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Joe Biden must take charge of repairing the EPA — and safeguard it in perpetuity. Joe Biden must take charge of repairing the EPA — and safeguard it in perpetuity. President-elect Joe Biden speaks at The Queen theatre

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Aquatic Resources Survey (NARS) is a 5-year ongoing cycle of nationwide aquatic resource surveys which provide a report card on the condition of our nation’s waters. The surveys are performed using a randomized, statistically valid design and provide statistically robust data which are used to develop the reports. These reports assess how well existing pollution prevention programs are protecting those waters, and how to better target future protection efforts. This presentation will focus on the results and uses of the 2011 National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) outcomes. Some of the outcomes from the NWCA include (1) robust multi-metric indices used to evaluate condition across varying wetland types, streams, and ecoregions and (2) physical, chemical, and biological indicators of stress (risk factors) which identify the factors which contribute most to poor condition. (3) A wealth of quality-assured, statistically valid data which can be mined to pursue other questions within both regulatory and non-regulatory programs by providing a more robust look at wetland and stream condition. There are a variety of ways in which knowledge of condition can be used to better evaluate environmental states and inform decision-making. Knowledge of risk factors, for example, can be used to prioritize restoration efforts to improve the health of streams and wetlands in poor condition, as well as to identify practices to be avoided in reviewing permit applications for work in waters. The use of multi-metric plant condition indices could be useful in better identifying achieved “lift” in wetland mitigation banks, as well as providing a more robust measure of mitigation or restoration success. It is our hope to generate some seeds for future thought and discussion on ways in which the products of these NARS surveys can enhance the protection and restoration of these aquatic resources.

Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making.This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management.The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used \"three pillars\" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the \"social\" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.

In 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted the National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) as part of the National Aquatic Resource Survey (NARS) program to determine the condition of wetlands across the 48 contiguous states of the United States (US). Sites were selected using a generalized random tessellated stratified (GRTS) probability design. We quantified the types, extent, and magnitude of human activities as indicators of potential stress on a sample of 1138 wetland sites representing a target population of 251,546 km 2 of wetlands in the US. We used field observations of the presence and proximity of more than 50 pre-determined types of human activity to define two types of indices that quantify human influences on wetlands. We grouped these observations into five types of human activity (classes) and summed them within and across these classes to define five metrics and an overall Human Disturbance Activity Index (HDAI). We calculated six Anthropogenic Stress Indices (ASIs) by summing human disturbance activity observations within stressor categories according to their expected effect on each of six aspects of wetland condition. Based on repeat-visit data, the precision of these metrics and indices was sufficient for regional and national assessments. Among the six categories of stress assessed nationally, the percentage of wetland area having ASI levels indicating high stress levels ranged from 10% due to filling/erosional activities to 27% due to vegetation removal activities. The proportion of wetland area with no signs of human disturbance activity (HDAI = 0) within a 140-m diameter area varied widely among the different wetland ecoregions/types we assessed. No visible human disturbance activity was evident in 70% of estuarine wetlands, but among non-estuarine wetlands, only 8% of the wetland area in the West, 15% of the Interior Plains, 22% of the Coastal Plains, and 36% of the Eastern Mountains and Upper Midwest lacked visible evidence of disturbance. The woody wetlands of the West were the most highly stressed reporting group, with more than 75% of their wetland area subject to high levels of ditching, hardening, and vegetation removal. The NWCA offers a unique opportunity to quantify the type, intensity, and extent of human activities in and around wetlands and to assess their likely stress on wetland ecological functions, physical integrity, and overall condition at regional and continental scales.

The Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is a program within the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that is responsible for developing toxicologic assessments of environmental contaminants.An IRIS assessment contains hazard identifications and dose-response assessments of various chemicals related to cancer and noncancer outcomes.

One of the biggest challenges when conducting a continental-scale assessment of wetlands is setting appropriate expectations for the assessed sites. The challenge occurs for two reasons: (1) tremendous natural environmental heterogeneity exists within a continental landscape and (2) reference sites vary in quality both across and within major regions of the continent. We describe the process used to set reference expectations and define a disturbance gradient for the United States (US) Environmental Protection Agency’s National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA). The NWCA employed a probability design and sampled 1138 wetland sites across the conterminous US to make an unbiased assessment of wetland condition. NWCA vegetation data were used to define 10 reporting groups based on ecoregion and wetland type that reduced the naturally occurring variation in wetland vegetation associated with continent-wide differences in biogeography. These reporting groups were used as a basis for defining quantitative criteria for least disturbed and most disturbed conditions and developing indices and thresholds for categories of ecological condition and disturbance. The NWCA vegetation assessment was based on a reference site approach, in which the least disturbed reference sites were used to establish benchmarks for assessing the condition of vegetation at other sites. Reference sites for each reporting group were identified by filtering NWCA sample data for disturbance using a series of abiotic variables. Ultimately, 277 least disturbed sites were used to set reference expectations for the NWCA. The NWCA provided a unique opportunity to improve our conceptual and technical understanding of how to best apply a reference condition approach to assessing wetlands across the US. These results will enhance the technical quality of future national assessments.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) initiated planning in 2007 and conducted field work in 2011 for the first National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) as part of the National Aquatic Resource Surveys (NARS). It complements the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Wetland Status and Trends (S&T) program that estimates wetland acres nationally. The NWCA used a stratified, unequal probability survey design based on wetland information from S&T plots to select 900 sites for the conterminous 48 states. Based on site evaluation information, the NWCA estimates that there are 94.9 (± 6.20) million acres of wetlands in the NWCA target wetland population (reported in acres to be consistent with S&T). Not all of the estimated target population acres could be sampled due to accessibility and field issues. Based on the sites that could be sampled, the sampled population for the NWCA is estimated to be 62.2 (± 5.28) million acres of wetland area. Landowner denial for access was the main reason (24.7% ± 3.5%) for the sampled population being smaller than the target population, and physical inaccessibility was the second reason (6.8% ± 2.1%). The NWCA 2011 survey design was successful in enabling a national survey for wetland condition to be conducted and coordinated with the USFWS S&T survey of wetland extent. The NWCA 2016 survey design has been modified to address sample frame issues resulting from the difference in S&T focusing only on national estimates and NWCA focusing on national and regional estimates.

The first National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) was conducted in 2011 by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and its federal and state partners, using a survey design that allowed inference of results to national and regional scales. Vegetation, algae, soil, water chemistry, and hydrologic data were collected at each of 1138 locations across the conterminous United States (US). Ecological condition was assessed in relation to a disturbance gradient anchored by least disturbed (reference) and most disturbed sites identified using chemical, physical, and biological disturbance indices based on site-level data. A vegetation multimetric index (VMMI) was developed as an indicator of condition, and included four metrics: a floristic quality assessment index, relative importance of native plants, number of disturbance-tolerant plant species, and relative cover of native monocots. Potential stressors to wetland condition were identified and incorporated into two indicators of vegetation alteration, four indicators of hydrologic alteration, a soil heavy metal index, and a nonnative plant indicator and were used to quantify national and regional stressor extent, and the associated relative and attributable risk. Approximately 48 ± 6% of the national wetland area was found to be in good condition and 32 ± 6% in poor condition as defined by the VMMI. Across the conterminous US, approximately 20% of wetland area had high or very high stressor levels related to nonnative plants. Vegetation removal, hardening, and ditching stressors had the greatest extent of wetland area with high stressor levels, affecting 23–27% of the wetland area in the NWCA sampled population. The results from the 2016 NWCA will build on those from the 2011 assessment and initiate the ability to report on trends in addition to status. The data and tools produced by the NWCA can be used by others to further our knowledge of wetlands in the conterminous US.

The only published work that treats the historical evolution of EPA enforcement, this book provides a candid inside glimpse of a crucial aspect of the work of an important federal agency. Based on 190 personal interviews with present and former enforcement officials at EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and key congressional staff members-along with extensive research among EPA documents and secondary sources-the book vividly recounts the often tumultuous history of EPA's enforcement program. It also analyzes some important questions regarding EPA's institutional relationships and the Agency's working environment. This revised and updated edition adds substantial new chapters examining EPA enforcement during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Its treatment of issues of civil service decline and the applicability of captive agency theory is also new and original.