Geoscience Reference
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will make this function increasingly important. At the same time, EPA is itself
increasingly resource constrained. As noted in
Science Integration for Decision
Making at the US Environmental Protection Agency
, since 2004, the budget for
ORD has declined 28.5% in real dollar terms (gross domestic product-indexed
dollars) (EPA SAB 2012a).
To support enhanced leadership and to continually improve environmental
science and engineering for the 21st century, the committee identified six key
topics:
Enhance agency-wide science leadership.
Fully implement the recent restructuring of ORD.
Coordinate and integrate science efforts within the agency more effec-
tively.
Strengthen scientific capacity inside and outside the agency.
Deliver and support 21st century environmental science and engineer-
ing outside the agency.
Support scientific integrity and quality.
ENHANCED AGENCY-WIDE SCIENCE LEADERSHIP
IN THE US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Emerging challenges in ecosystem quality and human health necessitate
the enhancement and broader use of science in the agency. The environmental
challenges outlined in Chapter 2, such as climate change and degradation of
surface waters from mixtures of contaminants, share many characteristics—they
are transboundary, are multigenerational, and involve complex interactions of
multiple stressors and feedback loops. They are affected by population growth,
changes in land-use patterns, and technologic change. They constitute wicked
problems—that is, problems that are difficult to characterize and to solve be-
cause of their complexity; lack of comprehensive understanding; controversy
over causes, effects, and solutions; and interdependence. The rapidly emerging
scientific techniques and approaches and their application described in Chapter 3
offer both opportunities and challenges for enhancing the science that EPA pro-
duces and applying it to the increasingly complex decisions that are necessitated
by wicked problems.
The agency has shown an ability to evaluate new tools and integrate them
into its activities in some instances, as described in Chapter 3 and Appendixes C
and D, although the process has not been systematic or agency-wide. Also, the
agency has made strides in recent years to reorganize and reorient its science
activities in ORD with some success. The work of ORD scientists is often the
most visible, and at times controversial, scientific interpretation and application
in the agency. However, more than three-fourths of the scientific staff in EPA do
not work within ORD (EPA SAB 2012b); these scientists are frequently placed
in positions where they must apply and interpret science for equally controver-
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