News Clips

EPA staff fear Trump will destroy how it protects Americans from pollution

by PEER | November 11, 2024
The EPA currently has more than 16,000 employees, adding more than 6,000 during Joe Biden’s administration as the agency sought to rebuild. During Biden’s term, the agency stepped up enforcement of pollution rules, banned toxic pesticides, bolstered chemical safety protections, and ...

Trump seeks to relocate 100K federal employees, doubling down on first-term playbook

by PEER | November 7, 2024
PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, a former senior attorney at the Environmental Protection Agency, said agencies have more freedom to relocate members of the career Senior Executive Service, compared to rank-and-file federal employees. “They can move SES employees and their ...

Beyond Schedule F, Trump has ‘arsenal’ of ways to target federal employees

by PEER | November 6, 2024
Congress passed the Administrative Leave Act to put tighter restrictions on how long agencies can put their employees on paid administrative or investigative leave. But OPM is more than seven years late in providing guidance to agencies on how to implement the legislation. Public Employees ...

Biosolids and PFAS questions are rippling to other states after Maine’s land application ban

by PEER | November 4, 2024
Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, is representing farmers who are suing EPA to force regulation of PFAS in biosolids. Bennett said the “patchwork approach” to regulation employed so far won’t work because the pollution can ...

EPA and Internal Watchdog Trade Barbs Over Fraud Investigations

by PEER | October 30, 2024
Still, a breakdown in the relationship between the EPA and its watchdog increases the chances that people and the environment will suffer, said Jeff Ruch, Pacific director of the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Ultimately, the inspector general can’t ...

Local rancher seeks answers on biosolids after Johnson County investigation

by PEER |
One water well yielded PFAS levels measured at 268.2 ppt while one of the ponds had over 1,333 ppt of PFAS. The flesh of a stillborn calf tested at 610,000 ppt of PFOS, according to PEER’s analysis of the testing results, which was released in February. Two catfish tested had 74,000 and ...
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