In July of 1970, the White House and Congress
worked together to establish the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in response to the growing public demand
for cleaner water, air and land. Prior the establishment of
62. the EPA, the federal government is not
structured to make
63. a coordinated attack on the pollutants that
harm human health and degrade the environment. The EPA was assigning the task
64. of repairing the damage already done to the natural
environ ment and to establish new criteria to guide Americans in making a
cleaner environment a reality. Bom in the awake of elevated
concern about environmental
65. mental pollution, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency opened its doors in downtown Washington, D.C., on
December 2, 1970. EPA was established to consolidate in one agency the
variety 66. of federal
research, monitoring, standard-setting and enforcement activity to ensure
environmental protection.
67. EPA’s mission is to protect
human health and to safeguard the naturally environment-air, water, and
land-upon
68. which life depend. For more than 30
years, the EPA
69. has been working for a
cleaner, healthier environment for the American people. From
regulating auto emissions to ban the use of
70. DDT; from cleaning up toxic waste to protecting the
ozone layer; from increasing recycling to revitalizing inner-city
brown- fields, EPA’s achievements have resulted in cleaner alr,
purer water, and well protected land.
71.