The American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advances a large internal restructuring under the administrator Lee Zeldin, raising questions about the future orientation of the main environmental programs, in particular those focused on water, climate change and chemical security.
Unveiled on May 2, reorganization includes new organizational graphics which indicate the elimination or potential transfer of several high -level functions. Although not all the details are finalized, the restructuring affects four main program offices – air, water, chemicals and the administrator’s office – which represent about a third of the EPA labor. Other changes are scheduled for the coming week.
Water office: new focus on cybersecurity, dispersion of scientific division
Among the most important changes, there is a Restructuring of the Water Office. The reorganization introduces a new personnel chief division and establishes a Water cybersecurity office and infrastructure resilienceIntended to respond to growing concerns concerning ransomware attacks against public water services, especially in subressource communities.
At the same time, the Office of Science and Technology, which houses scientists and engineers responsible for developing water quality and health quality standards, will be dissolved, the staff redistributed in other water programs. According to EPA, this change “will better align the development of regulations, advice and policy with the science that underlies it”.
Although the Trump administration has proposed in -depth discounts to federal funding for water infrastructure, EPA organizational cards show that basic programs, including the division of renewable funds from the water state, the drinking water infrastructure division and teams focused on drinking water subsidies, will remain intact.
In a press release, The agency described changes as a step towards “the organizational improvement of the agency to better provide clean air, water and land to all Americans”. The restructuring follows the executive order of President Trump on “the implementation of the initiative to optimize the efficiency of the Ministry of Efficiency of the President of the President”, which aims to “start a critical transformation of the federal bureaucracy”.
“With these organizational improvements, we recommend that we fulfill all of our legal obligations and exceptionally deliver the main mission of EPA to protect human health and the environment. This reorganization will lead to essential efficiency to integrate science into our communities and strongly concentrate our work on the supply of the clean air, land and water for our communities. Save at least $ 300 million a year for the American people“Said EPA administrator Lee Zeldin.
At the administrator’s office, EPA forms the applied science office and environmental solutions (Oase) to centralize research and raise science in regulation and technical assistance.
Chemical security and PFAS response
The Bureau of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) will be reinforced with more than 130 specialistsIncluding scientists and IT experts, to treat the arrears of chemical and pesticide journals. The office is currently examining more than 500 new chemicals and more than 12,000 pesticide products, many of which are beyond statutory deadlines.
“These organizational improvements offer better tools and capacities to allow the OCSPP to use IT and bioinformatics tools – and possibly artificial intelligence – to rationalize and improve the review of chemicals and pesticides,” said the agency. Additional capacity is also intended to support the development of a PFAS test strategy to assess health and environmental risks posed by these persistent substances.
Earlier in the year, EPA also announced the Termination of environmental justice initiatives (EJ) and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) Launched under the Biden-Harris administration. This decision has led to a reduction in force affecting approximately 280 employees, while 175 others were reassigned to roles aligned on “statutory obligations and essential functions of the mission”.