Reorganization Plan No. 3 was a United States presidential directive establishing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), effective December 2, 1970. [1] The order, published in the Federal Register on October 6, 1970, consolidated components from different federal agencies to form the EPA, "a strong, independent agency" that would establish and enforce federal environmental protection laws. [2]
According to EPA author Jack Lewis, the decade of the 1960s fostered a general consensus of the American public to increase protection and betterment of the environment. [2] Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, which is widely credited with helping to launch the environmental movement in the United States. [3] On January 28, 1969, eight days after Richard Nixon became the 37th President, a blowout on the ocean bottom near Union Oil's Platform "A" on the Dos Cuadras field leaked between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels (16,000 m3) of oil into the water of the Santa Barbara Channel, near Santa Barbara, California. [4] The oil spill polluted a 60-mile stretch of coastline, harming marine wildlife and damaging the local fishing economy. [5] The event led to widespread criticism of both Union Oil and the offshore oil drilling industry. [6] On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day brought millions of Americans together to peacefully demonstrate in support of environmental reform. [2]
In April 1969, President Richard Nixon addressed these environmental concerns by establishing the Environmental Quality Council in his cabinet, along with the complementary Citizens' Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality. [7]
In December of the same year, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bill that was intended to "create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony" and to "assure for all Americans safe, healthful, productive, aesthetically and culturally pleasing surroundings." [7] NEPA required any federal agency planning a project that would affect the environment to submit a report on the likely consequences of its plan. [7] President Nixon signed the bill on New Year's Day 1970, declaring "that the 1970s absolutely must be the years when America pays its debt to the past by reclaiming the purity of its air, its waters, and our living environment." [7]
Reorganization Plan No. 3 was proposed by President Nixon in a message sent to Congress on July 9, 1970. [8] The plan was authorized by a 1966 amendment to Title 5 of the United States Code (Government Organization and Employees). [9] After conducting hearings during that summer, the House and Senate approved the proposal.[ citation needed ] Unlike other agencies such as Occupational Safety and Health Administration (also established in 1970), the EPA was not established by a single enabling act of Congress.
In his message to Congress President Nixon stated that the national government was "not structured to make a coordinated attack on the pollutants which debase the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land that grows our food." According to Nixon, the assigned duties and responsibilities regarding pollution control for the environment were spread out among many discrete departments, creating a structure that often defied "effective and concerted action." To create more of an interrelated and effective system for dealing with environmental pollution, he proposed "pulling together into one agency a variety of research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activities now scattered through several departments and agencies." [8] Part of the intent of the reorganization was also to take away the job of pollution control from departments with economic promotional interests, as it was seen as a conflict of interest. [10]
Under the terms of Reorganization Plan No. 3, the Environmental Protection Agency would be created to absorb the following agencies:
On December 16, 1970, the first Administrator of the EPA, William Ruckelshaus, declared that the agency had "a broad responsibility for research, standard-setting, monitoring and enforcement with regard to five environmental hazards; air and water pollution, solid waste disposal, radiation, and pesticides." [12]
In Reorganization Plan No. 3, President Nixon outlined the following as the roles and functions of the EPA: establishing and enforcing environmental protection standards consistent with national environmental goals; conducting research on the adverse effects of pollution and on methods and equipment for controlling it, the gathering of information on pollution, and the use of this information in strengthening environmental protection programs and recommending policy changes; assisting others, through grants, technical assistance and other means in arresting pollution of the environment; and assisting the Council on Environmental Quality in developing and recommending to the President new policies for the protection of the environment. [8]
The 1970 plan was originally approved under special Congressional procedures but its legality was called into question due to the Supreme Court's decision in Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha , 462 U.S. 919 (1983). Congress responded by enacting the Reorganization Acts Amendment in Pub.L. 98–614, [13] which was signed on November 8, 1984. [14] The Amendment expanded the power of the President to communicate with Congress plans of reorganization of agencies within the executive branch. [15]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its administrator, who is appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The current administrator is Michael S. Regan. The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator is normally given cabinet rank.
William Doyle Ruckelshaus was an American attorney and government official.
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibilities of the states in addressing pollution and providing assistance to states to do so, including funding for publicly owned treatment works for the improvement of wastewater treatment; and maintaining the integrity of wetlands.
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is a United States federal law that set up the basic U.S. system of pesticide regulation to protect applicators, consumers, and the environment. It is administered and regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the appropriate environmental agencies of the respective states. FIFRA has undergone several important amendments since its inception. A significant revision in 1972 by the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act (FEPCA) and several others have expanded EPA's present authority to oversee the sales and use of pesticides with emphasis on the preservation of human health and protection of the environment by "(1) strengthening the registration process by shifting the burden of proof to the chemical manufacturer, (2) enforcing compliance against banned and unregistered products, and (3) promulgating the regulatory framework missing from the original law".
The Refuse Act is a United States federal statute governing use of waterways. The Act, a section of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, prohibited "dumping of refuse" into navigable waters, except by permit.
Lisa Perez Jackson is an American chemical engineer who served as the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2009 to 2013. She was the first African American to hold that position.
"Right to know" empowers "people by allowing them to participate in an informed way in decisions that affect them, while also holding governments and others accountable". It pursues universal access to information as essential foundations of inclusive knowledge societies.
The California Environmental Protection Agency, or CalEPA, is a state cabinet-level agency within the government of California. The mission of CalEPA is to restore, protect and enhance the environment, to ensure public health, environmental quality and economic vitality.
The environmental policy of the United States is a federal governmental action to regulate activities that have an environmental impact in the United States. The goal of environmental policy is to protect the environment for future generations while interfering as little as possible with the efficiency of commerce or the liberty of the people and to limit inequity in who is burdened with environmental costs. As his first official act bringing in the 1970s, President Richard Nixon signed the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into law on New Years Day, 1970. Also in the same year, America began celebrating Earth Day, which has been called "the big bang of U.S. environmental politics, launching the country on a sweeping social learning curve about ecological management never before experienced or attempted in any other nation." NEPA established a comprehensive US national environmental policy and created the requirement to prepare an environmental impact statement for “major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the environment.” Author and consultant Charles H. Eccleston has called NEPA, the world's “environmental Magna Carta”.
The Clean Air Act (CAA) is the United States' primary federal air quality law, intended to reduce and control air pollution nationwide. Initially enacted in 1963 and amended many times since, it is one of the United States' first and most influential modern environmental laws.
The Guam Environmental Protection Agency is a government agency of the United States territory of Guam.
Nonpoint source (NPS) water pollution regulations are environmental regulations that restrict or limit water pollution from diffuse or nonpoint effluent sources such as polluted runoff from agricultural areas in a river catchments or wind-borne debris blowing out to sea. In the United States, governments have taken a number of legal and regulatory approaches to controlling NPS effluent. Nonpoint water pollution sources include, for example, leakage from underground storage tanks, storm water runoff, atmospheric deposition of contaminants, and golf course, agricultural, and forestry runoff. Nonpoint sources are the most significant single source of water pollution in the United States, accounting for almost half of all water pollution, and agricultural runoff is the single largest source of nonpoint source water pollution. This water pollution has a number of detrimental effects on human health and the environment. Unlike point source pollution, nonpoint source pollution arises from numerous and diverse sources, making identification, monitoring, and regulation more complex.
Pesticide regulation in the United States is primarily a responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency. In America, it was not till the 1950s that pesticides were regulated in terms of their safety. The Pesticides Control Amendment (PCA) of 1954 was the first time Congress passed guidance regarding the establishment of safe limits for pesticide residues on food. It authorized the FDA to ban pesticides they determined to be unsafe if they were sprayed directly on food. The Food Additives Amendment, which included the Delaney Clause, prohibited the pesticide residues from any carcinogenic pesticides in processed food. In 1959, pesticides were required to be registered.
The Worker Protection Standard is intended to protect employees on farms, forests, nurseries, and greenhouses that are occupationally exposed to agricultural pesticides.
National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) represents the interests of publicly owned wastewater treatment facilities, collection systems, and stormwater management agencies before the United States Congress, several Federal agencies, and in the courts. National Association of Clean Water Agencies advocates for federal funding for clean water agencies and for responsible national policies that advance clean water and a healthy environment.
Alvin "Al" Alm was an Assistant Administrator for Planning and Management for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and was one of the leading figures in environmental regulation in the United States.
There are many exemptions for hydraulic fracturing under United States federal law: the oil and gas industries are exempt or excluded from certain sections of a number of the major federal environmental laws. These laws range from protecting clean water and air, to preventing the release of toxic substances and chemicals into the environment: the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, commonly known as Superfund.
Water in Arkansas is an important issue encompassing the conservation, protection, management, distribution and use of the water resource in the state. Arkansas contains a mixture of groundwater and surface water, with a variety of state and federal agencies responsible for the regulation of the water resource. In accordance with agency rules, state, and federal law, the state's water treatment facilities utilize engineering, chemistry, science and technology to treat raw water from the environment to potable water standards and distribute it through water mains to homes, farms, business and industrial customers. Following use, wastewater is collected in collection and conveyance systems, decentralized sewer systems or septic tanks and treated in accordance with regulations at publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) before being discharged to the environment.
Between 1966 and 1973, a series of reorganizations occurred of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). The reorganization by 1968 replaced PHS's old bureau structure with two new operating agencies: the Health Services and Mental Health Administration (HSMHA) and the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service (CPEHS). The goal of the reorganizations was to coordinate the previously fragmented divisions to provide a holistic approach to large, overarching problems.
The Environmental Health Divisions was a unit of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) that focused on environmental health, existing in various forms from 1913 until 1970. It is the primary direct predecessor of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It had several other names earlier in its history, including the Office of Stream Pollution Investigations and Division of Sanitary Engineering Services.
