%environment_news_service%
WASHINGTON, DC, January 22,2019 (ENS) – Federal biological, pollution, and food safety monitoring has been suspended as hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed and forbidden from working due to the longest government shutdown in American history.
These interruptions create risks for human health and environmental protection, extending even to endangered species, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, a national association of employees in resource government agencies.
The partial government shutdown began at midnight EST on Saturday, December 22. It occurred when the United States Congress and President Donald Trump could not agree on an appropriations bill to fund the operations of the federal government for the 2019 fiscal year, or a temporary continuing resolution that would extend the deadline for passing a bill. The sticking point is Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion for a barrier across the U. S.-Mexico border. The Democrats say fund and open the government first, then we can negotiate border security.
The law prohibits federal departments or agencies from conducting non-essential operations without appropriations legislation in place. As a result, nine executive departments with around 800,000 employees have had to shut down partially or in full, affecting about one-quarter of government activities and causing employee furloughs. As of January 22,2019, the shutdown is in its 32nd day.
The Food and Drug Administration has suspended most of its food inspections intended to prevent food-borne illnesses, although the agency is considering resuming some portion of screening.
Meanwhile, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has shut down some of its water testing laboratories, including its regional lab in Georgia. States served by the Georgia lab, such as North Carolina, have stopped sending in water samples due to the closure, so water samples are not getting tested.
In addition, EPA work on pollution discharge permit issuance and compliance monitoring has ceased. This means that no one is checking what is being dumped into our waters or to see if dischargers are exceeding permit limits, a situation PEER calls a “polluters holiday.”
“The government says that its employees are working where there is a threat to human health, but there is some confusion as to what work is exempted and what work is suspended,” said PEER Science Policy Director Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with EPA, pointing out that most food safety inspections and water quality monitoring has stopped.
“Federal agencies should not wait for people to get sick before resuming testing to prevent illnesses,” said Bennett.
Some shutdowns affect both human health and wildlife. For example, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, satellite imagery is no longer available to monitor toxic red tide blooms off Florida’s coasts. Red tide poisoning has sickened swimmers and also killed more than 200 threatened manatees in 2018.
The risks for wildlife are compounded by reopening nearly 40 national wildlife refuges for hunting access. PEER points out that this move is contrary to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s own Contingency Plan.
By contrast, cessation of Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS, formal consultations under the Endangered Species Act on incidental take of wildlife allow injurious activities to proceed if FWS does not object within set time limits.
“Our Fish and Wildlife Service prioritizing hunting above wildlife protection is troubling, to say the least,” said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that hunting promotes neither human safety or resource protection, but may do just the opposite.
“Our national investment in protecting our most vulnerable wildlife may be forfeit by cessation of monitoring during an extended shutdown,” said Ruch, “thus placing endangered species in further jeopardy.
