SAVE THE EPA LIBRARIES & RECORDS!!!

This petition is NOT by EPA scientists, but by concerned constituents, and human beings in support for keeping our environmental information available and accessible (in hard-copy form!)

THIS IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE, A HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUE, AND A WORLD/HUMAN ISSUE, AS WELL AS HUMAN RIGHTS, AND WILL VIOLATE THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT.   THIS WILL IMPACT EDUCATION, ADMINISTRATIVE DECISIONS, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND ENVIRONMENTAL & PUBLIC POLICY, (ALONG WITH THE EARTH'S INHABITANTS & FUTURE GENERATIONS).

The shredding of EPA Library documents in vastly disturbing considering the track record of the Bush Administration.

Efforts to suppress and destroy environmental projects and information, as well attempts to discredit scientists, as well as current attempts to log in The Sequoa National Park, drill in national and state parks, and the successful lowering of air quality, bombing of seal preserves for military training exercises, and increased melting the ice caps to the point where they, of all presidential administrations, are adding the polar bears to the list of endangered species!..But this will all be hear-say if the EPA Libraries are closed!!! And Scientists will not be able to do their research!

We demand to stop destruction or disposition of all library holdings immediately and cease the "digitization project...with no physical space", as well as to
immediately reinstate the entire $2 million EPA library budget  for the sake of scientific study, public access to records, and the future of our environment, our health and our safety, and our shared Earth.

From news wire:

Unions that represent 10,000 EPA scientists, engineers and other employees have complained to Congress about the EPA's library closings. Several lawmakers have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate.

In a letter Thursday to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, four Democrats in the House of Representatives who probably will play influential roles next year on EPA issues told him to stop "destruction or disposition of all library holdings immediately."

"It now appears that EPA officials are dismantling what is likely one of our country's most comprehensive and accessible collections of environmental materials," they wrote.

EPA Set to Close Library Network and Electronic Catalog

Under President Bush’s proposed budget, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is slated to shut down its network of libraries that serve its own scientists as well as the public, according to internal agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In addition to the libraries, the agency will pull the plug on its electronic catalog which tracks tens of thousands of unique documents and research studies that are available nowhere else.

Under Bush’s plan, $2 million of a total agency library budget of $2.5 million will be lost, including the entire $500,000 budget for the EPA Headquarters library and its electronic catalog that makes it possible to search for documents through the entire EPA library network. These reductions are just a small portion of the $300 million in cuts the administration has proposed for EPA operations.

At the same time, President Bush is proposing to significantly increase EPA research funding for topics such as nanotechnology, air pollution and drinking water system security as part of his “American Competitive Initiative.”

“How are EPA scientists supposed to engage in cutting edge research when they cannot find what the agency has already done?” asked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson is moving to implement the proposed cuts as soon as possible. “The President’s plan will not make us more competitive if we have to spend half our time re-inventing the wheel.”

EPA’s own scientists and enforcement staff are the principal library users. EPA’s scientists use the libraries to research questions such as the safety of chemicals and the environmental effects of new technologies. EPA enforcement staff use the libraries to obtain technical information to support pollution prosecutions and to track the business histories of regulated industries.

EPA currently operates a network of 27 libraries operating out of its Washington, D.C. Headquarters and ten regional offices across the country. The size of the cuts will force the Headquarters library and most of the regional libraries to shut their doors and cease operations. Each year, the EPA libraries –

• Handle more than 134,000 research requests from its own scientific and enforcement staff;
• House and catalog an estimated 50,000 “unique” documents that are available nowhere else; and
• Operate public reading rooms and provide the public with access to EPA databases.

“Access to information is one of the best tools we have for protecting the environment,” added Ruch, calling the cuts the “epitome of penny wise and pound foolish.” “By contrast, closing the Environmental Protection Agency libraries actually threatens to subtract from the sum total of human knowledge.”