Strengthening Science at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Research-Management and Peer-Review Practices (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Evaluating Science at EPA
Evaluating Science at EPA
Pages 23-34
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From page 23... ...
Today, scientific knowledge and technical information are more important than ever for understanding and successfully addressing the increasingly complex environmental problems facing the nation. in the 1970s, environmental protection efforts and the associated demands for scientific knowledge were largely and appropriately focused on the manufacturing and transportation sectors and the problems associated with environmental releases at the sources.
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From page 24... ...
Along with the growing need for scientific knowledge and technical information to understand these complex factors are the rapidly occurring scientific advances In fields as diverse as molecular biology, chemistry, medicine, information technology, and the social sciences. These advances and the knowledge and technology they create hold the key to our future ability to identify and understand the environmental problems that pose the greatest risks to human health, environmental quality, natural resources, the economy, and our quality of life.
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From page 25... ...
With a better understanding of environmental risks to people and ecosystems, EPA can target the hazards that pose the greatest risks, anticipate environmental problems before they reach a critical level, and develop strategies that use the nation's, and the worZd's, environmental protection dollars wisely. EPA was created in 1970 by presidential executive order, not by legisTation.
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From page 26... ...
states that one of the agency's seven overall purposes is to ensure that "National efforts to reduce environmental risk are based on the best available scientific information." In addition, one of the agency's 10 major goals, also stated in the strategic plan, is the following: Sound Science, Improved Understanding of Environmental Risk, and Greater Innovation to Address Environmental Problems: EPA will deveZop and! apply the best available science for addressing current and future environmental hazards, as well as new approaches toward improving environmental protection.
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From page 27... ...
In order to accompZish this, we wiZZ develop improved exposure assessments that identi~ environmentaZ exposures posing the greatest environmentaZ risks to the American public and wiZZ increasingly use bioZogicaZZy-based methodoZogies. We wiZZ demonstrate improved knowledge of current ecosystem conditions and the most critical stressors affecting these conditions, as well as deliver improved capabilities to interpret what these conditions imply in terms of immediate andfuture risks.
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From page 28... ...
Three years later, a set of important recommendations that eventually helped define some of the principal features of the agency's current research program were made in the NRC report Analytical Studies for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Volume III: Research and Development in the Environmental Protection Agency (NRC 1977~.
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From page 29... ...
, a panel of senior academicians, including two members of this NRC committee, concluded, "Currently, EPA science is of uneven quality, and the Agency's policies and regulations are frequently perceived as lacking a strong scientific foundation." While acknowledging that EPA had a number of knowledgeable scientists on its staff, the panel reported that the science base at EPA was not perceived to be strong by the university community, and that many EPA scientists at all levels throughout the agency believed that EPA did not use their scientific knowledge and resources effectively. The 1992 pane!
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From page 30... ...
THIS NRC STUDY In the fiscal year 1995 appropriations report for EPA, Congress directed the agency to obtain an independent assessment from the National Academy of Sciences regarding the overall structure and management of EPA's research program and an evaluation of scientific peer-review procedures used by the agency. This report is the fourth prepared by two companion expert committees convened by the NRC, the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, in response to that congressional request and to subsequent, related requests from EPA.
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From page 31... ...
The chairman and two other members of the Committee on Research Opportunities and Priorities for EPA were also members of the Committee on Research and Peer Review in EPA. The Committee on Research and Peer Review in EPA was charged to assess EPA's overall research-program structure, peer-review procedures, {ong-term research program, laboratory site-review procedures, and research-staff career-development and performance-evaluation procedures.
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From page 32... ...
The second important development that affected our comm~ttee's approach to its task was the creation in 1996, at EPA's request, of the NRC's Committee on Research Opportunities and Priorities for EPA, our companion committee in this study, as stated above. That committee was charged to provide an overview of significant emerging environmental issues, identify and prioritize research themes most relevant to understanding and resolving those issues, and consider the role of EPA's research program in the context of research being conducted or sponsored by other organizations.
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From page 33... ...
. In addition, some members of the committee have previously served on one or more groups that independently evaluated the research programs of EPA and other federal agencies under the auspices of the NRC, the Carnegie Commission, EPA's SAB, ORD's BOSC, or other organizations.
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From page 34... ...
Soon afterward, our committee's interim report (NRC 1995b) offered a preliminary endorsement of the general scope and direction of the changes then being made in ORD, as well as other steps being taken to strengthen agency-wide peer-review practices.
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