The EPA budget, excluding funding for emergencies including repairs and fire prevention, experienced a sharp increase of 35.5% to $10.3 billion for fiscal 2010. The EPA’s Science and Technology appropriation, which supports programs for air quality management focused on vehicular emissions control, climate protection and research in fields including clean air and clean water, increased 7.0% to $846.1 million.

The EPA’s Science and Technology research programs received funding increases across the board. Funding for the Clean Air Research (CAR) program, which is a part of the “Research: Clean Air” Program Area, increased 3.2% to $83.2 million. For fiscal 2010, the CAR program will focus on the association between particulate matter in the air and human health effects. One of the ways in which the program will undertake this research is through the creation of additional Air Pollution Research Centers (APRCs), which will conduct basic and applied research. New APRCs, which will receive $8.2 million in fiscal 2010, will be created at US universities and be chosen through competition. Also a part of the “Research: Clean Air” Program Area is the EPA’s Global Change Initiative, which received a 16.9% increase in funding to $20.9 million. In fiscal 2010, the Global Change Initiative will focus on research concerning the effects of greenhouse gases and other radiative-forcing compounds.

The EPA’s “Research: Clean Water” Program Area contains the Drinking Water Research and the Water Quality Research programs. The Drinking Water Research program focuses on applied water-safety research. Funding for the Drinking Water Research program increased 2.2% to $47.9 million for fiscal 2010. The program will work toward developing tools for the analysis, monitoring and screening of drinking-water constituents using exposure biomarkers, as well as other measurement methods. For fiscal 2010, the Water Quality Research Program, which provides scientific information and tools to the EPA, received a funding increase of 5.3% to $62.5 million.

In the EPA’s “Research: Human Health and Ecosystems” Program Area, $11.4 million will be used for the Endocrine Disruptors Research program. The program evaluates and develops protocols for research in endocrine effects caused by environmental factors. In fiscal 2010, the program will develop, evaluate and apply DNA microarrays and other novel analytical devices to test endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

Outside of EPA research programs, the EPA’s Clean and Safe Water program, a part of the EPA’s Science and Technology Homeland Security Program Area, received a 45.5% budget increase to nearly $28.3 million. A majority of the program funding, $22.4 million, will go toward the Water Security Initiative (WSI), which coordinates a network of water testing laboratories. Using the increased funds, the WSI will create two new pilot laboratories. Funding will also support research in three existing pilot labs.

Significant US Fiscal 2010EPA Budget Figures

FY10 ($M) % Chg.

EPA 10,289 35.5

Science and Technology 846.1 7.0

Research: Clean Air 104.1 5.7

Research: Clean Water 110.4 3.9

Research: Human Health and Ecosystems 248.4 8.3