I’m going to explore this over a couple of posts. This is the first installment.
EPA Prehistory
The Environmental Protection Agency was not formed in a vacuum; it was not created by environmental idealists in an effort to establish an ecological Utopia. It was created in response to widespread concerns about the effects of industrialization and high-intensity commercialized agriculture on human health and, secondarily, the health of wilderness areas. An early concern was the use of the first synthetic pesticide, DDT, to for both agriculture and urban pest control.
DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was first synthesized in 1874 by an Austrian chemist[1], but its properties were not investigated. In 1939, however, a Swiss chemist named Paul Hermann Müller, looking for a safe and effective insecticide, tested the substance on a fly and discovered that DDT was a highly effective insecticide[2].
DDT was used during World War II to control malaria and typhus in Europe; beginning in 1945, with increased production, the insecticide was released for commercial use and became common as an an agricultural insecticide[3]. In 1948, Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods[4].”
All this seemed very good. Agricultural yields were up, and malaria and typhus were down. What could possibly go wrong?
DDT was generally believed to be safe for mammals because, in the 1940s, no regulations had been established requiring safety testing on insecticides. Worrying evidence began to accumulate, however. In the 1950s, a marine biologist named Rachel Carson began to document risks and environmental damage associated with pesticides. In 1959, US Senator James E. Murray (D, Montana), proposed the Resource and Conservation Act. This bill proposed “a national policy on conservation, development, and the utilization of natural resources and for other purposes.” It established a council of advisors to the President, and required an annual report to the President on conservation and resources. However, no action was taken on the bill that year[5].
Carson published the book Silent Spring in 1962, based on extensive research and collaboration with other scientists.[6]. She not only described the risks of indiscriminate pesticide use, but also accused manufacturers of misleading the public. The chemical industry was critical of the book, but the scientific community was largely supportive, and the book was well received by the public generally.
The Beginning of the Environmental Movement
Concerns about the environment have been around for centuries; 17th-century Europeans worried about deforestation, and by the end of the 19th century there were Conservation and Preservation movements in the United States, resulting in (among other things) the Sierra Club by John Muir in 1892, and the establishment of the National Park system by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916.
Beginning in the 1960s, however, environmental concerns began to attract more attention. The 1962 publication of Carson’s Silent Spring by Rachel Carson broughht concerns related to pesticide us to broad public notice for the first time. While Murray’s 1959 conservation act proposal received no action that year, it served as a template for similar proposals and Congressional hearings were held to discuss the state of the environment and possible courses of action. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was passed in 1969 and signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970.
The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA)[8] was modeled on RCA.[9] That bill would have established a Council on Environmental Quality in the office of the President, declared a national environmental policy, and required the preparation of an annual environmental report.[10][better source needed] President Nixon signed NEPA into law on January 1, 1970. The law created the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) in the Executive Office of the President.[11] NEPA required that a detailed statement of environmental impacts be prepared for all major federal actions significantly affecting the environment. The “detailed statement” would ultimately be referred to as an environmental impact statement (EIS).
Ruckelshaus sworn in as first EPA Administrator.
On July 9, 1970, Nixon proposed an executive reorganization that consolidated many environmental responsibilities of the federal government under one agency, a new Environmental Protection Agency.[12] After conducting hearings during that summer, the House and Senate approved the proposal. The agency’s first administrator, William Ruckelshaus, took the oath of office on December 4, 1970.[5]
EPA staff recall that in the early days there was “an enormous sense of purpose and excitement” and the expectation that “there was this agency which was going to do something about a problem that clearly was on the minds of a lot of people in this country,” leading to tens of thousands of resumes from those eager to participate in the mighty effort to clean up America’s environment.[13]
When EPA first began, the private sector felt strongly that the environmental protection movement was a passing fad, and Ruckelshaus felt pressure to show a public which was deeply skeptical about government’s effectiveness, that EPA could respond effectively to widespread concerns about pollution.[14]
Timeline of EPA History:
- 1971: Congress urged to restrict the use of lethal lead-based paint in homes, further demonstrating the EPA’s dastardly plot to strangle the free market
- 1972: Nixon signs the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement after swallowing a plastic bag while swimming in Lake Erie
- 1980: New Superfund program requires corporate polluters to pay for the cost of cleanup unless they really, really, really don’t want to
- 1982: Golden age of asbestos draws to a close
- 1983: Original administrator William D. Ruckelshaus returns for a second term as part of an ongoing effort by the EPA to reuse things instead of throwing them away
- 1988: Bunch of snobbish homeowners decide they’re too good to inhale a little radon
- 1999: After nearly three decades of clean air efforts, sun is once again visible during the daytime in all 50 states
- 2007: EPA embraces the internet age by launching its first blog at a cost of $1.7 billion to taxpayers
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othmar_Zeidler
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hermann_M%C3%BCller#Synthesis_of_DDT
[3] http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc009.htm
[4] http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1948/
[5] http://lawschool.unm.edu/nrj/volumes/16/2/01_dreyfus_national.pdf
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson#Silent_Spring