Origins of the EPA | 美国环保局的起源

废弃汽车电池燃烧产生的浓烟，照片由新成立的环境保护署官方摄影师马克·圣吉尔于 1972 年在休斯顿拍摄

Smoke from burning discarded car batteries, photographed in Houston in 1972 by Mark St. Gilles, official photographer for the newly created Environmental Protection Agency

1975 年，为了推动环境保护，该工厂被关闭，烟囱依然如旧

In 1975, the factory was closed to promote environmental protection, but the chimney remains the same.

从 20 世纪 50 年代末开始，一直到 60 年代，国会对公众日益增长的对人类活动对环境影响的担忧做出了反应。参议员詹姆斯·E·默里在第 86 届国会上提出了一项法案，即 1959 年《资源与保护法案》（RCA） 。该法案将在总统行政办公室内设立一个环境质量委员会，宣布一项国家环境政策，并要求编制年度环境报告。当时的保护运动很弱，该法案未在国会获得通过。

1962 年出版的畅销书《寂静的春天》由雷切尔·卡逊撰写，该书警告公众滥用化学农药将对动物和人类造成有害影响。

在接下来的几年里，国会讨论了可能的解决方案。1968 年，参议院内政和岛屿事务委员会主席亨利·M·杰克逊参议员和众议院科学和航天委员会众议员乔治·P·米勒召集了众议院和参议院联合座谈会，讨论实施国家环境政策的必要性和方法。国会颁布了1969 年《国家环境政策法案》（NEPA），该法律基于 1959 年及随后的听证会上讨论的想法。

Beginning in the late 1950s and continuing into the 1960s, Congress responded to growing public concern about the impact of human activities on the environment. Senator James E. Murray introduced a bill in the 86th Congress, the Resource and Conservation Act of 1959 (RCA). The bill would have established a Council on Environmental Quality within the Executive Office of the President, declared a national environmental policy, and required annual environmental reports. The conservation movement was weak at the time, and the bill did not pass Congress.

The 1962 bestseller Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson, warned the public about the harmful effects of indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides on animals and humans.

For the next several years, Congress discussed possible solutions. In 1968, Senator Henry M. Jackson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, and Representative George P. Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Science and Space, convened a joint House and Senate symposium to discuss the need for and methods of implementing a national environmental policy. Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), a law based on ideas discussed in 1959 and subsequent hearings.

鲁克尔豪斯宣誓就任美国环保署首任署长

Ruckelhaus sworn in as first EPA administrator

理查德·尼克松政府在 1969-1971 年间将环境作为一项政策重点，并成立了两个新机构，即环境质量委员会(CEQ) 和 EPA, 要求所有对环境有重大影响的联邦重大行动都必须准备一份详细的环境影响声明。
The Richard Nixon administration made the environment a policy priority from 1969-1971 and established two new agencies, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the EPA, Required that a detailed environmental impact statement be prepared for all major federal actions that had a significant impact on the environment.

1970 年 7 月 9 日，尼克松提议进行行政重组，将联邦政府的许多环境职责整合到一个机构——新成立的环境保护局之下。该提案包括合并多个部门的污染控制项目，例如将美国农业部和美国内政部的杀虫剂项目合并。 在当年夏天举行听证会后，众议院和参议院批准了该提案。环境保护局在开始运营的 90 天前成立，  并于 1970 年 12 月 2 日正式开业。该机构的第一任局长威廉·鲁克尔豪斯于 1970 年 12 月 4 日宣誓就职。

EPA 的前身是美国公共卫生服务局(PHS)的环境健康部，它的成立导致了1966 年至 1973 年间PHS 的一系列重组之一。EPA 从 PHS 吸收了整个国家空气污染控制局，以及环境控制局的固体废物管理局、水卫生局和放射健康局的一部分。它还吸收了联邦水质管理局，该管理局此前已于 1966 年从 PHS 转移到内政部。其他机构的一些职能也被纳入 EPA：以前独立的联邦辐射委员会并入其中；农药项目从内政部、食品药品管理局和农业研究服务局转移而来；一些职能从环境质量委员会和原子能委员会转移而来。

EPA 成立时继承了分布在 26 个州的 84 个地点，其中 42 个地点是实验室。EPA 将这些实验室合并为 22 个地点。

On July 9, 1970, Nixon proposed an administrative reorganization that would consolidate many of the federal government’s environmental responsibilities under a single agency, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency. The proposal included merging pollution control programs from multiple departments, such as combining the pesticide programs of the USDA and the U.S. Department of the Interior.After hearings that summer, the House and Senate approved the proposal. The EPA was established 90 days before it was to begin operations and officially opened on December 2, 1970. The agency’s first director, William Ruckelhaus, was sworn in on December 4, 1970.

The EPA was formed as the Environmental Health Division of the United States Public Health Service (PHS), and its creation resulted in one of a series of reorganizations of the PHS between 1966 and 1973. The EPA absorbed the entire National Air Pollution Control Agency from the PHS, as well as parts of the Solid Waste Management Bureau, the Bureau of Water Sanitation, and the Bureau of Radiological Health of the Environmental Control Agency. It also absorbed the federal Water Quality Administration, which had been transferred from PHS to the Department of the Interior in 1966. Some functions of other agencies were also absorbed into EPA: the previously independent federal Radiation Commission was merged into it; the pesticide program was transferred from the Department of the Interior, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Agricultural Research Service; and some functions were transferred from the Council on Environmental Quality and the Atomic Energy Commission.

When EPA was established, it inherited 84 sites in 26 states, of which 42 were laboratories. EPA consolidated these laboratories into 22 sites.