Research Paper on:
Overview of the EPA

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
have had upon the earth. With Dr. Brian Robinson serving as chairman for the past fifteen years (recently retired in February) (Heinrichs, 2002), its task is daunting when it  comes to maintaining environmental integrity in light of the myriad issues it must face. Together with local and state agencies, the EPA - whose mission is to "protect human  health and to safeguard the natural environment - air, water, and land - upon which life depends" (Anonymous, 2002) - takes charge of situations that require massive intervention so as  to prevent further environmental damage (Browner, 1995). If given an option, the EPA - whose 2002 request budget stands at $7.313 billion (Anonymous #2, 2002) - would be happy to  be put out of business if environmental degradation could be prevented altogether, but there are just too many extenuating circumstances that forestall such a reality from ever happening. Granted,  there are tremendous efforts employed to avoid catastrophic events, such as oil spills, from ever occurring but even with such painstaking precautions, nearly fourteen thousand such spills occur each and  every year. These spills vary in size from minute to monumental, with the responsible companies usually following up on the clean up effort. Still, some spills are so  big that they cannot be contained with the limited resources most companies have; that is when the government has to step in to help (Anonymous #3, 2002). "We need  a firm commitment to public health and environmental goals- -combined with flexibility and innovation in how we achieve these goals. We need to move beyond the one-size-fits-all approach of  the past. We must work industry by industry, community by community. We must involve those who live with environmental decisions, to ensure that they have every opportunity to