One of the federal budget proposals being floated purportedly includes a 25 percent cut to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency budget, and a 20 percent cut to staff. The Ohio EPA depends on the Federal agency for 20 percent of their budget, so any cuts at the federal level will inevitably trickle down to the state.

Critics of the EPA say their regulations can be so strict that they impede businesses from locating or expanding in locations, and we don’t disagree in some instances. But a good amount of work the agency has done and continues to do, focused on protection of our environment, and increasing our knowledge of contaminants, is invaluable.

Those with long memories will recall the worries about acid rain, undrinkable water and unbreathable air that plagued the 1960s and 1970s. While they haven’t gone away completely, EPA regulations and suggestions have allowed companies to continue to operate while slowly, but steadily, improving the quality of our air and our water.

We have a number of factories up and down the Ohio River corridor, doing a variety of tasks that the Ohio EPA regulates. But it isn’t just the Ohio EPA we need to consider. When the Freedom Industries spill of MCHM occurred on the Elk River, a tributary of the Kanawha River, which is itself a tributary of the Ohio, the chemical was detected as far afield as Louisville.

It was the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that detected those chemicals at Louisville, but it is the EPA that regulates the holding tanks and facilities that can potentially pollute. As incidents like that 2014 spill prove, we need to ensure we have more of the resources needed to adequately monitor, not less.

The EPA also manages the restoration of brownfields, a necessary task for reclaiming and reutilizing our old industrial sites for new development. Brownfield management would be one of the agency programs targeted for cuts under the president’s proposed budget. It’s also one of the most essential for our region in the reutilization of old industrial sites.

The EPA may frustrate us at times with its pace and rigidity. But the positive work it does cannot be denied. Weakening the agency by cutting their budget and staff so severely will only have negative effects. On the environment, and our ability to reclaim and reutilize brownfield sites for new development.