By Carrie Vicenta Meadows Agriculture Advisor to Administrator Wheeler To fulfill the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment, we need support from all Americans. We know that farmers and ranchers are the original stewards of the land and should be our natural partners Administrator Andrew Wheeler has made it a priority of EPA to engage more effectively with the agriculture community and rebuild trust with rural America. A large part of my job has been working on enhancing and strengthening both EPA’s outreach and partnerships with farmers and ..read more

By Alexandra Dapolito DunnAssistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Good decisions start with good information. As we work through the process to evaluate any potential risks from chemicals in the marketplace, it’s critical that we have high-quality, robust data on these chemicals. This information is the foundation for our risk evaluations and will ultimately guide our decisions about the risks to public health and the environment and the actions we’ll take to reduce those risks. Getting good data doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s a partnership between ..read more

By Alexandra Dapolito Dunn Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention On this day in 1990, a new era was ushered in for EPA and the nation when the Pollution Prevention (P2) Act was signed into law.  The act gave the agency new tools to join with states, tribes, and communities to prevent pollution before it happens.  It also marked a shift in the paradigm of environmental protection which had been mostly focused on end-of-pipe pollution control and clean-up strategies. Equally important, the P2 act strengthened EPA’s role as an ally of America ..read more

By Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention; and Scott Mason, Director for the American Indian Environmental Office In celebration of Children’s Health Month, we are excited to kick off this year’s National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week by showcasing Lead Awareness in Indian Country: Keeping our Children Healthy! – a new curriculum to help tribes and communities take the first step in protecting children from potential lead exposure by educating parents and caregivers. The curriculum is a robust set of educational tools that c ..read more

By Jeanne Briskin Director of the Office of Children’s Health Protection October is Children’s Health Month, a good reminder that children are often more vulnerable to pollutants than adults due to their differences in behavior and biology, which can lead to greater exposure and unique windows of susceptibility during development. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP) leads the agency’s work regarding children’s environmental health and aims to ensure that all EPA actions and programs address the unique vulnerabilities of children. OCHP ..read more

By Douglas Benevento Associate Deputy Administrator In May 1995, EPA and the states entered into a joint agreement to establish the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS) and committed to direct resources to improve environmental results, allow for greater flexibility, enhance accountability, and measure progress. Now celebrating its 25th successful year, NEPPS continues to serve as the leading example for fostering the EPA, state, and tribal partnership. Since its inception, NEPPS has made a critical impact toward strengthening the partnerships that serve as the corners ..read more

By Alexandra Dapolito Dunn Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Businesses are the backbone of the American economy and play a crucial role in protecting our environment for generations to come. This year marks EPA’s 50th anniversary and the 30th anniversary of the Pollution Prevention (P2) Act. During this time, we’ve worked with businesses to find ways to stop pollution before it is even created, the very heart of P2 and sustainability practices. P2 focuses attention on reducing the amount of pollution through cost-effective changes in production ..read more

By Ted Stanich Associate Administrator, Office of Homeland Security As we remember the events of September 11, and mark the 19th anniversary and Patriot Day last week, I am reminded of the mood in Washington, D.C. in October 2001— “first 9/11, and now this?” The fear was real and we heard so many rumors about potential new threats that when there was anthrax in the mail it wasn’t necessarily a shock. For all of us in EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) we felt a responsibility to support whatever EPA was asked to do. It was an “all-hands on deck” moment. We were assisting the EPA Regio ..read more

By Anne L. Austin Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation Ozone layer protection in the United States reaches an important milestone in 2020. For 30 years the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been helping to protect and heal the Earth’s stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out ozone-depleting substances (ODS). This year marks the start of the final phaseout stage for certain ODS: hydrochlorofluorocarbons, otherwise known as HCFCs. To date, we have reduced production and import of ODS by over 99.5 percent. And, by the end of this decade, we wil ..read more

By Paul Kudarauskas Deputy Associate Administrator, EPA Office of Homeland Security Homeland security is part of our overall national security in the United States. Dating back before 9/11, homeland security officials from all departments and agencies worked to support national preparedness in various forms. Over time, the scope of potential threats to prepare for has expanded beyond large-scale terrorist attacks to also include cyber-attacks, pandemics and catastrophic natural disasters. The evolution of threats that pose the greatest risk to the security of the Nation required us to take a b ..read more