Call your Senators to save EPA libraries

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November 2, 2006 • National Wildlife Refuge System Put On Starvation Diet • Whistleblowers Give Special Counsel Dismal Reviews • Stealth Closure of Principal EPA Chemical Library • National Bison Range Evaluation Censored by Agency • Huge Gaps in State Whistleblower Laws • Washington Whistleblower Law Among Weakest In Nation • Big Holes in New England’s Whistleblower Laws • New Jersey Whistleblower Law Has Huge Coverage Gaps • Massachusetts Suspended Water Pollution Discharge Limits • New Jersey Toxic Day Care Reform Bill Still Misses the Mark • Lack of Principles in Closing Principal EPA Chemical Library Featured State Campaign: Lessons learned from earlier FL hurricanes not being applied more>> Get Involved: • Latest Press Coverage • Undercover Activist Blog • Take Action • Support Our Work • Tell-a-Friend • Membership survey CFC Season Vote for PEER on your workplace giving ballot this fall. We're in the federal CFC and many state and local campaigns.

When muzzling whistleblowers and altering scientific findings wasn’t enough, the Bush administration applied “out of sight, out of mind” to further weaken environmental protection within the EPA. Three EPA regional libraries, the Headquarters library in Washington D.C. and a specialized chemical research library have all been silently shut down within the last few months. It’s about time for us to speak up. TAKE ACTION: Call both of your Senators ASAP and ask them to sign onto the Boxer- Lautenberg letter to save the EPA libraries. Last week Senators Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg drafted a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee stating their concern that EPA is gutting a library system that is crucial to the effective functioning of the agency. EPA has already eliminated or reduced library services covering 31 states, even before Congress has approved their FY ‘07 budget. However, the Senate Appropriations Committee can reverse the cuts by directing EPA to restore library funding and services. PEER’s executive director Jeff Ruch has likened these EPA library closures to a “self-imposed lobotomy in that they’re cutting access to information for their specialists who need the information to do their jobs.” Call today! (202-244-3121) Tell your Senators that they can arrange to sign the letter by calling Grant Cope (202-244-7931) or Daniel Rosenberg (202-244-7225). Sincerely, Carrie Hibbard Membership & Outreach Coordinator PS. Thanks to those who told NPS to not sell out our National Parks. Please tell your friends to take action on this corporate commercialization campaign. LATEST PRESS RELEASES: National Wildlife Refuge System Put On Starvation Diet The Bush administration has ordered a 10 % across-the-board cutback in funding for the National Wildlife Refuge System, leaving scores of refuges without any assigned staff Read more>> Whistleblowers Give Special Counsel Dismal Reviews The U.S. Office of Special Counsel helps virtually no federal whistleblowers, according to the agency’s latest surveys of federal employees who filed retaliation complaints. Read more>> Stealth Closure of Principal EPA Chemical Library Without any word to the public, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has closed its specialized library for research on the effects and properties of chemicals Read more>> National Bison Range Evaluation Censored by Agency The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service censored key findings in its performance evaluation of the first year of split operations of the National Bison Range Wildlife Refuge with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) Read more>> Huge Gaps in State Whistleblower Laws State employees who report violations of law, fraud, waste or threats to public safety may not be legally protected depending on which state employs them, according to a detailed analysis of state laws released today Read more>> Washington Whistleblower Law Among Weakest In Nation Washington’s law protecting state employees who blow the whistle on official wrongdoing has serious weaknesses Read more>> Big Holes in New England’s Whistleblower Laws State employees in New England who report violations of law, fraud or threats to public safety may not be legally protected depending on which state employs them Read more>> New Jersey Whistleblower Law Has Huge Coverage Gaps New Jersey’s law protecting state employees who blow the whistle on official wrongdoing has serious weaknesses Read more>> Massachusetts Suspended Water Pollution Discharge Limits For the past eight years, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has allowed hundreds of industries to discharge unknown amounts of toxic chemicals into municipal sewage plants without state permits Read more>> New Jersey Toxic Day Care Reform Bill Still Misses the Mark As the New Jersey Legislature struggles to respond to the “Kiddie Kollege” debacle, where more than 60 children were exposed to mercury vapors at a day-care center located inside a former thermometer factory, legislators, with Corzine administration support, have proposed legislation that fails to address the underlying problems in the state’s toxic clean-up laws Read more>> LATEST BLOG ENTRIES: Lack of Principles in Closing Principal EPA Chemical Library Q: What did the spider do inside the library computer? A: It made a Web page. With the recent closures of EPA libraries, spiders will be making webs amongst the boxes of “deaccessioned” collections in large repositories until EPA develops the budget, timetable and over-arching plan to digitize these documents for online viewing. Read more>>

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