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Second Report Reiterates Dire Impacts of IEPA Staffing Cuts

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
his Jan. 10, 2009 file photo shows a flock of geese flying past a smokestack at the Jeffery Energy Center coal power plant near Emmitt, Kan.

A new report is again sounding the alarm on the impacts of staffing cuts at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

The Environmental Integrity Project's "Thin Green Line" report says Illinois leads the way in slashing environmental regulation jobs, with a 38 percent drop from 1,028 to just 639 workers between 2008 and 2018.

The state's also cut the IEPA's budget by 25 percent over the same timeframe, from $257 million in 2008 to $192 million in 2018, when adjusting for inflation. The agency last received general fund appropriations from the General Assembly in 2003. Many fees used to fund the agency's work also haven't been updated since then. 

Eric Schaffer, the Environmental Integrity Project's executive director and a former EPA official in the Clinton and Bush administrations, said one of two things happens with severe staff shortages.

"Either the permits get rubber-stamped, which we suspect is the case - or the permit applications pile up," he said. 

Ultimately, he said that process is bad from both the public and companies. And Schaffer says as the IEPA is losing employees, the federal EPA is also deferring more responsibilities to them.

"In many cases, their spending and staffing declined even faster than the EPA's. And that matters because states do have a critical role to play in protecting public health and our environment from dangerous pollution," Schaffer sad. 

Illinois is part of a larger trend of cuts at environmental agencies across the country. Only California is largely bucking the trend, according to the EIP report. 

This report comes on the heels of an analysis from the University of Chicago Law School's Abrams Environmental Law Clinic. That report warned staff cuts have left the IEPA unable to follow up on the majority of self-reported violations by polluters; or conduct testing to assess much of the state's water and air quality. 

Referrals for prosecution to the Illinois Attorney General's Office have plummeted by half over the past decade. 

Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration hasn't responded to repeated requests for comment on this topic.

Tim is the News Director at WCBU Peoria Public Radio.