The Environmental Protection Agency
Summary
regulates the nation's air, water, and land pollution on an enacted $8.82 billion FY2026 budget and 12,312 -- about $25.80 per U.S. resident a year -- while its enforcement arm alone closed 2,127 civil cases in FY2025, reducing or eliminating nearly 116 million pounds of pollution.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
In fiscal year 2025, 's enforcement program conducted nearly 8,300 inspections and 14,000-plus compliance monitoring activities⧉, concluding 2,127 civil cases -- the most in nine years -- while reducing, treating, or eliminating nearly 116 million pounds of pollution⧉. It charged 156 criminal defendants, assessed over $1.2 billion in penalties, fines, and court-ordered relief, and finalized 65 Superfund enforcement instruments worth $888 million⧉, addressing 59.4 million cubic yards of contaminated land and water. Beyond enforcement, sets pollution standards, issues permits, and funds state and tribal environmental programs.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
Congress enacted $8.82 billion in regular appropriations for EPA in FY2026⧉, supporting 12,312 full-time-equivalent positions⧉ agency-wide -- water programs, chiefly state drinking-water and wastewater grants, take the largest share. A further $12.01 billion arrived as Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act advance appropriations⧉, bringing 's total FY2026 federal resources to $20.82 billion, though that money funds state and tribal grants, not agency operations. Measured against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉, the enacted operating budget costs about $25.80 per person a year.
View data as table
| Water (OW) | 4,756.6 | Chiefly state drinking-water and wastewater State Revolving Fund grants |
|---|---|---|
| Air & Radiation (OAR) | 903.8 | Air quality standards, permitting, radiation programs |
| Finance & Administration (OFA) | 854.2 | Budget, IT, facilities, grants, human capital, procurement |
| Land & Emergency Mgmt. (OLEM) | 667.4 | Superfund, RCRA, underground storage tanks, brownfields |
| Office of the Administrator (AO) | 563.3 | Administrator's office and agency-wide policy offices |
| Enforcement & Compliance (OECA) | 468.7 | Produced FY2025's 2,127 civil cases and 156 criminal defendants charged |
| Chemical Safety & Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) | 289.8 | Pesticides, toxics, chemical review |
| All other offices & accounts | 313.1 | International & Tribal Affairs, General Counsel, Inspector General, and legacy closeout accounts combined |
Why is it good for society?
's own numbers tie its enforcement arm to results: the 2,127 civil cases it concluded in FY2025 reduced, treated, or eliminated nearly 116 million pounds of pollution⧉ and secured $6.4 billion in commitments⧉ to return facilities to compliance -- commitments that exist only because found the violations and pursued them. Without that enforcement arm, the functions Reorganization Plan No. 3 pulled together in 1970⧉ -- setting standards, then making sure polluters meet them -- would revert to the fragmented, department-by-department approach the plan's own text found unable to mount a coordinated response to pollution.
- 's $8.82 billion FY2026 enacted budget excludes the $12.01 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act advance appropriations⧉ that flow largely to state and tribal water-infrastructure grants -- include it and 's total FY2026 federal resources reach $20.82 billion, more than double the operating figure in the KPI row above.
- The FY2027 President's Budget proposes cutting EPA's FY2026 enacted level by more than half⧉, to $4.203 billion -- the enforcement office behind FY2025's case count runs on just 5% of the enacted total shown in the chart above.
Your handles.* Seeing pollution happen -- an illegal discharge, an unpermitted dump, an air violation? File it through EPA's Report an Environmental Violation tool; regional staff route it to the right program. To weigh in before a rule is final, comment on open dockets at Regulations.gov during the public-comment period listed in each proposed rule's Federal Register notice.
Sources(6) ▾
- The White House / U.S. EPA (official archive reproduction), Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970 (Special Message to Congress and Plan Text) (1970-07-09) — 's own archived reproduction of President Nixon's July 9, 1970 message to Congress and the text of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970 -- the source for this entry's founding narrative, the functions consolidated into , and the statutory basis (5 U.S.C. chapter 9). epa.gov · original document
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Origins of EPA (EPA History) — 's own official history page -- the source for this entry's traditional founding date (December 2, 1970) and the confirmation of the agency's first Administrator. epa.gov · original document
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, United States Environmental Protection Agency Fiscal Year 2027 Justification of Appropriation Estimates for the Committee on Appropriations, Tab 00: Overview (EPA-190R26002) (2026-04-01) — 's own FY2027 congressional budget justification -- the source for this entry's FY2026 enacted total-budget and total- figures (the most recent enacted-year numbers available, reported as the base-year column of the agency's NEXT budget submission), the by-program-office budget breakdown behind the chart, the FY2027 request-vs-FY2026-enacted comparison, and the agency's current mission statement. epa.gov · original document
- U.S. EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Annual Results Report, Fiscal Year 2025 (2026-02-26) — 's own annual report on its enforcement and compliance program -- the source for this entry's FY2025 workload figures: inspections, compliance monitoring activities, civil and criminal case results, pollution reduced, and Superfund enforcement recoveries. epa.gov · original document
- Congressional Research Service (mirrored by EveryCRSReport.com), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency FY2026 Appropriations (CRS In Focus IF13191) (2026-03-25) — Congress's own nonpartisan research service, summarizing 's FY2026 regular enacted appropriations (P.L. 119-74) and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act advance appropriations (P.L. 117-58) -- the source for this entry's add-on figure and the combined FY2026 total, and an independent corroboration of the $8.82 billion enacted-appropriations figure drawn from 's own budget documents. everycrsreport.com · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimate) (2026-01-27) — The Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate release, giving the U.S. resident population as of July 1, 2025 -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI, per better_metrics.md's sourced-denominator discipline. Same document and sealed capture used in good-citizen-gao and good-citizen-epa-oig (independently corroborated in good-citizen-gao's blind verification). census.gov · original document
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President Nixon's Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970⧉ pulled pollution-control functions -- research, monitoring, standard-setting, enforcement -- out of the Department of the Interior, the Atomic Energy Commission, and HEW into one new agency, because no existing department could mount "a coordinated attack"⧉ on air, water, and land pollution together. counts its founding from December 2, 1970⧉, when the Senate confirmed its first Administrator, William Ruckelshaus. Its stated mission today: "to protect human health and the environment."⧉