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A Brief History of the United States Environmental Protection Agency

By January 15, 2025News

Prompted by public outcry that had been generated in the late 1960’s by the tragic fact that many of the rivers and lakes of the United States of America had been utilized as nothing more than convenient dumping grounds by industry and agriculture for many decades, and in response to frightening June 1969 TV news images of Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River engulfed in toxic waste fueled flames, the United States Environmental Protection Agency was established on July 9th, 1970 by authority of an executive order signed by President Richard M. Nixon.

Employing approximately 16,000 full time engineers, scientists, environmental protection specialists, administrators, information technologists, and attorneys, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has been tasked with the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards associated with numerous environmental laws. These include the U. S. Congress enacted Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, otherwise known as the Clean Water Act (CWA).

The Clean Water Act was passed in order to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s vast freshwater resources. The Clean Water Act also served to establish a first ever national framework for addressing national water quality issues, including mandatory water pollution control standards that continue to be administered by the U. S. EPA in partnership with the state governments. The U. S. EPA has also been tasked with working on a collaborative basis with state environmental agencies to develop, implement, and enforce mandatory federal standards for public water systems which serve approximately 90% of the United States population.

In recent years the scope and scale of the authority of the United States Environmental Protection Agency to protect the nation’s water resources has been diminished by a United States Supreme Court ruling that significantly narrowed the definition of freshwater resources that are eligible for protection under the auspices of the Clean Water Act of 1972.

To learn more about the mission and goals of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, visit their web site at https://www.epa.gov/