The Environmental Protection Agency has put more than 100 employees across the nation on administrative leave after they signed a letter opposing Trump administration policies, the EPA said Thursday. The people on leave include some Cincinnati-based workers.
A group of EPA employees from around the country published a declaration of dissent earlier this week, speaking out against Trump administration actions they say undermine the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment.
In a statement, an EPA spokesperson said, "The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November.”
The agency says it is investigating the document.
'Straying from the mission'
Charlena Bowling, a public affairs specialist in the EPA’s Office of Research and Development in Cincinnati, is one of more than a dozen local employees who signed the letter. She spoke to WVXU on behalf of herself.
“We feel as if we're being asked to eliminate or weaken public health protections in service of corporate profits and in service of polluters,” Bowling said.
Under current Administrator Lee Zeldin, the EPA has cut funding for environmental justice projects in vulnerable communities, reconsidered a ban on cancer-causing asbestos, and announced plans to gut the Office of Research and Development, which provides the foundation for decisions that safeguard human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants.
Zeldin also is seeking to roll back air pollution regulations that would prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths each year the regulations are in effect, according to an Associated Press analysis.
The letter calls on the agency’s administrator to change course and fulfill the EPA’s mission.
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 400 current, former, and retired employees nationwide had put their names to the document. Close to 210 people signed anonymously, for fear of retaliation.
Bowling says she’s never seen a coordinated effort of EPA employees as large as this.
“It does feel very significant to see this coalescing around this concern of, 'I think we're straying from the mission,' ” Bowling said. “And, it does feel big that people are willing to put, essentially, their careers on the line.”
5 primary concerns
The letter outlines five primary concerns:
- undermining public trust
- ignoring scientific consensus to benefit polluters
- reversing EPA’s progress in America’s most vulnerable communities
- dismantling the Office of Research and Development
- promoting a culture of fear, forcing staff to choose between their livelihood and well-being
“Today we stand together in dissent against the current administration’s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise,” the declaration read.
The EPA responded in a statement that said: “The Trump EPA will continue to work with states, tribes, and communities to advance the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment and Administrator Zeldin’s Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative, which includes providing clean air, land and water for EVERY American.”
The statement also said the EPA makes policy decisions based on "the latest research and science by EPA's career professionals."
The EPA employees’ declaration of dissent comes a month after hundreds of National Institutes of Health employees wrote and signed a similar letter they called the Bethesda Declaration.
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