Salvaging EPA Libraries

Posted on January 10, 2008. Filed under: Uncategorized |

Remember how EPA library closures and record purges were threatening public access to important environmental information? Now Congress is requiring the agency to restore library services, reports Katherine Boyle of Greenwire:

U.S. EPA must craft plans to reopen regional libraries shuttered from a Bush administration cost-cutting effort under a provision in the agency’s fiscal 2008 budget.

Congress allocated nearly $3 million for restoring library services and requires the agency to report its progress to lawmakers within three months.

At issue are EPA libraries that were closed in Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City and Washington and those in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Seattle whose staffing and operating hours were trimmed.

Why are these libraries so important? Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility explains: Liz Borkowski “the pump handle“