The discussion concerning Health Surveillance, with its beginnings at the end of the twentieth century, proposes the overcome of the classic models of attention according to proposals of health promotion. This proposal has been implemented in Brazil since 1990, by means of some initiatives and of conceptual and methodological discussion. Due to the exacerbation of environmental hazards to health, the field of Environmental Surveillance for Health has also developing itself, being able to contribute for sustainable development due to its capillarity, decentralized structure and greater possibilities of social control. The Environmental Health Program of Recife is a pioneering experience in Environmental Surveillance, presenting proposals concerning improvement of people?s health by means of integrated actions between multiple sectors, being orientated by the principles of universality, equity, intersectoriality and decentralization. Aiming to contextualize the introduction process of the Environmental Health Program and to evaluate its introduction degree at central and district levels, this work recreates the history of Environmental Surveillance in Recife and accomplishes a normative evaluation verifying the available structures and the working progress development at the aforesaid levels, by means of a case study. The historical recreation of the introduction process of the Environmental Surveillance in Recife suggests the institution in more or less regular intervals does suffer structural and organizational changes, echoing in the service quality improvement. In normative evaluation, however, it was observed that the structure was classified as ?unsatisfactory? while the process was classified as ?acceptable?. If compared in a same group, however, the structure (physical environment, equipment and personal) and process subcomponents (decentralization, universality, intersectoriality and social control) brought in a vast gradation of obtained values, what resulted an ?unsatisfactory? evaluation concerning the Environmental Health Program introduction, at the central and district spheres, but in the brink of the ?acceptable? degree. These results indicate a redistribution of available resources would give rise to a quick improvement of actual conditions. It concludes that despite the indicated difficulties, the new experience has contributed to motivate changes at the traditional practices in assistance. Changing the performance shape, the Environmental Health Program exercises its capacity of transformation ? by acting over hazard in spite of damage ? working for the improvement of urban environment and the valorization of Recife population life.