Budget Cuts to Close Epa Libraries?

An environmental watchdog group is criticizing President Bush’s proposal to slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s library system. The GLRC’s Sarah Hulett reports:

Transcript

An environmental watchdog group is criticizing President Bush’s
proposal to slash funding for the Environmental Protection
Agency’s library system. The GLRC’s Sarah Hulett reports:


The proposed budget would cut two million of the two-and-a-half
million dollars that pays for EPA’s libraries and reading rooms.


Internal EPA memos suggest the cuts could close EPA’s main
library and some of its regional libraries, and shut down the
system’s electronic catalog.


Jeff Ruch is with Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility. He says the proposed cuts threaten an invaluable
resource the serves government scientists and the public.


“And so for reports on particular sites – like for example:
contaminated sites or Superfund sites – they’re the only place in
the world where you can get some of the detailed investigations
that have been done.”


An EPA spokeswoman says the agency plans to make its physical
collections more widely available online, but it’s not clear how the
agency will pay for digitizing the documents.


For the GLRC, I’m Sarah Hulett.

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