In December 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established as an independent agency. Reorganization Plan 3 of 1970 consolidated fifteen components from five agencies for the purpose of grouping all environmental regulatory activities under a single agency. Most of these functions were housed in the Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

The purpose of the EPA is to ensure that all Americans and the environment in which they live are safe from health hazards. The EPA has a number of goals: clean air, clean and safe water, safe food, preventing and reducing pollution, water management and restoration of waste sites, redirection of international pollution, and credible deterrents to pollution. Also, the EPA engages in education about pollution and its environmental risks.

The first four goals deal with the immediate environment of people: clean air; clean...