidescan sonar, underwater video, water and sediment sampling instruments used in study of ocean and coastline. One of the major missions of the Bold was to monitor for ecological impact sites where materials were dumped from dredging operations in U.S. ports. In 2013, the General Services Administration sold the Bold to Seattle Central Community College (SCCC), which demonstrated in a competition that they would put it to the highest and best purpose, at a nominal cost of $5,000. ==Controversies==

Scope and fulfillment of agency's authority Congress enacted laws such as the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and CERCLA with the intent of preventing and reconciling environmental damages. Beginning in 2018 under Administrator Andrew Wheeler, EPA revised some pollution standards that resulted in less overall regulation. has caused a varied application of the law among states. In 1970, Louisiana deployed its Comprehensive Toxic Air Pollutant Emission Control Program to comply with federal law. This program does not require pollution monitoring that is equivalent to programs in other states. 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. The EPA’s environmental justice work has developed in stages. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the agency focused on explaining what environmental justice meant and creating offices and programs to address pollution burdens in communities that were being disproportionately affected. 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 toward environmental justice. Studies have also found that poor and minority populations were underserved by the EPA's Superfund program, and that this situation was worsening. In September 2022 EPA announced the creation of a new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights that reports directly to the EPA administrator. The new office has an expanded budget and staff with broader responsibilities than under the previous organizational arrangement. As of December 2025, the new administration had dismantled OEJECR and was in the process of laying off OEJECR personnel. At the same time, the EPA’s research division faced major cuts. According to The Guardian, these actions were part of a plan to defund the agency’s main research arm, with senior scientists calling the move “the obliteration of ORD.” These staffing changes were paired with the suspension or closure of several environmental justice programs. The Guardian reported that mass layoffs across research and environmental divisions eliminated hundreds of EJ-related positions. The administration said these cuts were meant to refocus the EPA on “core statutory duties,” but many argued they stripped support from communities facing long-term pollution burdens. Freedom of Information Act processing performance In the latest Center for Effective Government analysis of 15 federal agencies which receive the most Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, published in 2015 (using 2012 and 2013 data, the most recent years available), the EPA earned a D by scoring 67 out of a possible 100 points, i.e. did not earn a satisfactory overall grade. Pebble Mine Pebble Mine is a copper and gold mining project located in the southwest region of Alaska in the Bristol Bay region organized by Northern Dynasty Minerals. In 2014 the EPA released its statement on the impacts that mining would have on Bristol Bay and its tributaries. Among many things, the statement assesses geological, topographic, ecological, hydrological, and economic data and determined that mining could negatively impact the salmon population. Seeing as Bristol Bay and its watershed provides around 46% of the world's sockeye salmon, the EPA did not want to risk an ecological disaster. In July 2014, before Northern Dynasty Minerals had submitted its EIS, EPA's Region 10 office proposed restrictions pursuant to section 404(c) of the Clean Water Act, restrictions that would effectively prohibit the project. Multiple journalists and organizations have reported on the controversy including the Natural Resources Defense Council in support of the cancelation of the project and John Stossel in support of the development of the mine. , the mine remains a controversial topic. On January 30, 2023, the EPA vetoed the mine. Water quality in East Palestine, Ohio Ohio governor Mike DeWine and administrator of the EPA Michael Regan drank tap water in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3, 2023, after a train derailment to show that the water was safe. The derailment caused a fire and the release of toxic chemicals into the air and water making locals and environmental groups concerned for the quality of water in the area. Despite the EPA's assurance that the water is safe some residents do not trust the quality of the water and question its long-term effects. This incident also raised environmental justice concerns. Many residents felt that their community did not receive clear information or enough support during the cleanup, and some believed that a wealthier and more prevalent town might have received faster action and more resources. Community members reported strong odors, health symptoms, and fear of long-term contamination, and they argued that their voices were not taken seriously. These concerns reflected broader environmental justice issues, where communities with fewer resources often struggle to get the same level of protection, transparency, and attention from state and federal agencies. ==See also==