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EPA headquarters and regions work with other federal agencies, state and local agencies, and industry to prevent accidents, as well as to maintain superior response capabilities. We provide national leadership for managing environmental emergencies, including:

Developing and implementing prevention programs to reduce the risk of releases of oil and hazardous substances to the environment

• Implement regulatory programs to prevent releases of oil and hazardous substances, including the Oil Pollution Prevention regulation and the Risk Management Plan
• Provide guidance, outreach, and technical assistance to the regulated community
• Conduct inspections and audits of facilities to ensure compliance with prevention requirements
• Partner with federal, state, local, tribal, industry, and academic groups to exchange information
• Contribute to the development of state-of-the-art accident prevention technologies

Building preparedness capacity for oil and hazardous substance emergencies

• Implement regulatory programs for emergency preparedness, including the Facility Response Plan rule and requirements of the Emergency Planning and Commmunity-Right-to-Know Act
• Maintain a schedule of authorized products to better equip emergency responders with the tools they need to mitigate the effects of oil spills
• Conduct drills and exercises to build response capacity in the event of an emergency
• Review response incidents and develop “lessons learned” to improve future efforts
• Advance national and international efforts to understand the causes of accidental releases of oil and hazardous substances
• Develop and maintain state-of-the-art capabilities to gather, analyze, and communicate information about oil and hazardous substances

Responding to emergency events and releases of hazardous materials

• Use the National Approach to Response to prepare for and respond to nationally significant incidents
• Support EPA regions in the response and clean-up of spills and releases
• Implement the National Response System by maintaining up-to-date Regional Response Plans and Area Plans and continually improving EPA’s Removal Program
• Ensure all EPA preparedness and response staff are appropriately and actively involved in local, regional, and national response structures
• Encourage and support states, tribes, and local entities to lead comprehensive preparedness activities
• Evaluate technology associated with remediation of hazardous releases

For more information on emergency management, please visit our online Emergency Management Learning Center.