Environmental Protection Agency |
The mission of the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment: air, water, and land. The EPA began
operation on December 2, 1970. The EPA is
not a cabinet agency, but its administrator is normally given cabinet rank.
Mike Leavitt is its current Administrator.
The EPA comprises 18,000 people in Headquarters program offices, 10 regional offices, and 17 labs across the country, EPA
employs a highly educated, technically trained staff, more than half of whom are engineers, scientists, and environmental
protection specialists. A large number of employees are legal, public affairs, financial, and computer specialists. EPA is led by
the Administrator who is appointed by the President of the United States.
EPA provides leadership in the nation's environmental science, research, education and assessment efforts. EPA works closely
with other federal agencies, state and local governments, and Native American tribes to develop and enforce regulations under
existing environmental laws. EPA is responsible for researching and setting national standards for a variety of environmental
programs and delegates to states and tribes responsibility for issuing permits, and monitoring and enforcing compliance. Where
national standards are not met, EPA can issue sanctions and take other steps to assist the states and tribes in reaching the
desired levels of environmental quality. The Agency also works with industries and all levels of government in a wide variety of
voluntary pollution prevention programs and energy conservation efforts.
In July of 1970, the law that established the EPA was passed in response to the growing
public demand for cleaner water, air and land. Prior to the establishment of the EPA, the national government was not structured
to make a coordinated attack on 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 environment a reality.
In 1992 the EPA launched the Energy
star program.
Operating Units
Related Legislation
The legislation here is general environmental protection legislation, and may also apply to other units of the government,
including the United
States Department of the Interior and the United States Department of Agriculture.
Air
Water
Land
- 1970 - Wilderness Act PL 91-504
- 1977 - Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act PL 95-87
- 1978 - Wilderness Act PL 98-625
- 1980 - Alaska Land Protection Act PL 96-487
- 1994 - California Desert Protection Act PL 103-433
Endangered Species
- 1946 - Coordination Act PL 79-732
- 1966 - Endangered Species Preservation Act PL 89-669
- 1969 - Endangered Species Conservation Act PL 91-135
- 1972 - Marine Mammal Protection Act PL 92-522
- 1973 - Endangered
Species Act PL 93-205
Hazardous Waste
EPA Regional Offices
Each EPA Regional Office is responsible within its states for the execution of the Agency's programs.
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, New York, 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.
List of EPA Administrators
- William D.
Ruckelshaus (1970-1973)
- Russell E. Train
(1973-1977)
- Douglas M. Costle
(1977-1981)
- Anne M. (Burford) Gorsuch (1981-83)
- William D.
Ruckelshaus (1983-85)
- Lee M. Thomas
(1985-89)
- William K. Reilly
(1989-1993)
- Carol M. Browner (1993-2001)
- Christine Todd Whitman (2001-2003)
- Michael O. Leavitt (2003-present)
External link
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