The ability of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to conduct
timely, cutting- edge research is threatened by diversion of money from
a shrinking budget and by failure to defend its science from political
manipulation, according to congressional testimony delivered
today.  After seven straight years of declining research budgets,
President Bush has again proposed further cuts, aggravated by raids on
the remaining research dollars to finance homeland security and public
relations programs.

In addition to money woes, EPA’s research program is plagued by
suppression of findings for non-scientific reasons and lack of
protection for its scientists, according to testimony presented by
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Executive
Director Jeff Ruch before the House Science Committee’s Subcommittee on
Environment, Technology, and Standards.  The hearing examined the
proposed EPA Science and Technology budget for fiscal year 2007.  

“There appears to be a deliberate policy of marginalizing EPA science
on issue after issue, so that the agency is becoming increasingly
irrelevant to emerging environmental threats,” Ruch testified, pointing
to internal surveys showing a growing pessimism by agency scientists
about the direction of EPA. “EPA’s public health research agenda has
been neutered.”

Among the examples PEER raised before the Subcommittee are that EPA —

•    Has kept its risk assessment for dioxin, a deadly
yet widespread agent, in draft form for more than 12 years.  The
final assessment has still not been released;

•    Diluted its recommended perchlorate safety
standards so that states have been forced to step in and set their own
standards.  Perchlorate is a defense munitions compound that has
been found in drinking water supplies in more than 20 states and is
considered by many the leading Clean Water Act threat of the 21st
century; and

•    Is giving corporate contributors direct influence
over which research projects are undertaken by entering into a record
number of joint ventures.

EPA currently spends $557 million directly on environmental and health
research and another $173 million on environmental technologies. While
the Bush administration is proposing a slight increase in the overall
combined budget for science and technology —

•    The scientific research budget represents a 16%
decline over the past three years when adjusted for inflation. 
Some areas, such as ecological research, would drop by more than
one-fourth;

•    New security programs for water supplies are being
funded wholly out of research funds, as are questionable new public
relations and information technology programs; and

•    EPA contends it cannot afford its $2.5 million network of libraries, which it seeks to slash by 80%.

“The one group not being asked to testify about agency science is the
EPA scientists themselves,” Ruch added.  “Unfortunately, EPA has
forbidden its own specialists from speaking without political
clearance.”

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Read the PEER testimony
http://www.peer.org/docs/epa/06_16_3_testimony.pdf

View the testimony from the Chair of the EPA Science Advisory Board
http://www.peer.org/docs/epa/06_16_3_epa_testimony.pdf

Look at the growing corporate role in EPA research
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=596

See the diversion of EPA research money for a multi-year public relations campaign
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=555

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