The Obama Administration on Feb. 1, 2010, announced its proposed budget of $10 billion for the EPA. The president cut $500 million from the agency's 2009 budget, but did not return the bureaucracy to its ~$900 million levels under President Bush.

Water

President Obama's 2009 water budget notably focused on several specific water bodies. This year's budget noted several other projects, including $63 million for the Chesapeake Bay and $17 million for the Mississippi River Basin to respond to non-point source control recommendations of the Nutrients Innovation Task Group, and implement recommendations outlined in the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Action Plan.

This budget also invests $3.3 billion to maintain and improve outdated water infrastructure.

Air quality and climate change

The 2010 budget contains more than $43 million (a $26 million increase) toward efforts to address climate change and clean energy. Most of this was to help the EPA implement its new greenhouse gas reporting rule. The budget outlined financing to provide technical assistance for Clean Air Act permitting; perform regulatory work for the largest stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions; develop standards for mobile sources such as cars and trucks; and continue research of carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

The budget includes $60 million to support state efforts to implement updated National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), particularly the EPA's proposed stricter air quality standards for smog and NO₂.

Brownfields and 'Healthy Communities'

This budget includes $1.3 billion for Superfund sites. In addition, $215 million is provided to clean up abandoned or underused industrial and commercial sites that are available for alternative uses but where redevelopment may be complicated by the presence of environmental contaminants. Most of this funding is expected to come from reinstatement of the polluter pays principle.

The budget also offers $27 million for the agency's new Healthy Communities Initiative. This initiative will address community water priorities; promote clean, green, and healthy schools; improve air toxics monitoring in at-risk communities; and ensure that policies and spending at the national level do not adversely affect the environment and public health, or disproportionally harm disadvantaged communities.

Chemicals

The EPA is asking Congress for $56 million for chemical assessment and risk review. Another $29 million (including $15 million in grants funding) will go toward eliminated childhood lead poisoning, and $6 million to support national efforts to mitigate exposure to high-risk legacy chemicals, such as mercury and asbestos.

Enviro justice

The budget contains $8 million for environmental justice programs. It targets increased brownfields investments to under-served and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, and proposes $9 million for community water priorities in the Healthy Communities Initiative, funds that will help under-served communities restore urban waterways and address water quality challenges. The EPA is committed to identifying and addressing the health and environmental burdens faced by communities disproportionately impacted by pollution.