April 22nd  marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. More than 20 million people participated in the first Earth Day celebration.

This is also the 40th anniversary of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

President Richard Nixon and Congress launched the EPA due to public demand for cleaner water, land and air. The agency’s duties including the repair of the environmental damage and establish rules to assist citizens in making a cleaner environment.

In 1970, the government passed a Clean Air Act amendment that set air quality, anti-pollution and auto emission standards.

EPA progress has included:

• In the 1970s
  • EPA banned DDT, a carcinogenic pesticide
  • Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act, allowing EPA to set standards for the quality of public drinking water
• In the 1980s
  • Congress created Superfund to clean up hazardous waste sites
  • EPA and U.S. communities began emergency response planning in the event of environmental accidents
• In the 1990s
  • EPA launched the Energy Star program to help consumers identify energy-efficient products, which has since saved Americans $16 billion on their energy bills
  • EPA issued tough new air quality standards for smog and soot, an action that improved air quality for 125 million Americans.
• And in the last decade
  • EPA proposed the first ever mercury emissions regulations on power plants.
  • EPA launched the New Clean School Bus program to reduce children’s exposures to diesel emissions from school buses.

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