United States Environmental Protection Agency

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 burning Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1969 led to a national outcry and criminal charges against major steel companies. The US Justice Department in late 1970 began pollution control litigation in cooperation with the new EPA. Congress enacted the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, better known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). 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.

Congress also enacted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in 1976, significantly amending the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965. 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.

In a dramatic move to the right, President Ronald Reagan in 1981 appointed Anne Gorsuch as EPA administrator. 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. EPA also researched the implications of stratospheric ozone depletion. Under Administrator Thomas, EPA joined with several international organizations to perform a risk assessment of stratospheric ozone, which helped provide motivation for the Montreal Protocol, which was agreed to in August 1987.

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. Under Reilly's leadership, the EPA implemented voluntary programs and initiated the development of a "cluster rule" for multimedia regulation of the pulp and paper industry. 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, and established an Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) within the enforcement office. The purpose of OEJ was to help coordinate environmental justice work within the various EPA programs, as well as with other federal agencies, and to support efforts to protect communities that were facing disproportionate environmental burdens.

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.

In 1994 President Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, which provided more explicit direction to federal agencies on addressing environmental justice. The order directed 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.

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 by 1995. 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.)

Major environmental legislative updates during the Clinton Administration were the 1996 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.

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 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.

2010s

In 2010 it was reported that a $3 million mapping study on sea level rise was suppressed by EPA management during both the Bush and Obama administrations, and managers changed a key interagency report to reflect the removal of the maps.

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 2014, the EPA published its "Tier 3" standards for cars, trucks and other motor vehicles, which tightened air pollution emission requirements and lowered the sulfur content in gasoline.

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.

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

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. As of 2025, 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. The Water Quality Act of 1987 extended NPDES permit coverage to industrial stormwater dischargers and municipal separate storm sewer systems. 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.

Effluent guidelines (technology based standards) for industrial point sources 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. 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 to protect underground sources of drinking water.

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.

Furthermore, the CAA's discretionary application 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. Under the Trump administration (2017–2021 and again starting in 2025), many environmental justice programs were reduced or rolled back. During the Biden administration (2021–2025), EJ work expanded, especially through programs like Justice40.

In August 2022 the EPA was allotted a listed ~42.8 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) towards what the EPA classifies as "Advancing Environmental Justice", and published the statement "Through the Inflation Reduction Act, EPA will improve the lives of millions of Americans by reducing pollution in neighborhoods where people live, work, play, and go to school; accelerating environmental justice efforts in communities overburdened by pollution for far too long; and tackling our biggest climate challenges while creating jobs and delivering energy security."

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.

Under the current administration, the office has changed drastically. In February 2025, the EPA took its EJScreen mapping tool and all related training materials off its public website. EJScreen had helped people see environmental and demographic data to identify communities facing higher pollution levels. The Society of Environmental Journalists reported that this removal was part of a wider rollback of environmental justice and diversity resources across the agency’s online platforms. While older copies of EJScreen can still be found through independent archives, taking it off the EPA website made it much harder for the public to access important environmental equity data.

Environmental justice rollbacks (2025-)

In 2025, the Trump administration made broad changes to EPA that greatly reduced the agency’s ability to carry out environmental justice work. Many programs were paused or eliminated, and large numbers of EJ staff were removed from their positions. It can be objectively described as one of the most significant rollbacks of environmental justice capacity in the agency’s history.

In January 2025 the administration ended the Justice40 efforts with Executive Order 14148.

One of the most impactful changes involved the restructuring of the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. The Washington Post reported that more than 450 employees working on environmental justice and diversity programs were told they would be fired or reassigned, which massively shut down its operations.

Additional staff removals followed soon after. Newsweek reported that at least 168 employees were placed on administrative leave after an executive order declared certain diversity, equity, and EJ programs “not related to the agency’s statutory duties.” Earlier that year, 139 employees had already been placed on leave after signing a letter during a federal workforce reduction effort.

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.” Public broadcasters confirmed that by February 2025, many remaining EJ staff were on indefinite leave, and a senior employee described the office as “on life support.”

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.

Newsweek noted that new executive orders redefined the EPA’s mission to exclude EJ programs and community outreach grants, leaving historically ignored communities without federal assistance for pollution remediation or environmental cleanup. Supporters of the changes argued that the shift returned the agency to its traditional role and reduced supposedly unnecessary spending.

Experts and environmental groups warned in a Newsweek article that these rollbacks would have lasting consequences. Analysts pointed out that removing staff, ending grant programs, and limiting access to tools like EJScreen would make it much harder for vulnerable communities to get environmental data or seek legal fixes for unfair pollution exposure.

Influence of lobbying and economic interests

The Center for American Progress explained that industry lobbying and economic pressures likely played an important role in these rollbacks. Many large companies and trade groups do not support environmental justice tools because these tools make pollution patterns easy to see. When the public can clearly see where pollution is highest and which industries are responsible, there is often more pressure for stronger rules. These rules can lead to higher costs, stricter oversight, or legal actions that companies want to avoid. Because of this, industries often push federal agencies and lawmakers to limit or remove programs that increase transparency or help communities demand protection.

Weakening environmental justice programs reduces the amount of information available to the public and lowers the pressure on industries to follow stricter environmental standards. When staff positions are cut, grant programs end, or tools like EJScreen are removed, companies face fewer requirements that they have to meet. This situation benefits industries because it reduces their costs and the chances of facing enforcement. At the same time, it becomes harder for communities to learn about pollution in their area or to ask for government help. In our current administration, being a government system built to solely make the United States the economic powerhouse of the world, many injustices on a smaller scale go unnoticed.

Supporters of these cuts argued that reducing environmental justice programs would save money and make the EPA more efficient. They claimed that these programs were unnecessary or too expensive. However, research shows that most of the savings go to large industries rather than to the public. Communities affected by pollution often receive no benefit. Instead, they lose important protection and have fewer ways to understand or respond to environmental risks. Many of these communities already struggle with limited resources, so the loss of environmental justice makes their situation even more difficult.

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. Northern Dynasty Minerals protested this decision and on July 18, 2014, in a published statement, Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier said that the project would continue its litigation against EPA; noted that the EPA's action was under investigation by the EPA inspector general and by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; and noted that two bills were pending in Congress seeking to clarify that EPA did not have the authority to preemptively veto or otherwise restrict development projects prior to the onset of federal and state permitting. Collier's statement also said that EPA's proposal was based on outdated mining scenarios that were not part of the project's approach. 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. As of 2023, 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.