EPA's Job Is to Protect America's Air, Water and Land. Here's How a Shutdown Affects That Effort

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : The agency's shutdown plan calls for it to stop doing non-criminal pollution inspections needed to enforce clean air and water rules.
50% : "The quality of water coming out of your tap is directly tied to whether EPA is doing its job," said Jeanne Briskin, a former 40-year EPA employee who once headed the children's health protection division. ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations.
46% : "Nobody will be holding polluters accountable for what they dump into the air we breathe, in the water we drink while EPA is shut down," said Symons, now a senior adviser to the Environmental Protection Network, a group of former agency officials advocating for a strong Earth-friendly department.
43% : He also said EPA hotlines for reporting water and other pollution problems likely will be closed.
43% : "So if your water tastes off later this week, there will be no one at EPA to pick up the phone," he said.
31% : "This administration has already been implementing a serial shutdown of EPA," Symons said.
9% : In President Donald Trump's second term, the EPA has leaned hard into an agenda of deregulation and facilitating Trump's boosting of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal to meet what he has called an energy emergency. Jeremy Symons, a former EPA policy official under President Bill Clinton, said it's natural to worry that a shutdown will lead "the worst polluters" to treat it as a chance to dump toxic pollution without getting caught.

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