More than 700 employees including 200 scientists have left the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since President Donald Trump took office.
Besides, Trump appointed Scott Pruitt as Administrator of EPA, who denies human activity contributes to climate change and has repeatedly sued the agency, to run it, according to Newsweek.
The attrition, whether from taking a buyout, retiring or just quitting, is particularly prominent in the agency’s science department, a ProPublica and New York Timesanalysis of data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed.
“Employees say the exodus has left the agency depleted of decades of knowledge about protecting the nation’s air and water,” the Times reported.
“More than 27 per cent of those who left this year were scientists, including 34 biologists and microbiologists; 19 chemists; 81 environmental engineers and environmental scientists; and more than a dozen toxicologists, life scientists and geologists”, the report added.
As of September, nine department heads, and dozens of lawyers and programme managers also have left the agency, the analysis found.
The EPA, however, does not appear to mind all the departures. Agency officials said it continues to address environmental concerns.
“With only 10 months on the job, Administrator Pruitt is unequivocally doing more with less to hold polluters accountable and to protect our environment,” EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox told the Times.
Most of the vacated positions remain unfilled. The agency has hired just 129 people this year, only seven of whom were scientists.
The EPA’s workforce has been dwindling since President Barack Obama’s administration.
Under Obama, Republicans in Congress passed a budget constricting the EPA that reduced its workforce to about 15,000 by the end of his second term. There were 17,049 employees by the end of Obama’s first year.
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