Happy Birthday, EPA!

We have a gift for you.

US EPA turned 50 on December 2. To celebrate, Tennesseans have gotten you the same gift as every year prior: Volunteers.

Yes, we, the people of Tennessee, gift ourselves to you, EPA. When you want to crack down on polluters, we will have your back. When you want to demand that legacy coal ash be excavated, we will echo your voice. When you want to roll forward, instead of backward, we will help push. When you want to empower our state agencies with more tools and more money, we will put them to good use.

Tennessee has a reputation for beautiful lands and pristine mountain streams, for good folks and friendships, and for standing up for what is right. The last year has taught us that we cannot take anything for granted – even safe water.

The environment at large has taken a hit in recent years, and US EPA has been crippled by opposition hungry to deregulate even when logic dictates otherwise. The agency’s staff feel unempowered and demotivated, and they need support from Tennesseans as much as legislators.

That is why Paul Davis, former Director of Water Pollution Control for TN Department of Environment and Conservation, wrote a brief history on the formation of the EPA – to say thanks and to show the rest of us how government can solve problems when its citizens demand it.

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“I am optimistic that man can reverse what his stupidity has caused."

- William Ruckelshaus, first Administrator for US EPA, 1970

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Paul is retired, but he continues to volunteer regularly for TCWN and many other Network groups in the state. He is a true Tennessee volunteer and environmentalist, and we need more people like Paul. Do you have industry expertise? Want to donate your time as a graphic designer? Web guru? Data analyst? Join our growing list of statewide water warriors by emailing [email protected].