Foreword
President Richard Nixon created the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 on the advice of an Advisory Council on Executive Organization tasked with making recommendations on restructuring the Executive Branch. The EPA consolidated all Federal anti-pollution programs under one Cabinet-level agency whose mission was to establish and enforce environmental standards consistent with national environmental goals. One of the principle functions of the new agency, as laid out by President Nixon in a special message to Congress, was: the conduct of research on the adverse effects of pollution and on methods and equipment for controlling it, the gathering of information…
