EPA Alumni Association: 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. HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS TO PEEK YOUR INTEREST

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Early Implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act

Six former leaders of the Drinking Water Program discuss the first 10 years of implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, the challenges, and the lessons learned.

Chapter 2: Setting up the New Agency's Structure

(17 minutes) From Bill Ruckelshaus and some of his closest aides recall the Opening Months of the New Agency in 1970

Bill Ruckelshaus and three former assistants talk about finding the right appointees for the agency, meetings in the regions to get them up and running, Doug Costle's role in creating the agenc...

Chapter 4: Stratospheric Ozone & Climate Change

(19 minutes) From Interview with Lee Thomas, EPA's 6th Administrator

Lee Thomas discusses his role in negotiating the Montreal Protocol to deal with Stratospheric Ozone and the relevance of this experience to today's challenge of Climate Change.

Chapter 2: EPA's Relationship with the Private Sector

(8 minutes) From Former Deputy Administrator Hank Habicht talks about management at EPA

Hank Habicht's views of the relationship between EPA and the Private Sector, then and now.

Chapter 1: A New Approach to a Large Mission but a Small Budget

(14 minutes) From The Underground Storage Tank Program's Early Management Challenges

Ron Brand describes the environmental challenges facing the new program and how they chose a franchising approach for dealing with their large management challenge.

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."

Superfund: A Half Century of Progress

From Superfund: A Half Century of Progress
Categories: Superfund

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. HERE ARE SOME SUGGECTED ARTICLES FOR YOU TO SAMPLE

Update

From Protecting the Oceans, Mar. 1981
Categories: Air: Mobile, Air: Stationary, Enforcement, International, Policy and Planning, Toxics, Water: General

Region 6 Report by Adlene Harrison

From World Environment, Jun. 1978
Categories: Management of Agency, Public, The, RCRA, Regions, States, Water: Drinking, Water: General

Newsline: Sludge Dumping Finally Ends

From Recycling: Closing the Loop, Jul. 1992
Categories: Water: General

EPA Roundup: Ongoing Enforcement

From Indoor Air, Oct. 1993
Categories: Enforcement, Toxics, Water: Drinking, Water: General

Books & Articles by Alumni

Some of the most detailed history of EPA is contained in books and articles written by alumni.

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.

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History of the EPA — As Only We Alumni Can Tell It!