United States Environmental Protection Agency
|Environmental Protection Agency|
|Environmental Protection Agency logo|
|Formed||December 2, 1970|
|Agency executive||Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator|
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or sometimes USEPA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 3, 1970, after Nixon submitted a reorganization plan to Congress and it was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its administrator, who is appointed by the President of the United States and approved by Congress. The current administrator is Lisa P. Jackson. The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator is normally given Cabinet rank.
The agency has approximately 18,000 full-time employees. Its employees are distributed across the headquarters program offices, 10 regional offices, and 27 laboratories across the country. More than half of its staff are engineers, scientists, and environmental protection specialists; other groups include legal, public affairs, financial, and computer specialists.
The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. It delegates some permitting, monitoring, and enforcement responsibility to U.S. states and Native American tribes. EPA enforcement powers include fines, sanctions, and other measures.
The agency also works with industries and all levels of government in a wide variety of voluntary pollution prevention programs and energy conservation efforts.
Technology and products
Scribe is a LIMS-like application "that assists in the process of managing environmental data" and "captures sampling, observational, and monitoring field data." Scribe is the replacement for the EPA's former product FORMS II Lite and was introduced on January 1, 2011.
| The following feature list(s) is/are derived solely from public, freely-available online information the vendor provides. A lack of a "Y" does not necessarily mean that the product doesn't have that feature. The lack of a "Y" could mean:
Scribe is free to download. However, it's not particularly clear what license is associated with it. It's not clear if, like the previous FORMS II Lite, use of this software not performed by or for a U.S. federal agency violates any license or user agreement.
- ERT Software Support - Scribe support and download
- May 2009 demo of Scribe
- Scribe Support and Development Website
- Scribe user manual - Part 1
- Scribe user manual - Part 2
- Scribe user manual - Part 3
Old technology and products
FORMS II Lite
FORMS II Lite was a LIMS-like application designed "to support the mission of EPA and its contractors who visit hazardous waste sites to take samples of soil, water, air, and other sample matrices ... [and] to automate the field sampling process." The EPA offered its FORMS II Lite software at no cost but only for use by or for any federal agency. The software was mandated for use in November 2002. In November 2010, the EPA released a memorandum indicating that FORMS II Lite would be phased out of EPA Superfund activities, with a new sample management system called Scribe taking its place by January 1, 2011. Both software programs could be used, but FORMS II would be phased out at an unstated date. By 2014, the EPA's FORMS II web page disappeared, presumably signaling an end to the software's use in the EPA.
- "Our Mission and What We Do". U.S. EPA. http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/whatwedo.html. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
- "Public Access – When and how was the EPA Created?". U.S. EPA. http://publicaccess.supportportal.com/link/portal/23002/23012/Article/23723/When-and-how-was-the-EPA-created. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
- Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley (August 26, 2007). "As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html.
Also see U.S. Census Bureau spreadsheet
- "Environmental Response Team Information Management". U.S. EPA. 03 May 2016. https://www.epa.gov/ert/environmental-response-team-information-management. Retrieved 07 October 2016.
- Woolford, J.E. (01 November 2010). "Inclusion of Scribe into the Role of Tracking Superfund Sampling Data" (PDF). U.S. EPA. Archived from the original on 07 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161007180517/https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/P100GM84.PDF?Dockey=P100GM84.PDF. Retrieved 07 October 2016.
- "User Manual for Scribe CLP Sampling" (PDF). U.S. EPA Environmental Response Team. 29 August 2013. pp. 38. https://www.epaosc.org/sites/ScribeGIS/files/Scribe%20CLP%20User%20Guide.pdf. Retrieved 07 October 2016.
- "Scribe Field Use Basics" (PDF). U.S. EPA Environmental Response Team. 29 August 2013. pp. 117. https://www.epaosc.org/sites/ScribeGIS/files/Scribe%20Manual%20Part%20II.pdf. Retrieved 07 October 2016.
- "Scribe Management and Advanced Features" (PDF). U.S. EPA Environmental Response Team. 29 August 2013. pp. 58. https://www.epaosc.org/sites/ScribeGIS/files/Scribe%20Manual%20Advanced%20Part%20III.pdf. Retrieved 07 October 2016.
- "FORMS II Lite - Overview". U.S. EPA. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100131022346/http://f2lite.fedcsc.com/overview.html. Retrieved 07 October 2016.
- "Frequently Asked Questions - Obtaining FORMS II Lite/Licensing". U.S. EPA. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100131022310/http://f2lite.fedcsc.com/faq.html. Retrieved 07 October 2016.
- Cook M.B. (14 November 2002). "FORMS II Lite Role in Tracking Superfund Sampling Data" (PDF). U.S. EPA. Archived from the original on 07 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161007182316/https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/90180C00.PDF?Dockey=90180C00.PDF. Retrieved 07 October 2016.
- "FORMS II Lite". U.S. EPA. Archived from the original on 02 February 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130202032956/http://www.epa.gov/superfund/programs/clp/f2lite.htm. Retrieved 07 October 2016.