[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 40, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 40CFR1.45]
[Page 17-20]
TITLE 40--PROTECTION OF ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER I--ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
PART 1_STATEMENT OF ORGANIZATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION--Table of
Contents
Subpart B_Headquarters
Sec. 1.45 Office of Research and Development.
The Office of Research and Development is under the supervision of
the Assistant Administrator for Research and Development who serves as
the principal science adviser to the Administrator, and is responsible
for the development, direction, and conduct of a national research,
development and demonstration program in: Pollution sources, fate, and
health and welfare effects; pollution prevention and control, and waste
management and utilization technology; environmental sciences; and
monitoring systems. The Office participates in the development of Agency
policy, standards, and regulations and provides for dissemination of
scientific and technical knowledge, including analytical methods,
monitoring techniques, and modeling methodologies. The Office serves as
coordinator for the Agency's policies and programs concerning
carcinogenesis and related problems and assures appropriate quality
control and standardization of analytical measurement and monitoring
techniques utilized by the Agency. The Office exercises review and
concurrence responsibilities on an Agencywide basis in all budgeting and
planning actions involving monitoring which require Heardquarters
approval.
(a) Office of Acid Deposition, Environmental Monitoring and Quality
Assurance. The Office of Acid Deposition, Environmental Monitoring and
Quality Assurance (OADEMQA), under the supervision of an Office
Director, is responsible for planning, managing and evaluating a
comprehensive program for:
(1) Monitoring the cause and effects of acid deposition;
(2) Research and development on the causes, effects and corrective
steps for the acid deposition phenomenon;
(3) Research with respect to the transport and fate of pollutants
which are released into the atmosphere;
(4) Development and demonstration of techniques and methods to
measure exposure and to relate ambient concentrations to exposure by
critical receptors;
(5) Research, development and demonstration of new monitoring
methods, systems, techniques and equipment for detection, identification
and characterization of pollutants at the source and in the ambient
environment and for use as reference or standard monitoring methods;
(6) Establishment, direction and coordination of Agencywide Quality
Assurance Program; and
(7) Development and provision of quality assurance methods,
techniques and material including validation and standardization of
analytical methods, sampling techniques, quality control methods,
standard reference materials, and techniques for data collection,
evaluation and interpretation. The Office identifies specific research,
development, demonstration and service needs and priorities; establishes
program policies and guidelines; develops program plans including
objectives and estimates of resources required to accomplish objectives;
administers the approved program and activities; assigns program
responsibility and resources to the laboratories assigned by the
Assistant Administrator; directs and supervises assigned laboratories in
program administration; and conducts reviews of program progress and
takes action as necessary to assure timeliness, quality and
responsiveness of outputs.
(b) Office of Environmental Engineering and Technology
Demonstration. The Office of Environmental Engineering and
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Technology Demonstration (OEETD) under the supervision of a Director, is
responsible for planning, managing, and evaluating a comprehensive
program of research, development, and demonstration of cost effective
methods and technologies to:
(1) Control Environmental impacts associated with the extraction,
processing, conversion, and transportation of energy, minerals, and
other resources, and with industrial processing and manufacturing
facilities;
(2) Control environmental impacts of public sector activities
including publicly-owned waste water and solid waste facilities;
(3) Control and manage hazardous waste generation, storage,
treatment, and disposal;
(4) Provide innovative technologies for response actions under
Superfund and technologies for control of emergency spills of oils and
hazardous waste;
(5) Improve drinking water supply and system operations, including
improved understanding of water supply technology and water supply
criteria;
(6) Characterize, reduce, and mitigate indoor air pollutants
including radon; and
(7) Characterize, reduce, and mitigate acid rain precursors from
stationary sources. Development of engineering data needed by the Agency
in reviewing premanufacturing notices relative to assessing potential
release and exposure to chemicals, treatability by waste treatment
systems, containment and control of genetically engineered organisms,
and development of alternatives to mitigate the likelihood of release
and exposure to existing chemicals. In carrying out these
responsibilities, the Office develops program plans and manages the
resources assigned to it; implements the approved programs and
activities; assigns objectives and resources to the OEETD laboratories;
conducts appropriate reviews to assure the quality, timeliness, and
responsiveness of outputs; and conducts analyses of the relative
environmental and socioeconomic impacts of engineering methods and
control technologies and strategies. The Office of Environmental
Engineering and Technology Demonstration is the focal point within the
Office of Research and Development for providing liaison with the rest
of the Agency and with the Department of Energy on issues associated
with energy development. The Office is also the focal point within the
Office of Research and Development for liaison with the rest of the
Agency on issues related to engineering reseach and development and the
control of pollution discharges.
(c) Office of Environmental Processes and Effects Research. The
Office of Environmental Processes and Effects Research, under the
supervision of the Director, is responsible for planning, managing, and
evaluating a comprehensive research program to develop the scientific
and technological methods and data necessary to understand ecological
processes, and predict broad ecosystems impacts, and to manage the
entry, movement, and fate of pollutants upon nonhuman organisms and
ecosystems. The comprehensive program includes:
(1) The development of organism and ecosystem level effect data
needed for the establishment of standards, criteria or guidelines for
the protection of nonhuman components of the environment and ecosystems
integrity and the prevention of harmful human exposure to pollutants;
(2) The development of methods to determine and predict the fate,
transport, and environmental levels which may result in human exposure
and exposure of nonhuman components of the environment, resulting from
the discharge of pollutants, singly or in combination into the
environment, including development of source criteria for protection of
environmental quality;
(3) The development and demonstration of methods for the control or
management of adverse environmental impacts from agriculture and other
rural nonprofit sources;
(4) The development and demonstration of integrated pest management
strategies for the management of agriculture and urban pests which
utilize alternative biological, cultural and chemical controls;
(5) The development of a laboratory and fieldscale screening tests
to provide data that can be used to predict the behavior of pollutants
in terms of
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movement in the environmental, accumulation in the food chain, effects
on organisms, and broad escosystem impacts;
(6) Coordination of interagency research activities associated with
the health and environmental impacts of energy production and use; and
(7) development and demonstration of methods for restoring degraded
ecosystem by means other than source control.
(d) Office of Health Research. The Office of Health Research under
the supervision of a Director, is responsible for the management of
planning, implementing, and evaluating a comprehensive, integrated human
health research program which documents acute and chronic adverse
effects to man from environmental exposure to pollutants and determines
those exposures which have a potentially adverse effect on humans. This
documentation is utilized by ORD for criteria development and scientific
assessments in support of the Agency's regulating and standard-setting
activities. To attain this objective, the program develops tests systems
and associated methods and protocols, such as predictive models to
determine similarities and differences among test organisms and man;
develops methodology and conducts laboratory and field research studies;
and develops interagency programs which effectively use pollutants. The
Office of Health Research is the Agency's focal point within the Office
of Research and Development for providing liaison relative to human
health effects and related human exposure issues (excluding issues
related to the planning and implementation of research on the human
health effects of energy pollutants that is conducted under the
Interagency Energy/Environment Program). It responds with recognized
authority to changing requirements of the Regions, program offices and
other offices for priority technical assistance. In close coordination
with Agency research and advisory committees, other agencies and
offices, and interaction with academic and other independent scientific
bodies, the Office develops health science policy for the Agency.
Through these relationships and the scientific capabilities of its
laboratories and Headquarters staffs, the Office provides a focal point
for matters pertaining to the effects of human exposure to environmental
pollutants.
(e) Office of Health and Environmental Assessment (OHEA). The Office
of Health and Environmental Assessment, under the supervision of a
Director, is the principal adviser on matters relating to the
development of health criteria, health affects assessment and risk
estimation, to the Assistant Administrator for Research and Development.
The Director's Office: Develops recommendations on OHEA programs
including the identification and development of alternative program
goals, priorities, objectives and work plans; develops recommendations
on overall office policies and means for their implementation; performs
the critical path planning necessary to assure a timely production of
OHEA information in response to program office needs; serves as an
Agency health assessment advocate for issue resolution and regulatory
review in the Agency Steering Committee, Science Advisory Board, and in
cooperation with other Federal agencies and the scientific and technical
community; and provides administrative support services to the
components of OHEA. The Director's Office provides Headquarters
coordination for the Environmental Criteria and Assessment Offices.
(f) Office of Exploratory Research. The Office of Exploratory
Research (OER), under the supervision of a Director, is responsible for
overall planning, administering, managing, and evaluating EPA's
anticipatory and extramural grant research in response to Agency
priorities, as articulated by Agency planning mechanisms and ORD's
Research Committees. The Director advises the Assistance Administrator
on the direction, scientific quality and effectiveness of ORD's long-
term scientific review and evaluation; and research funding assistance
efforts. The responsibilities of this office include: Administering
ORD's scientific review of extramural requests for research funding
assistance; developing research proposal solicitations; managing grant
projects; and ensuring project quality and optimum dissemination of
results.
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The OER is responsible for analyzing EPA's long-range environmental
research concerns; forecasting emerging and potential environmental
problems and manpower needs; identifying Federal workforce training
programs to be used by State and local governments; assuring the
participation of minority institutions in environmental research and
development activities; and conducting special studies in response to
high priority national environmental needs and problems. This office
serves as an ORD focal point for university relations and other Federal
research and development agencies related to EPA's extramural research
program.
[50 FR 26721, June 28, 1985, as amended at 52 FR 30360, Aug. 14, 1987]
