The Environmental Safety Company (EPA) is down greater than 700 profession staffers up to now this 12 months, the company instructed The Hill.
An EPA spokesperson stated that as of Jan. 1, the company had 17,080 staffers, whereas as of Might 30, it has 16,347 — a lack of 733 individuals.
A few of these departures had been already publicly recognized, because the company introduced in April that it was firing 280 staffers who labored on “environmental justice,” a problem space that tackles air pollution in overburdened and underserved communities, together with communities of colour.
However meaning a further 450 individuals have left the company for the reason that begin of the 12 months. An EPA spokesperson stated the determine might not embody the latest purposes for early retirement, since these are nonetheless being processed.
Staffers who’re nonetheless on the company’s payroll however are on go away — both as a result of they opted to take the “fork within the street” buyout or as a result of they’re a probationary employee whose destiny is pending in courtroom — are counted as nonetheless being on workers within the determine offered by the company.
Additional cuts doubtless loom on the company because the Trump administration as an entire seeks to shrink the scale of the federal government via reductions in drive.
The administration’s proposed finances for the company suggests payroll cuts of 35 percent for workers engaged on each science and different environmental packages.
And the company is within the strategy of an ongoing reorganization, although it stated that step one of this reshuffle introduced final month didn’t embody layoffs.
“We wish to function as effectively and successfully as doable,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated in a video saying the reorganization final month.
Stan Meiburg, who labored on the EPA for 39 years, instructed The Hill in an interview that he thought-about the discount to be considerably excessive for a 5 month interval, describing an attrition charge of about 5 p.c over the course of a 12 months to be extra regular.
He added in a follow-up electronic mail that he believes the 733 depend “understates the lack of functionality at EPA and simply how disruptive the present scenario is on the people who find themselves nonetheless there, and questioning if they’re subsequent.”
Meiburg, who was a profession official for greater than 36 years however was a political appointee for 2 and a half years through the Obama administration, stated that the lack of workers might make it harder for the company to do its job of defending the setting.
“Issues will not be going to get accomplished and that may very well be inspections, it may very well be comply with up on accounting issues, it may very well be grants and contracts,” stated Meiburg, who’s now the chief director on the Sabin Heart at Wake Forest College.
In the meantime, this week, an environmental group is discovering even increased job losses over the course of the final 12 months.
The Heart for Organic Variety obtained two EPA workers directories from an unspecified time in 2024 and in April 2025 via a proper information request from the company — and located a distinction of greater than 1,500 workers between the 2 directories.
The group expressed considerations about what such job losses would imply for the company.
“The EPA can’t shield American well being whereas dropping 10% of its workers in a matter of months. And extra firings are deliberate by the Trump administration,” stated Ivan Ditmars, affiliate lawyer on the Heart, in a written assertion.
“With out the scientists and researchers to take care of sturdy well being and environmental requirements, polluters will revenue whereas the remainder of us undergo from dirtier air and water. As Trump stops policing air pollution, we will count on extra bronchial asthma assaults, lead contamination and all the opposite harms that EPA consultants attempt to stop,” Ditmars added.
The figures offered by EPA and people discovered within the listing will not be essentially incompatible, particularly because it’s not clear when precisely in 2024 the listing comes from.
Meiburg famous that many workers have a tendency to attend for the tip of the 12 months to retire.