This article describes the past, present, and future techniques by which environmental standards are set. Concern regarding the lack of acknowledgment of uncertainty and variability in many standards, and thus in reported results on compliance, has lead to an emphasis on the role of statistical methodology in environmental standard setting. Research into the feasibility, advantages, and disadvantages of such methodology is ongoing, but much remains to be done. Encompassing within its line of investigation areas, such as toxicology, environmental sampling methodology, and spatiotemporal modeling, and affecting the fundamental procedures of industry, traffic management, medical and environmental agencies, to name just a few of many, this area of the rapidly growing field of environmetrics may prove to be one of the most far‐reaching and important statistical applications in the coming years.