In order to evaluate the technical innovation level of environmental protection industry in China, we built the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model based on the theory of innovation value chain, with data from the fourth national survey on environmental protection and related industries, the technology development efficiency and the technology transformation efficiency in the technical innovation process of environmental protection industry was then analyzed. The results showed: ① The average value of technical innovation development efficiency and technical innovation transformation efficiency was 0.65 and 0.23 respectively, the technical innovation efficiency relatively low in general, and the technical transformation efficiency in particular. ② For most areas of central and eastern China, the pure technical efficiency was lower than the scale efficiency, with decreasing returns to scale, which means that the innovation inefficiency was not due to the innovation investment insufficiency. ③ For some of western regions, the scale inefficiency with increasing returns to scale indicates that the lack of innovation resources input restricted the improvement of innovation efficiency. Countermeasures and suggestions for the technology innovation of environmental protection industry were then put forward, including the acceleration of technology industrialization and commercialization, the promotion of output level and standard, and the expansion of input mode.