EPA Libraries face an 80% cut.... (pointed out by an anonymous colleague)
And they were already suffering. Basically, EPA needs to have scientists to adequately regulate, right? I mean, how are they supposed to know how much arsenic or mercury can safely be in the water or what air pollution is allowable? Just listen to industry and take their word for it? How about specifying what analytical methods and setting analytical chemistry standards? So this means access to expensive chemistry and biology databases (which they might have already cut).

The agency says this won't hurt anything -- why, because they've already eviscerated the libraries? Why, because all of the scientists already travel to local state universities like Maryland and North Carolina to use their resources? The state university science libraries are supposed to pick up the slack? Or do we want government scientists (those who don't run out the door screaming) to be unaware of new developments that might affect their choices?  ¶ 11:47 AM| |cites (technorati) |