History of the EPA
Below we serve up glimpses of EPA's history in five different "flavors":
Oral History Videos
Alumni have recorded videos on a variety of subjects. Most videos are 45 to 60 minutes in length but are broken down into chapters for easier viewing. Transcripts and podcast versions of these videos are also provided.
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The Anthrax Cleanup on Capitol Hill
This documentary tells the story of how EPA, the National Institutes of Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Center for Communicable Diseases (CDC), and other federal military and civilian agencies, working under severe time pressure and in the full glare of intensive media coverage, collaborated to solve a scientific and engineering challenge never before faced -- the decontamination of an entire building contaminated with deadly anthrax spores.
Chapter 1: A New Approach to a Large Mission but a Small Budget
(14 minutes) From The Underground Storage Tank Program's Early Management ChallengesRon Brand describes the environmental challenges facing the new program and how they chose a franchising approach for dealing with their large management challenge.
Chapter 1: The Public and Social Context for the Creation of EPA
(16 minutes) From Behind the Scenes at the Creation of EPA in 1970Chuck Elkins describes events leading to President Nixon's decision to create EPA and details the status of environmental programs at time of EPA's creation.
Chapter 2: Move to Washington
(22 minutes) From David Dominick, Commissioner of the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration (1969-1970)David Dominick describes the interesting days at the beginning of the Nixon Administration with the appointment of Wally Hickel, Governor of Alaska, as the Secretary of the Interior, and environmen...
Chapter 2: Chernobyl's Radiation Emergency
(8 minutes) From Interview with Lee Thomas, EPA's 6th AdministratorLee Thomas describes his being put in charge of handling the consequences for the United States of the Chernobyl Radiation Emergency in the Soviet Union.
Half Century of Environmental Progress
High school and college students as well as others may not know about the major environmental problems and issues encountered in the United States in the latter half of the 20th century, how they were addressed, and the importance of continued vigilance in attacking remaining and evolving issues. This history of EPA has been written for them."
Drinking Water: A Half Century of Progress
From Drinking Water: A Half Century of ProgressCategories: Water: Drinking
EPA Journals
For many years, EPA published the "EPA Journal" with interesting articles on a very wide variety of topics. The Association is slowly digitizing and categorizing these Journals. To date we have digitized 3034 articles.
Navy Cleans Up
From Quiet, Please!, Sep. 1976
The Southern California Bight: Where Traditional Approaches Won't Work by Wesley Marx
From Saving the Nation's Great Water Bodies, Nov. 1990Categories: Conservation, International, Water: General, Water: Wetlands
Books & Articles by Alumni
Some of the most detailed history of EPA is contained in books and articles written by alumni.
Chapter 10. Living with Toxic Risks
From Borrowed Earth, Borrowed Time: Healing America's Chemical Wounds by Glenn E. SchweitzerCategories: Toxics
Chapter 2. Controlling 3000 chemicals: One by One
From Borrowed Earth, Borrowed Time: Healing America's Chemical Wounds by Glenn E. Schweitzer
Before Earth Day: The Origins of American Environmental Law, 1945-1970 by Karl Brooks
From Before Earth Day: The Origins of American Environmental Law, 1945-1970 by Karl Brooks
Chapter 8. Exceeding the Absorptive Limits of the Global Commons
From Borrowed Earth, Borrowed Time: Healing America's Chemical Wounds by Glenn E. SchweitzerCategories: Toxics
Historical Documents
Some documents have made a big difference in the direction that EPA has taken through the years. Here we present some of them.
First Presidential Environmental Message (Nixon) 1970
From First Presidential Environmental Message (Nixon) 1970
White House Fact Sheet re Creation of EPA
From White House Fact Sheet re Creation of EPA
Reorganization Plan that Created EPA
From Reorganization Plan that Created EPA
Interview with Alvin Alm in 1993
From Interview of Alvin Alm January 1994Categories: Congress, Economic Impact, Enforcement, Management of Agency, OMB, Other Federal Agencies
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