I developed my distaste for pointless acronyms after working at a large company that had little regard for sensible terminology and would tack acronyms onto everything. Plenty of acronyms not only conflicted with established acronyms in the field, but also with others within the same company.

Seeing as how your friend worked for the EPA, maybe I shouldn't be surprised that this phenomenon often seems to surface within organizations whose name is typically given in the form of an acronym...