As the government shutdown continues, 800,000 government workers have been furloughed — or sent home without pay. But at the current standpoint of government shutdown, the department with the penultimate percentage of furloughed workers is the Environmental Protection Agency.

Over 15,000 of those furloughed work for the EPA, according to The New York Times. This is a small number compared to some departments and agencies, but a number that includes a shocking 94 percent of the EPA.

Though this solution saves money at a time when a budget has not been decided on, this also means vital jobs are not getting done.

Within the federal government workings, there must be a reassessment of valuing “essential” and “non-essential” workers in a more unbiased, objective stance.

While it is not an easy task to determine what barebones are necessary to get the country through these tough times, environmental health and safety is not a fleeting desire or privilege. It is a right belonging to all Americans that cannot be protected sufficiently when the department is near complete closure.

The EPA already has one of the smallest staffs for an executive department, only falling behind staff size for the Department of Energy.

Government furloughs mean that everyday workers’ lives get put on hold, all because higher-ups in the government do not view their jobs as “essential.”

While workers are likely to get their due pay whenever the furlough and shutdown come to an end, as it did 17 years ago in the last government shutdown, the uncertainty of this time is unfair to workers of every tier — no matter how essential their job may be.

While wages on the backburner are hard enough to think about, more importantly, vital jobs are not being performed — especially in the hardest hit departments.

The small six percent of workers in the EPA that are excepted and exempt from furlough either qualified because their duties were deemed “essential activities to the extent that they protect life and property,” according to the Office of Management and Budget. Or they are paid through fees and payments that the agency internally collects.

This group of workers predominantly comprises Superfund project managers, who regulate toxic waste sites across the country, and employees that utilize scientific equipment or test animals and plants in laboratories that need to be maintained.

All other personnel, including important positions such as pesticide regulators, are not working due to these budget issues.
If this federal government shutdown is to follow its predecessor in 1995, workers will be furloughed for another three weeks in the least. The last negotiations on a budget of this kind took 28 days to finalize and work through.

This means that the EPA, and 94 percent of its staff, will not be monitoring our environmental health for the next month because government representatives and senators could not come to an agreement that would deem the appropriation of funds in the sectors to be “essential.”

This is outrageous.

Environmental health affects the water, trees and animals and also affects our human livelihoods. Without the EPA, we would not have a force mandating the protection of our world to better protect ourselves.

Our civilization is too large to self regulate the condition of our environment for all people. While local regulation and protection is vital, we need the federal governing power of the EPA to keep our air, water and resources safe. Our system may not be perfect, but we need the best system possible to maintain our health and wellness.

Our “non-essential” goods and ecosystem services that cannot be regulated at this time cannot wait a month.
We need a clean world now.

Meg Callaghan is a senior environmental studies major at SUNY-ESF. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at mlcallag@syr.edu.

Published on October 8, 2013 at 2:55 am