EPA Library Closures Could Threaten Public Health

E.P.A. Library Closures Could Threaten Public Health

By Leslie Burger, AlterNet
Posted on December 14, 2006, Printed on December 14, 2006

http://www.alternet.org/story/45494/

This piece originally ran in the New York Times.

If you
needed to find out how much pollution an industrial plant in your
neighborhood was spewing, or what toxic chemicals were in a local
river, where would you go? Until recently, you could discover the
answer at one of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 29 libraries.
But now the E.P.A. has obstructed the American public — as well as its
own scientists and staff — by starting to dismantle its crown jewel,
the national system of regional E.P.A. libraries.

Until now, any
citizen could consult these resources, which include information on
things like siting incinerators, storing toxic waste and uncovering
links between asthma and car exhaust. E.P.A. staff members and other
scientists have counted on the libraries to support their work. First
responders and other state and local government officials have used
E.P.A. information to protect communities. In the age of terrorism,
when the safety of our food and water supply, the uninterrupted flow of
energy and, indeed, so much about our environment has become a matter
of national security, it seems particularly dangerous to take steps
that would hinder our emergency preparedness.

Although lawmakers
haven’t yet agreed to President Bush’s proposed 2007 budget, which
includes $2 million in cuts to the agency’s library system, the head of
the E.P.A. has already instituted cuts. The agency’s main library in
Washington has been closed to the public, and regional E.P.A. libraries
in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City, Mo., have been closed altogether.
At the Boston, New York, San Francisco and Seattle branches, hours and
public access have been reduced.

Anyone who needs to understand
the environmental impact of, say, living downwind or downstream from a
new nuclear power plant, or the long-term public health impact of
Hurricane Katrina, cannot afford to find the doors barred to
potentially lifesaving information. But neither can the rest of us,
whose daily lives and choices will be affected by global warming. We
all have a right to be able to get access to information about our air,
water and soil.

"Libraries and their professionals are integral
to the work of E.P.A. toxicologists," says an agency toxicologist,
Suzanne Wuerthele. "Without access to their expertise and extensive
collections, it will be difficult to explain to the public, to state
agencies, industry and to the courts how and why E.P.A. is protecting
the environment over time."

Some members of Congress have begun
to bring these cuts to light. The Senate minority whip, Richard Durbin,
urged the president to reopen the libraries and rethink his budget
request. Eighteen senators sent a letter to the Senate Appropriations
Committee asking it to make the E.P.A. keep the libraries open.
Representatives John Dingell, Bart Gordon and Henry Waxman recently had
the Government Accountability Office start an inquiry into the closings
and requested that the E.P.A. administrator, Stephen Johnson, cease the
destruction of library materials immediately.

The E.P.A. cannot
hide behind the fig leaf of fiscal responsibility. While the agency
says the closings are all part of a commitment to modernize and
digitize, we are not assured that its public plan is adequate or its
skills sufficient. Users within the E.P.A. and the American public need
information specialists, like librarians, to manage paper collections
and to help them get access to digital material and organize online
information.

Fortunately, there’s still time to reverse this
dangerous threat to a healthy future. The administration could
immediately reopen the closed libraries. Congress could conduct
oversight hearings to reverse these decisions and prevent any more
E.P.A. libraries — all of them containing invaluable information about
our environment, all of them paid for by our tax dollars — from
closing. The American public deserves no less.

Leslie Burger is President of the American Library Association.

Don’t forget to check out this article from Mark Clayton or this one by Kelpie Wilson on the same subject.  They’re all well worth reading.