Boxer expressed misgivings over six recent EPA developments, including the closing of agency libraries and the weakening of the Community Right to Know rules for toxic chemicals.
“Who gains from these rollbacks?” demanded Boxer. “Just look at who asked for them, like Big Oil and the battery industry. EPA’s actions and proposed actions make it clear who EPA is protecting.”
Boxer showed EPA Director Stephen Johnson several internal agency e-mails describing the discarding of library materials and the order to discard scientific journals. Johnson insisted that he was not aware of such disposal and had no instructions to destroy any unique documents. Boxer gave Johnson a one-month deadline to respond to questions he was unable to answer.
Burger, testifying also on the behalf of the Association of Research Libraries and American Association of Law Libraries, questioned the alleged financial impetus for several 2006 agency library closings, saying, “recently EPA has backed away from the financial contention, instead casting the closures as a plan to digitize library collections—or convert library collections to digital format—to reach a broader audience in providing access to these materials.”
Exactly how EPA plans to handle the digitization is part of her apprehension, said Burger. “There continues to be a lot that we don’t know: exactly what materials are being shipped around the country, whether there are duplicate materials in other EPA libraries, whether these items have been or will be digitized, and whether a record is being kept of what is being dispersed and what is being discarded,” she said.
In a February 2 letter to Boxer, Medical Library Association President Jean Shipman and Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries President Elaine Russo Martin opposed Bush’s existing proposal to cut $2 million from the current $2.5-million allocation for the agency’s library network. “Prior to the closing of the EPA libraries, each one of them was staffed by experts who assisted the EPA’s staff and the public in accessing the library’s materials,” they said. “Since librarians are central to the intellectual capital of the EPA, it is essential that these key personnel not be lost through the closing of the libraries.”
Special Library Association Chief Executive Officer Janice R. Lachance suggested a careful review of EPA intentions in a February 5 letter to Boxer, saying, “We have heard from many SLA members in the scientific and medical community who have told us the closure of the EPA libraries will impact their work directly.” Lachance also urged the committee to find out if EPA has sought the opinion of the U.S. Justice Department regarding the legal ramifications of digitizing agency documents used in legal proceedings.
Further exacerbating the situation was the February 5 announcement of President Bush’s FY 2008 budget proposal, which recommends cutting an additional $400 million from the EPA budget.
Posted February 9, 2007.