U.S. Air Quality Management – A Half Century of Progress50 Years of Progress in Environmental Monitoring
Oral Presentation
Prepared by J. Bachmann
Vision Air Consulting, 120 Glen Ridge Drive, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516, United States
Contact Information: [email protected]; 919-942-5928
ABSTRACT
Despite the unprecedented challenges we are facing today, it remains important to mark that 2020 brings the 50th anniversary of several important environmental events – the first Earth Day (April 220, the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (December 4), and the passage of the landmark Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 (December 31). This presentation looks back at origins, development, and evolution of U.S. Air Pollution programs over the last 50 years, highlighting monitoring as a feature of Air Quality Management (AQM) that drove significant improvements in the basis for health-based ambient standards, implementation at urban, state, regional, and national levels and the core elements of law itself. It evaluates both successes and failures as well the implications of recent trends, and accountability research.
