Creation of the EPA (1970): America's Environmental Agency

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created on 2 December 1970, when President Richard Nixon’s plan to reorganize the federal government’s pollution programs took effect. The new agency brought together work on air, water, pesticides, waste and radiation that had been scattered across several departments. Under its first leader, William Ruckelshaus, the EPA became the main enforcer of the landmark environmental laws of the 1970s.

Background: scattered responsibilities

By the late 1960s, the federal government had a patchwork of pollution programs. Water pollution was handled by the Department of the Interior, air pollution and solid waste by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and pesticide registration by the Department of Agriculture. No single body had clear responsibility for the environment as a whole.

Public concern was rising fast. The Santa Barbara oil spill and the Cuyahoga River fire in 1969, and the first Earth Day in April 1970, showed that millions of Americans wanted action. Senator Edmund Muskie, a likely presidential rival to Nixon, was also championing tough anti-pollution laws.

On 1 January 1970 Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act, which created a White House Council on Environmental Quality to advise the president. But the council had no power to enforce rules.

Nixon’s reorganization plan

Nixon asked his Advisory Council on Executive Organization, chaired by businessman Roy Ash, to study how the government should handle environmental issues. The Ash Council recommended creating an independent agency focused on pollution control.

On 9 July 1970 Nixon sent Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970 to Congress. Under the law at the time, a president could reorganize agencies unless either house of Congress voted to reject the plan within 60 days. Congress did not block it, and the plan took effect on 2 December 1970.

The EPA took over programs from several departments and offices, including the Federal Water Quality Administration, the National Air Pollution Control Administration, pesticide programs from Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, and some radiation standards work from the Atomic Energy Commission. It started with several thousand employees, many transferred from older offices.

William Ruckelshaus and the first tasks

Nixon chose William Ruckelshaus, a 38-year-old lawyer who had been an assistant attorney general, as the first Administrator. The Senate confirmed him on 2 December 1970, and he was sworn in two days later.

Ruckelshaus wanted the public to see that the agency meant business. Within weeks he announced legal action against major polluters, and he gave the cities of Atlanta, Cleveland and Detroit deadlines to stop violating water quality standards. He also had to merge staff from different departments with different cultures into one organization.

The agency’s workload grew immediately. On 31 December 1970 Nixon signed the Clean Air Act amendments, which ordered the EPA to set national air quality standards and to cut car exhaust pollution sharply.

Laws the EPA enforced

The 1970s became the busiest decade in American environmental law. The EPA was given responsibility for the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972, the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 and the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.

One of its most famous early decisions came in June 1972, when Ruckelshaus announced a ban on most uses of the pesticide DDT, a chemical Rachel Carson had warned about in Silent Spring. In the 1970s the agency also began phasing lead out of petrol, known in the US as gasoline.

Legacy

The EPA grew into one of the largest federal regulatory agencies. In 1980, after toxic waste scandals such as Love Canal, Congress gave it the Superfund program to clean up contaminated sites. Its rules have been credited with large reductions in air pollutants and with cleaner rivers and lakes.

The agency has also been politically controversial. Debates over the costs of regulation, the reach of its powers and its role in climate policy have continued under many administrations. Ruckelshaus himself returned to lead the agency again from 1983 to 1985.

Timeline

• 1970, 1 January: National Environmental Policy Act signed, creating the Council on Environmental Quality.
• 1970, 22 April: First Earth Day held across the United States.
• 1970, 9 July: Nixon sends Reorganization Plan No. 3 to Congress.
• 1970, 2 December: The EPA comes into existence; Ruckelshaus is confirmed by the Senate.
• 1970, 4 December: Ruckelshaus is sworn in as first Administrator.
• 1970, 31 December: Clean Air Act amendments signed.
• 1972, 14 June: EPA announces a ban on most uses of DDT.
• 1972, 18 October: Clean Water Act passed over Nixon’s veto.

Why it matters

The creation of the EPA gave the United States a single federal body to protect air, water and land from pollution. It turned growing public concern into lasting government power and became a model studied by other countries building their own environmental agencies.