EPA History

EPA Order 1000.27: EPA History Program

This March 14, 1992 order provides for the operation of an official history program in EPA (now defunct) to preserve the Agency's institutional memory.

EPA ORDER
Classification No.: 1000.27
Approval Date: 3/14/92

EPA HISTORY PROGRAM

1. Purpose: This order provides for the operation of an official history program in EPA.

2. Objectives: The principal objective of the EPA history program is to preserve the Agency's institutional memory and thereby provide EPA managers and staff with a clear perspective of the past as an aid in dealing with current and future problems. The program pursues this objective by engaging in the following activities:

a. Maintaining a small repository of key EPA historical documents. These documents include copies of original correspondence, memoranda, working papers, and internal reports. All protected materials--such as payroll and personnel documents--are excluded from the collection. This archive also includes oral interviews, as well as the selected papers of the Agency Administrators, Deputy Administrators, Assistant Administrators, Regional Administrators, Inspectors General, and General Counsels. Finally, the historical archives will include some materials copied from sources outside EPA, such as Presidential Libraries, state and local governments, and international environmental institutions, as applicable.

b. Advising the EPA Records Manager in the preservation of historical records and other documents of historical value, consistent with the Agency records-management program.

c. Providing a historical reference service to EPA, other Federal agencies, international environmental institutions, state and local governments, scholars, and the public at large.

d. Conducting an oral history program.

e. Producing chronologies, historical monographs, narrative histories, and other historical material to meet identified EPA needs; or providing for the preparation of such material by members of educational or other institutions.

f. Maintaining liaison with other agencies and the academic community concerning the history of the environment and the history of EPA.

g. Preparing, at the request of various EPA offices, ad hoc reports or historical studies on special topics.

3. Responsibilities:

a. Office of Administration and Resources Management: OARM serves as the institutional home of the EPA History Office. The primary responsibility for the Agency history function shall reside in the EPA historian.

b. Headquarters and Regional Offices: the EPA headquarters and Regions, and each of their constituent elements, shall cooperate with the Agency historian in the discharge of the historian's responsibilities as they relate to the organization and its activities.

4. Principles of Operation:

a. Historical works shall be prepared according to the prevailing practices and canons of the historical profession.


[signed]
Christian R. Holmes
Acting Assistant Administrator


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