[Infowarrior] - EPA ENFORCEMENT THREATENED BY LIBRARY CLOSURES

[Richard Forno]

For Immediate Release: August 28, 2006
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=735

EPA ENFORCEMENT THREATENED BY LIBRARY CLOSURES ‹ Prosecutions at Risk from
Loss of Timely Access to Key Documents

Washington, DC ‹ Prosecution of polluters by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency ³will be compromised² due to the loss of ³timely, correct
and accessible² information from the agency¹s closure of its network of
technical libraries, according to an internal memo released today by Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). EPA enforcement staff
currently rely upon the libraries to obtain technical information to support
pollution prosecutions and to track the business histories of regulated
industries.

In a memo prepared last week by the enforcement arm of EPA, called the
Office of Enforcement and Compliance (OECA), agency staff detailed concerns
about the effects of EPA¹s plans to close many of its libraries, box up the
collections and eliminate or sharply reduce library services. Each year,
EPA¹s libraries handle more than 134,000 research requests from its own
scientific and enforcement staff. The memo states:

    ³If OECA is involved in a civil or criminal litigation and the judge
asks for documentation, we can currently rely upon a library to locate the
information and have it produced to a court house in a timely manner. Under
the cuts called for in the plan, timeliness for such services is not
addressed.²

In addition, the memo raises negative side effects relating to ­

    * Forensics. ³The NEIC (National Enforcement Investigations Center)
Library is the only specialized environmental forensic library in the
Agency. The NEIC library supports enforcement in the regions when there is a
need for NEIC¹s expertise or unique materialsŠLoss of support for
enforcement within the regions may cause an overwhelming demand on the small
NEIC library by requiring the NEIC library to provide not only unique
materials, but also items that the regional libraries currently provide.
There is no budget available to expand NEIC¹s library capacity should this
increased demand for NEIC library services occur.²
    * Lost Collections. ³OECA is seriously concerned that these documents
may be distributed without adequate documentation and cataloging and may
become virtually lost within the system.²
    * Institutional Memory. ³OECA is concerned that the loss of
institutional memory as well as the loss of expertise from professional
librarians in the regions will hamper OECA¹s enforcement program.²

³Cutting $2 million in library services in an EPA budget totaling nearly $8
billion is the epitome of a penny wise-pound foolish economy,² stated PEER
Executive Director Jeff Ruch. ³From research to regulation to enforcement,
EPA is an information-dependent operation which needs libraries and
librarians to function properly.²

###

Read the EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance ³Position Paper
on the 2007 EPA Library Plan²

Look at the Bush administration plan to close EPA¹s technical research
libraries