Trump administration freeze on EPA grants reverberates in R.I.

Jan. 25--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A Trump administration freeze on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants and contracts -- coupled with a media blackout -- has sent shudders of concern through the offices of people in Rhode Island and beyond who are engaged in fighting air, land and water pollution.

It remains unclear just how far the freeze goes. On Tuesday, Doug Ericksen, the communications director for Trump's transition team at the EPA clarified that the freeze on EPA contracts and grants won't apply to pollution cleanup efforts or infrastructure construction activities.

But uncertainty reigned.

In Fiscal Year 2016, the EPA committed upwards of $30 million in grants and other financial assistance to cities and towns across Rhode Island, state agencies, the Narragansett Indian Tribe and a long list of organizations, including the Childhood Lead Action Project and the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., summed up his over-arching concern: "The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and other state environmental agencies rely on EPA grants to help ensure we have safe water to drink and air to breath.

"Scott Pruitt, President Trump's nominee to run the EPA, claims to want to empower the states to handle environmental matters. We're still sorting out what this funding freeze means for ongoing programs in Rhode Island, but it's imperative that the Trump Administration does not undermine states' rights to protect their citizens and hold polluters accountable."

Added U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I.: "Thanks to the President's actions today, opportunities for new funding have been halted. This won't just harm our environment, it will have a significant impact on our economy as much of this funding supports good-paying jobs for Rhode Islanders."

The freeze was articulated, via email, to employees in the EPA's Office of Acquisition Management within hours of President Donald Trump's swearing-in last Friday.

According to the Washington Post, the email read: "New EPA administration has asked that all contract and grant awards be temporarily suspended, effective immediately...Until we receive further clarification, which we hope to have soon, please construe this to include task orders and work assignments."

The email coincided with a temporary media blackout at the EPA, including prohibitions on press releases, blog updates and posts to the agency's social media accounts. (Similar orders were imposed at other federal agencies including the Interior Department, after the posting of park service photos comparing the larger crowd on the National Mall for Barack Obama's inauguration to Trump's.)

The potential local impact: The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank alone received $17.33 million from the EPA last year. The agency provides financing for drinking water, waste water and energy-savings projects. "I have just received notification from EPA that State Revolving Fund grant funds are not subject to the "freeze" that was referenced in the news stories," the executive director Jeff Diehl reported Tuesday.

In June, the ESS Group, an environmental consulting and engineering company in East Providence, announced that it had won a five-year, $31.8 million contract from the EPA to work on the agency's National Aquatic Resource Surveys program, a collaboration between the EPA, state agencies and tribes to assess the nation's coastal waters, lakes and reservoirs, rivers and streams, and wetlands. The company declined comment on Tuesday.

But a spokesman for American ECOTECH in Warren, which sells air-pollution monitoring systems, acknowledged: 'It's a little nerve-wracking."

"We don't have any active contracts now with the EPA," said John Carney, business operation manager for the 13-employee company. "For us it's more a concern about what the future opportunities are...We are in a holding pattern right now, just waiting to see what's next."

Laura Brion, the director of organizing and advocacy for the Childhood Lead Action Project said the agency was counting on $19,768 from the EPA this year. Losing what's left four months into the new federal budget year "wouldn't shut us down, but it would stop us from doing important work to..prevent lead poisoning from happening." Asked the immediate risk to her organization which has 6 employees, only three of whom are full-time, Brion said: staff cuts.

With reports from the Associated Press and the Washington Post

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