The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday resumed issuing grants following a brief pause that alarmed environmental advocates and Congressional delegates concerned that the Trump administration will restrain the agency’s scope and hinder environmental cleanups.
“As of today, EPA has completed review of our grant programs, and all grants are proceeding normally and nothing has been delayed,” according to a statement provided by EPA spokesperson Rich Mylott. “This includes environmental program grants and state revolving loan fund grants to the states and tribes.”
“The review of contracts is nearly complete, with very few contracts still under review,” the statement continued. “The Agency is moving forward with contracts supporting agency infrastructure (e.g., facilities, IT, systems), implementation of our core programs and science.”
The Trump administration instructed officials at the Environmental Protection Agency by email to freeze its grants and contracts, a move that environmental advocates and lawmakers feared could affect everything from state-led climate research to localized efforts to improve air and water quality to environmental justice projects aimed at helping poor communities. The email went out to employees in the agency’s Office of Acquisition Management within hours of President Donald Trump’s swearing in on Jan. 20.
The EPA sent employees an internal memo late on Jan. 27, stating it was making progress in lifting the freeze, which it called standard practice during a transition.
In Montana, where numerous cleanups of environmental hazards are ongoing under the EPA’s Superfund program, environmental advocates were stunned by the freeze.
Erin Sexton, a research scientist with the University of Montana, is a member of a research and monitoring group tasked with determining how to manage the effects of toxic mining contaminants spilling from the upstream waterways of British Columbia into Lake Koocanusa.
Sexton said the group’s collaboration with the EPA was critical, as well as the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Canada’s Ministry of Environment.
The collaborative group is responsible for informing and coordinating efforts between agencies in the U.S. and Canada as they grapple with adopting a new standard for a mining byproduct called selenium.
“One of the biggest water quality contaminants from the mines, selenium, is currently under review by the state, EPA and the public,” Sexton said. “We have evidence that selenium is impacting fish in Koocanusa reservoir, and huge concerns about the legacy impacts of selenium on the river, fish and wildlife – so the events rolling out of D.C. affect us immediately here in Montana.”
Meanwhile, in Columbia Falls, EPA efforts are underway at the former Columbia Falls Aluminum Company site, which is listed on the National Priorities List under the federal Superfund program.
Sexton said the EPA’s oversight at the CFAC site is critical to protect the community’s future, as well as other Montana communities in which Superfund cleanups are ongoing.
“It is difficult to imagine the consequences to us if the enormous amount of funding and technical science support from EPA suddenly goes away from our many Superfund sites, where EPA has helped communities literally rebuild their economies after being used and abandoned by big companies,” Sexton said. “What does this mean for the CFAC site in Columbia Falls, where EPA is right now working with the community and state to collect the data, so we all can know the extent of the contamination from the aluminum plant, and how we clean it up for the long-term?”
According to Mylott, the EPA spokesperson, “the temporary pause on some EPA contracts and grants is not expected to apply to Superfund efforts that are underway.”
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, also criticized the Trump administration’s temporary freeze on the EPA’s administration of grants, calling it an affront to Montana’s clean air and water and the communities that depend on it, both environmentally and economically.
“Those EPA grants are critical to every community in Montana,” Tester told the Beacon. “I think it was a huge mistake what this administration did, and hopefully this freeze does not last very long.”
Tester said the agency’s order instructing employees not to post on any of its 34 Facebook pages, 37 Twitter accounts or other official social media platforms for an uncertain period of time impeded conduits for the public to interpret science and data, as well as his ability to hold government agencies accountable.
“When they put a lockdown on information not only is that an attack on the freedom of the press but it is an attack on government accountability,” Tester said. “They can do anything they damn well want. It impacts the freedoms of our country and it limits oversight.”
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What is the EPA, and why is it in the hot seat?
— The Associated Press
The former head of President Donald Trump’s transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency says he expects the new administration to seek significant budget and staff cuts for the department. Here’s a look at the EPA.
WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY DO
Established during the Nixon administration in 1970, the EPA carries out laws enacted by Congress to protect the environment, such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. The EPA writes and enforces rules dealing with air emissions from automobiles, factories and other sources. It regulates drinking water contaminants, pesticides and other toxic substances; management and disposal of solid and hazardous wastes; and cleanup of spills. Businesses, landowners and government agencies are among those whose actions can be affected by EPA rules.
FOLLOWING THE MONEY
The EPA’s budget was roughly $8.4 billion in 2016, a 5 percent cut from what former President Barack Obama requested. He sought a 2 percent raise for the agency this year, but with Trump and the Republican-led Congress in charge, a big cut appears far more likely. In addition to management of various environmental programs, EPA funds go to scientific research, grants for states and Native American tribes and cleanups of spills from sources such as leaky underground storage tanks. There’s also the Superfund program, which pays to clean up abandoned or out-of-control hazardous waste sites. About those state and tribal grants: They pay for things like upgrading water infrastructure, restoring abandoned industrial sites called “brownfields” and restoring wetlands.
DEALING WITH THE STATES
States and some local governments have environmental protection departments, too, and the EPA has frequent dealings with them. The agency has the final word on enforcing federal environmental laws but can delegate some tasks to the states, such as issuing permits, inspecting facilities, issuing violation notices and overseeing some cleanups. The EPA can revoke state authority if state officials aren’t meeting federal standards. In some cases, states can adopt rules that are more stringent than federal ones, but not less stringent. EPA grants help cover compliance costs for state and local agencies.
CLEANING UP POLLUTION
The EPA oversees cleanups ranging from polluted sediment to oil spills to leaking storage tanks. Perhaps its best-known cleanup program is Superfund, established by Congress in 1980 to clean up hazardous waste sites that often were abandoned. It allows the EPA to sue industries that contributed to the pollution to try to get them to complete the cleanups or reimburse the federal government for doing the work. There are more than 1,300 Superfund sites across the U.S., and more than 1,000 are under evaluation to see if they should be added to the list.
THE OFFICERS AND THE TROOPS
The EPA’s top officer is the administrator, currently Catherine R. McCabe, although Trump has nominated former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt for the post. The agency has about 15,000 employees, of whom 8,000 are in Washington, D.C. The others are scattered among regional offices in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle.
WHY THEY’RE IN THE CROSSFIRE
The EPA is a favorite whipping boy across the political spectrum. Conservatives and groups representing oil and gas companies, farmers, land developers and other business sectors accuse the agency of imposing burdensome rules that go beyond what the law authorizes and of enforcing them without mercy, hampering economic growth and killing jobs. Liberals and environmentalists have the opposite complaint — that the EPA’s rules are too weak to protect the air, land and water, and its staffers are too eager to let polluters off the hook, worsening conditions that lead to sickness and even death for people and wildlife alike.