NAS Raps EPA for Lack of Scientific Standards

June 28, 2000

The National Academy of Sciences accuses the Environmental Protection Agency of possible "weak scientific performance" and "poor scientific credibility" by not providiing for a "top science official" within the agency structure. The most senior science official now is the assistant administrator for research and development who has no needed agency-wide authority for regulatory and policy decision making, says NAS.

In the fourth and final report in a series released earlier this month, NAS notes that EPA has not had a primary science mission in the same sense as the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation which have primary missions to advance scientific and technical knowledge through research. EPA has been primarily a regulatory agency.

"Yet, EPA’s strategic plan strongly acknowledges that environmental protection efforts need to be `based on the best available scientific information’ and `sound science’ as one of the agency’s avowed major goals," says NAS.

"Scientific knowledge and technical information are essential for determining which environmental problems pose important risks to human health, ecosystems, the quality of life and the economy," the report continues.

The NAS recommends that EPA establish a new position – deputy administrator for science and technology. In another report, noted by NAS, the criticism was made that EPA’s science "is of uneven quality, and the agency’s policies and regulations are frequently perceived as lacking a strong scientific foundation."

Even though EPA had a number of knowledgeable scientists on its staff, that report found that science at EPA "was not perceived to be strong by the university community and many EPA scientists at all levels throughout the agency believed that EPA did not use their scientific knowledge and resources effectively."

Throughout EPA’s history, no official below the level of the administrator has had the responsibility or authority for the scientific and technical foundations of agency decisions. But EPA administrators have been trained typically in law, not science, according to NAS.

The entire report is available on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu/books/0309071275/htm.