Environment

Proposal: Slash $2.6 billion from the Environmental Protection Agency’s $8.2 billion budget, bringing its funding to the lowest level in 40 years when adjusted for inflation. Superfund budget would lose $330 million and enforcement budget $129 million.

Impact: Cuts would halt the EPA’s work on San Francisco Bay, Napa River and other watersheds, including restoration of tidal salt marshes. Efforts to stop companies from releasing toxic fumes into the air or dumping sewage into the bay would be hampered. Cleanup of 130 California Superfund sites, including 28 in the South Bay with groundwater contamination from semiconductor and aerospace industries, would slow. Would virtually halt climate science research and most of the San Francisco EPA office’s work on fuel efficiency standards. Studies on chemicals, pesticides and the impact of nitrates in the water are also likely to be held up.

Proposal: Eliminate independent Chemical Safety Board accident investigation unit.

Impact: Stops investigations of hundreds of accidents, including refinery fires, acid spills and chemical releases. The board investigated the 2014 sulfuric acid spill at Tesoro refinery in Martinez, when two workers were hospitalized with severe burns, and the 2012 Chevron refinery fire in Richmond, which prompted it to issue a stinging critique of California’s refinery oversight and industry practices. Such investigations would have to be conducted under the EPA’s riskmanagement program, administered by the agency’s Superfund unit, which is also being cut.