13-F-10-A

United States Environmental

Protection Agency
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or
sometimes USEPA) is an agency of the U.S. federal government which was created
for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and
enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. The EPA was proposed by
President Richard Nixon and 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; w The EPA
has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., regional offices for each of the agency's
ten regions, and 27 laboratories.
The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education. It
has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a
variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local
governments. It delegates some permitting, monitoring, and enforcement
responsibility to U.S. states and the federally recognized tribes. ho is appointed by
the president and approved by Congress.

Mission
The mission of EPA is to protect human health and the environment.
EPA's purpose is to ensure that:
all Americans are protected from significant risks to human health and the
environment where they live, learn and work;
national efforts to reduce environmental risk are based on the best available
scientific information;
federal laws protecting human health and the environment are enforced fairly
and effectively;
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 environmental protection is an integral consideration in U.S. policies

concerning natural resources, human health, economic growth, energy,
transportation, agriculture, industry, and international trade, and these factors
are similarly considered in establishing environmental policy;
all parts of society -- communities, individuals, businesses, and state, local and
tribal governments -- have access to accurate information sufficient to
effectively participate in managing human health and environmental risks;
Environmental protection contributes to making our communities and
ecosystems diverse, sustainable and economically productive; and the United
States plays a leadership role in working with other nations to protect the global
environment.

Projects
1.

Air Pollution Monitoring

Is the air clean? Often we cannot see pollution in the air, so testing
(monitoring) must be done to check the air quality. The Clean Air Act requires states
to establish a network of air monitoring stations for criteria pollutants. OAQPS
monitors the states' progress in meeting air quality standards. Areas which do not
meet the standard are called nonattainment areas.

2. Air Pollution Emissions

Industries and cars put emissions into the air. An emission factor is a
representative value that attempts to relate the quantity of a pollutant released to
the atmosphere with an activity associated with the release of that pollutant. The
National Air Pollutant Emission Trends report presents the latest estimates of
national and regional emissions for criteria air pollutants. The Air Toxics Website
(ATW) provides a central repository for different Federal, State, Tribal and Local
Agencies performing work in the air toxics arena.

Operational Projects
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Creative use of landfill gas (LFG) includes heating greenhouses, producing

electricity and heat in cogeneration applications, firing brick kilns, supplying
highBtu pipelinequality gas, fueling garbage trucks, and providing fuel to
chemical and automobile manufacturing. Projects range from smallscale
communitydriven initiatives to multimilliondollar private investments

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