The Trump administration is shutting down the Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific research arm, which provides the basis for decisions that safeguard human health and ecosystems from pollutants. It has a large presence in Cincinnati.

Close to 200 people currently work for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development at several area labs, including the 22-acre Andrew W. Breidenbach Environmental Research Center near the University of Cincinnati. It’s the agency’s second-largest research and development facility.

Now, those jobs and research projects dealing with drinking water, toxic chemicals, and hazardous waste sites are in limbo.

The EPA announced July 18 it is eliminating the Office of Research and Development, citing taxpayer savings and efficiency. The move is part of an agency-wide restructuring.

Michael Ottlinger is president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Chapter 279, representing EPA employees in Cincinnati. He says a lack of information about next steps is creating confusion for workers.

“People are holding their breath,” Ottlinger said. “They don’t know what’s going to happen to themselves. They don’t know if they should continue to do the research that they’re doing, if they’ll be stopped from doing it next week. They have plans and supplies and committed money. They have no idea what’s going to happen with any of that.”

The EPA says it’s moving laboratory functions and hundreds of employees to other program offices. Those include the newly created Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions in the Office of the Administrator.

Some Office of Research and Development employees will be offered “deferred resignation” or early retirement incentives. Others will be reassigned to a different program office or laid off via reduction in force.

Ottlinger says he worries these changes to the agency will ultimately hurt American’s health.

“We’re going to have reduced research that addresses things like chronic diseases that are associated with long term environmental exposures, for instance, to particulates in the air,” Ottlinger said.

The EPA says all labs and facilities are being retained, including several in Cincinnati.

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