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EPA researchers urge Duluth leaders to press agency to keep Great Lakes lab open
Summary
Four scientists and an AFGE union leader told the Duluth City Council the EPA's Office of Research and Development reorganization and potential layoffs threaten the Duluth research lab'its long-term datasets, regional monitoring and work on PFAS, harmful algal blooms and species protection.
Nicole Cantelo, president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 704, and three scientists from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Duluth laboratory told the Duluth City Council on June 9 that a proposed reorganization and layoffs at EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) put the Duluth lab and its work for the Great Lakes at risk.
The speakers said the Duluth lab, formally part of EPA's ORD, provides long-term freshwater research, toxicology and ecological monitoring used nationally and internationally to assess contaminants such as PFAS, microplastics and endocrine disruptors.
"The Office of Research and Development is facing a devastating reorganization and dangerous layoffs," Cantelo said, adding that "1,500 ORD scientists have been forced into distressing decisions, offered deals to resign, or…
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