America is - and will remain - the
old standard for environmental protection
''Every American should know that our nation is cleaner, safer, and stronger today
thanks to the leadership of President Trump. Today, we have the cleanest air on
record, and we are a global leader for access to clean drinking water."
- EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler
Air:
" We are helping areas across the nation reduce air pollution and meet the nation's air
quality standards. By doing so, many regions across the country are moving from
non-attainment to attainment. This is allowing Americans to breathe easier and
breathing new life into the local economy by alleviating a major regulatory burden. "
- EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler
•	The U.S. is a global leader in clean air progress, including for traditional "criteria" pollutants like
particulate matter or ground-level ozone.
o From 1970 to 2018, the combined emissions of the six criteria pollutants dropped by 74%,
while the U.S. economy grew by 275%, Americans drove more miles and population and
energy use increased.
¦	Between 1990 and 2018, average concentrations of harmful air pollutants decreased
considerably across our nation:
•	Ground-level ozone fell 21%
•	Sulfur dioxide (S02) fell 89%
•	Nitrogen dioxide fell 57%
•	Carbon monoxide fell 74%
¦	Between 2000 and 2018, fine particulate matter fell 39%
¦	Between 2010 and 2018, lead emissions fell 82%
o Emissions of all criteria pollutants dropped between 2016 and 2018.
¦	In fact, lead and sulfur dioxide during this time frame dropped bv double digits
(lead concentrations are down over 12% and S02 is down by 22%).
o By EPA's measures, pollutants and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in America are
continuing to trend downward regardless of year to year variations. Minor year-to-year
increases in GHG emissions or Air Quality Index "unhealthy" days are the result of
meteorological conditions and wildfires.
•	Since 2007, releases of Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) chemicals in the U.S. manufacturing sector
have declined while the economy has grown. Industrial facilities have reduced releases of TRI
chemicals by taking action to prevent pollution.
•	In 2017, air releases of chemicals declined by 11 million pounds, driven by reductions in air
releases at chemical manufacturing facilities.
•	Since 2007, air releases of chemicals have decreased bv 57%.
•	According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. has some of the lowest fine particulate
matter levels in the world.
o U.S. fine particulate matter levels are six times below the global average, seven times below

-------
Chinese levels, and well below France, Germany, Mexico and Russia.
•	Much of this progress has taken places in low-income counties across the country.
o Based on the most recent monitoring data, more than 80% of low-income counties were in
attainment with EPA's National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), compared to 43%
in 2008.
•	Additionally, here in the U.S. our energy is produced in ways consistent with environmental
progress, leading to better air quality in energy-producing regions. We are a world leader in
production of coal, oil and gas, and we export fuels and next generation technology to countries
across the world.
o From 2005 to 2017, total U.S. energy-related C02 emissions fell by 14%, while the U.S.
became the number one energy producer in the world,
o In contrast, global energy-related CQ2 emissions increased by over 20% over that same
time period.
o Since 1990, U.S. natural gas production has roughly doubled, while methane emissions
from natural gas production fell by over 16%.
o From 1990 to 2018, annual emissions of sulfur dioxide (S02) from coal-fired power plants
fell by over 90% while emissions of (nitrogen oxides) NOx fell by over 80%.
o Over past decade, mercury emissions from power plants have decreased by nearly 90%.
o In 2018 alone, emissions of S02 from power plants fell by 6% compared to 2017, while
emissions of NOx fell by 4%.
Water:
"We're helping communities across the nation modernize outdated infrastructure and
improve water quality. In doing so, we are providing more and more communities
access to clean, safe drinking water, and modernizing waste water management. "
- EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler
•	In the early 1970s, more than 40% of our nation's drinking water systems failed to meet even the
most basic health standards. Today, 93% of community water systems meet all health-based
standards, all the time. Much of this progress is due to the EPA's partnership with state and local
communities.
•	Since 2017, EPA has approved eight WIFIA loans totaling nearly $2 billion to help finance over $4
billion in water infrastructure projects and create up to 6,000 jobs.
•	In addition to the WIFIA loans already closed, EPA has pending loans of approximately $5.5
billion to help finance nearly $11 billion in water infrastructure investments and create 172,000
jobs.
•	Throughout the history of EPA's State Revolving Funds (SRFs) program, more than $170 billion
in financial assistance has been provided to over 39.900 water quality infrastructure projects and
14.500 drinking water projects across the country.
•	Since 2017, 109 waterbodies have been fully or partially restored thanks to strong state, tribal and
territorial partnerships built through the EPA's Clean Water Act Section 319 Program. The
program works to address pollution from non-point sources including urban stormwater runoff and
agricultural activities.
2

-------
• Since 2017, EPA and its state partners awarded nearly $20 billion for more than 4.500 clean water
projects under the clean water and drinking water SRFs.
Land:
"Pollution is on the decline. Our focus is to accelerate its decline, particularly in the
most at risk communities. These are the communities most likely to live near
hazardous sites or suffer from outdated infrastructure. These are the Americans that
deserve our full and immediate attention. That is the lens through which President
Trump shaped his agenda. And that is what we are accomplishing. "
- EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler
•	Across the country, there are hundreds of sites where land has languished for decades and left toxic
contamination seeping into land and water. Unlike past administrations, we will not abandon these
areas or surrounding communities - we're expediting clean-up and getting them back to productive
use.
•	This administration has prioritized cleaning up contaminated land through EPA's Superfund Task
Force. Over the past two years, this focus on expediting remediation and promoting revitalization
of sites across the country.
o Through EPA's Superfund program, EPA deleted all or part of 22 sites from the National
Priorities List (NPL) in FY 2018, the largest number of deletions in one year since FY
2005.
o EPA is on track to delete even more Superfund sites from the NPL in FY 2019.
o EPA has also utilized the Administrator's Emphasis List to ensure timely, critical progress
at over a dozen sites.
o Accelerating cleanups at Superfund sites will directly improve the lives of those who reside
near these sites - often low-income and minority Americans.
•	Throughout the history of EPA's Brownfields program, which aims to clean up and sustainably
reuse contaminated properties, local communities have been able to use grants to leverage 150,120
jobs and more than $28 billion of public and private funding.
o A study of Brownfields sites found that property values of homes near revitalized
Brownfields sites increased.
o Earlier this year, EPA awarded over $64 million in new investments to 149 communities
across the U.S. through the Brownfields program.
¦ 108 of the selected communities have identified sites or targeted areas in census
tracts designated as Opportunity Zones.
o In June 2019, EPA announced $9.3 million in supplemental funding for 24 current
successful Brownfields grantees. Out of those 24 grantees, 17 have Opportunity Zones
located in their jurisdiction, accounting for $6.7 million in grant money.
3

-------
Enforcement:
"We use our federal enforcement and compliance assurance resources to help reduce
Clean Air Act nonattainment, water quality impairment, to promote cleanups, and to
protect vulnerable populations - instead of weaponizing our enforcement program to
shut down coal plan ts or curtail energy extraction. We focus our enforcement priorities
on public health and the environment. "
- EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler
•	We are protecting air quality by focusing on halting the sale of devices designed to defeat required
vehicle emissions controls and will continue to be vigilant to prevent vehicle manufacturers from
designing ways to cheat the controls on new vehicles.
o We stopped the sale of over 1 million aftermarket defeat devices, including the September
2018 settlement with Derive Systems addressing the sale of over 360,000 aftermarket
defeat devices. This is now an enforcement priority,
o In FY 2018, we also prevented the illegal importation of 2,200 vehicles and engines that
don't meet our emission standards.
•	We are ensuring clean and safe water by focusing on reducing the number of wastewater systems
that are in significant noncompliance with their permits and the number of drinking water systems
with health-based violations.
•	We are protecting vulnerable communities by focusing on hazardous waste treatment facilities to
ensure they are not emitting dangerous pollutants and on those facilities that use extremely
hazardous substances to ensure proper management.
•	In FY 2018, we increased our efforts to reduce exposure to lead through 140 federal enforcement
actions. These include criminal cases.

-------