State EPA preparing for massive cuts
The Trump administration’s 2018 budget blueprint takes particular aim at funding for environmental initiatives.
The proposed 2018 budget would reduce the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s staff by about 3,200 positions and cut the agency’s budget by almost one-third. The plan also would strip all funding for climate-change research and for enacting the Clean Power Plan, a policy designed to curb carbon emissions from power plants.
Federal funding is the Ohio EPA’s second-largest source of revenue, accounting for about $40 million of its $200 million annual budget.
Several proposals in President Donald Trump’s budget would reduce funding and shift the balance of responsibility from the federal government to the state agency for maintaining Superfund sites, restoring
wetlands, protecting the Great Lakes and managing hazardous waste in Ohio.
In anticipation of federal budget cuts, Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler said he has begun to explore how the agency can be more flexible with its state funding.
“We’re going to have to be nimble,” he said Thursday.
The president’s budget specifically directs the U.S. EPA to concentrate solely on programs that fall under its jurisdiction. It also nearly halves allocations for “categorical grants,” which fund the core environmental programs delegated to state agencies.
Butler, who recently advocated for a streamlined federal-state relationship, said serving as the front line for protecting air and water is challenging without proper support.
“If you’re going to ask us to do more, it has to be appropriately funded,” he said. “These two messages do not seem to connect very well.”
Trump’s budget proposal also sent a pointed message to environmentalists, said Amy Brennan, the Nature Conservancy’s Lake Erie conservation director.
“We’re cutting the spending on all our national resources,” Brennan said. “This isn’t the time to divest in nature; it’s time to put our foot on the gas.”
In contrast to steeper cuts elsewhere, the proposed 2018 U.S. EPA budget would boost appropriations for improving local drinking and wastewater infrastructure by about $4 million.
The increase, while modest, is encouraging, Butler said. “It’s pretty significant they’re not cutting at all,” he said. “The need is huge.”
It would cost upward of $26.7 billion over the next 20 years to bring Ohio’s wastewater and drinking water infrastructure into compliance and meet local needs, according to recent U.S. EPA surveys.
George Elmaraghy, former director of the Ohio EPA’s Division of Surface Water, said he worries more about the effects of decreased federal oversight, which he said could lead to “a race to the bottom among the states.”
“If we have good leadership … the agency will be able to absorb the federal funding cuts,” he said in an email. “The public will welcome budget cuts that result in increasing the operational efficiency of government agencies, but will not tolerate budget cuts that may harm the environment and our health.”
Other parts of the Trump budget could have an effect on environmental research in the state. It proposes zeroing out more than $250 million in targeted National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grants and programs.
The Ohio Sea Grant depends on NOAA grants for about $500,000, or onefifth of its budget, said director Christopher Winslow. Those funds support about eight Lake Erie research projects a year.
Winslow said he remains cautiously optimistic that the budget in its current form is not the one that will pass Congress later this year. Instead, he’s urging his staff and partners to voice concerns to their legislators.
“Whether you’re a blue state or a red state, whether you’re an R or a D, a healthy ecosystem equals a healthy economy,” he said. “The president doesn’t control the purse strings. If you care about your lake, make that phone call and send that letter.”
Directors of state environmental agencies will begin meeting with the Office of Management and Budget and U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt next week.
“I’m still mindful of where we are in this entire budget process. Now it’s the negotiation,” Butler said. “We’ll be active on all fronts to advocate for an appropriate budget,” he said.