By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now
Along with Earth Day, EPA celebrates its 40th anniversary this month.
Although the environment has not been a priority for every administration, the EPA has brought about many positive accomplishments in its four decades (which the agency has charted on a timeline.)
The Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act of 1970 (which has been amended several times) was the first national action to set standards for air pollution in an effort to keep Americans healthy; it provided for enforceable regulations on industry and vehicles to reduce air pollution.
In its first 20 years, the EPA estimates that the Clean Air Act prevented:
- 205,000 premature death;
- 672,000 cases of chronic bronchitis;
- 21,000 cases of heart disease;
- 843,000 asthma attacks;
- 189,000 cardiovascular hospitalizations;
- 10.4 million lost IQ points in children (from lead reductions);
- 18 million child respiratory illnesses.
During the next 20 years, amendments to the Clean Air Act have been estimated to have prevented:
- 23,000 premature deaths;
- 20,000 caes of chronic bronchitis;
- 7,200 cases of chronic asthma;
- 4,800 children’s ER visits for asthma;
- 64,000 cardiovascular hospitalizations;
- 4.1 million lost work days;
- 12 million restricted activity days due to poor air quality.
Water Quality
The 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act, setting up similar standards for controlling the pollution of surface waters in the U.S. In terms of water quality, that I
Progress has been made. In 2008, 92 percent of the population served by community water systems received water that met all health-based standards, up from 79 percent in 1993, said EPA spokeswoman Latisha Petteway.
From 1950 to 2005, the U.S. population doubled while the demand place on our public water supply more than tripled, prompting a new approach by the EPA to foster water conservation.
WaterSense, a water-efficiency program launched by EPA in 2006, has given Americans the information they need to make smart choices by helping them save 9.3 billion gallons of water and 1 billion kWh annually through the use of WaterSense-labeled products, Petteway said. In 2008, she says, the program helped consumers save more than $55 million on their water and sewer bills.
Superfund Sites
The EPA sees the clean up of toxic waste sites as another of its major accomplishments. By 2009, 1,080 of the more than 1,500 waste sites identified on the Superfund National Priority List — areas that had known or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants — had been cleaned up. In addition, 409 of the sites on the National Priority List have long term protections in place for anticipated reuse.
EPA has been joined by states in protecting the country’s groundwater from leaking underground storage tanks. Petteway says that even a small amount of petroleum released from an underground storage tank can contaminate groundwater – which is the drinking water source for almost half of the population. As of September 2009, she says, EPA and its partners have closed more than 1.7 million substandard USTs, cleaned up more than 388,000 releases and decreased the annual number of UST releases from 67,000 in 1990 to a little over 7,100 in 2009.
Natural Resources and Recycling
In regard to the country’s natural resources, the U.S. has increased its forestland and reduced its soil erosion rates. Petteway says that the U.S. averaged an annual gain in net forest area of 159,000 hectares per year between 2000 and 2005. The agency estimates that soil erosion rates have decreased by 43 percent between 1982 and 2003.
While much of the credit should go to the individual communities, the EPA reports that families and business have increased recycling rates from less than 10 percent in 1980 to more than 33 percent in 2008. Landfill disposals have decreased from 89 percent in 1980 to 54 percent in 2008, according to the EPA, which has supported and promoted these efforts.
Petteway says that as a country, Americans have recycled and composted 83 million tons of household trash and municipal solid waste resulting in a savings of 182 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. This is comparable to reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions from more than 33 million cars and trucks.
Similarly, EPA’s achievements with brownfields – properties whose reuse, expansion or redevelopment is complicated by the presence of hazardous substances – can be partly attributed to the communities where the brownfields are located. But the EPA provided the training and created jobs to support brownfield redevelopment.
The EPA’s Brownfields Job Training Program trained more than 5,200 people from 1998-2009, helping them land fulltime work in the environmental field with average wages of $14.26, Petteway said.
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