Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water, which ensures drinking water is safe, have been instructed by Trump officials to halt publishing ongoing research in an “unprecedented” move, according to a report.
Staffers at the agency’s research office told the Washington Post they were summoned to a town hall this week and told that their studies would be subject to a new review process, a change they said was ordered by political appointees.
However, in a statement to The Independent, the EPA called the claims “patently false,” saying there was no town hall and that scientists were transitioning to new roles.
“As part of these conversations, decisions will be made about how to move forward with projects based on the agency’s mission and priorities and new roles,” an EPA spokesperson said. “These decisions are in no way a deviation from EPA’s gold standard science.”
“We are confident EPA has the resources needed to accomplish the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment, fulfill all statutory obligations, and make the best-informed decisions based on the gold standard of science,” the spokesperson added.
Staff told the Post that the new review process was unprecedented and could hamper the release of other important scientific findings affecting public health.
“This represents millions of dollars of research, potentially, that’s now being stopped,” one of the employees told the outlet.
When staff within the Office of Water asked for an explanation they could share with the scientific journals questioning why their papers are on pause, they did not receive a response, according to one of the employees.
Brigit Hirsch, the agency’s press secretary, told the Post that “great scientific work is continuing at the EPA like never before,” but did not share new details about the new review process with the outlet.
In June, more than 170 workers at the EPA signed a public letter warning that the agency is no longer living up to its mission to protect human health and the environment. At least eight of them were fired for signing the letter that criticized the agency’s leadership under Administrator Lee Zeldin and President Donald Trump.
Employees at other agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and Federal Emergency Management Agency, have issued similar statements.
And in July, the scientific community sounded the alarm after the Trump administration proposed revoking what’s known as the “endangerment” EPA finding, the concept that climate change is a threat.
The finding underpins many environmental regulations adopted in the U.S. and overturning it could pave the way for cutting a range of rules that limit pollution from cars, power plants and other sources.
In a statement, EPA said the endangerment finding was used by the Obama and Biden administrations to justify “trillions of dollars of greenhouse gas regulations” and that many of the “extremely pessimistic predictions and assumptions EPA relied upon have not materialized as expected.”
This article was updated to include a statement from the EPA
The Associated Press contributed reporting
