A federal budget proposal leaked last week revealed plans by the Trump administration to reduce the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's staff by 20 percent and its budget by 25 percent.

The Ohio EPA depends on federal funding for about 20 percent of its budget, so the sweeping cuts proposed by the Trump administration would affect the state.

“I think we need to be patient,” said Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler. “Are we concerned about it? Yes … I think it’s important for us to be vocal, but also do it at the right level and at the right tone. If they’re going to be talking about cuts, we want a seat at the table.”

After fees for permits, inspections and licenses, federal funding is the Ohio EPA's second-largest source of income, accounting for about $40 million of its $200 million budget.

In 2016, the U.S. EPA awarded its Ohio counterpart nearly $37 million for programs that maintain Superfund sites, restore wetlands, protect the Great Lakes and manage hazardous waste. It also provided the Ohio Water Development Authority with $97 million in grants, down about $6.8 million from two years before.

The budget document leaked last week from the Office of Management and Budget would reduce the federal EPA from 15,000 employees to 12,000 and reduce its $8 billion budget by $2 billion.

Under the proposal, funding for some agency programs — including those aimed at protecting the climate, managing brownfields, restoring wetlands and educating children — would be reduced to a fraction of current levels. Funding would be eliminated for other programs, including one for testing bacteria levels on beaches — including Ohio’s — and efforts to accelerate the country's transition from diesel to cleaner-burning vehicles.

“This is not about budget arithmetic. This is an ideological assault on environmental protection,” said David Goldston, director of government affairs for the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council. “It doesn’t really look like anything was spared.”

The U.S. EPA’s new administrator, Scott Pruitt, said he plans to weigh in on the OMB’s working document. The office is expected to release a formal budget proposal this week.

“This is the first step of leaving the agency in tatters,” Goldston said.

Environmentalists, though fuming, expect even a majority-conservative Congress to block the budget proposal as is.

More than 60 percent of Americans would like to see the EPA’s powers preserved or strengthened under Trump — including 47 percent of Republicans surveyed — according to a Reuters opinion poll released last month.

“Do we really want a Flint crisis across the country?” said University of Montana political-science professor Sara Rinfret, who studies the public and industry relationship with the EPA. “You don’t want to go back to pre-1970s, where you have unclean air and unsafe drinking water. People remember that sort of stuff.”

Wait and see

For now, states are waiting to see how much help they will receive from the U.S. government to implement federal environmental laws.

Butler said representatives of a small group of states including Ohio met with federal budget directors this month to talk about their programming.

“Mine is a message of caution. It’s very early in the process,” he said. “Let's not jump to an eventual outcome that may or may not happen.”

But Ohio environmental advocacy groups contend that even the suggestion of steep and sweeping cuts is reason enough for alarm.

“Defunding an agency keeps them from adequately moving at the speed of business,” said Kristy Meyer, managing director of resources at the Ohio Environmental Council. “President Trump is following through on his commitment that the U.S. EPA is a bad agency. He is essentially killing it through the back door.”

That's particularly troubling for states with a history of environmental issues, said Kristen Kubitza, conservation-program coordinator for the Ohio Sierra Club.

In 2014, Toledo's water supply was contaminated by toxic algae. Every year, a toxic-algae bloom in Lake Erie stretches from Toledo to Cleveland. Blooms also have appeared in the Ohio River. Last year, the American Lung Association gave central Ohio an "F" in ozone pollution.

“People don’t necessarily understand what agencies do,” Kubitza said, “but the EPA is the agency in charge of making sure we don’t degrade the environment — not just for the impact it has for wildlife and public land, but on our health.”

Butler maintains that the Ohio EPA will continue to do its job regardless of federal cuts. “We've got a really robust schedule over the next 24 months," he said.

Great Lakes worries

Among the proposals by the Trump administration is one to slash Great Lakes restoration funding by 97 percent — from $300 million to $10 million.

“It’s going to hit Lake Erie hard,” said Meyer. “We’re not going to see the progress we need. I hope it doesn’t mean we’re going to backslide."

Since 2009, the collaborative Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has battled the algae blooms, invasive species and pollution plaguing the world's largest group of freshwater lakes.

The initiative has successfully reopened beachfronts, beckoned back wildlife, restored wetlands and removed heavy metals from the lake, said Joy Mulinex, director of government relations for the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

“This initiative was a catalyst for action,” Mulinex said. "The proposed funding levels would bring us back to a time where Great Lakes restoration was a matter of wishful thinking.”

The initiative has spent more than $182 million on 192 projects in Ohio, where Lake Erie provides a source of drinking water for 3 million residents. The lake's fishing, tourism and boating industries also depend on its health.

mrenault@dispatch.com

@MarionRenault