A Washington state lawmaker is urging a probe of EPA career employees for alleged “coordination” with environmental advocates around the closure of a dairy tied to manure-related groundwater contamination.
“This coordination is appalling and should be investigated,” Rep. Dan Newhouse (R) wrote in a Monday letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “If career staff did in fact coordinate with activists to target farmers, then those staff are not worthy of a taxpayer-funded salary.”
It’s unusual for members of Congress to target individual career staffers. Asked for comment, an EPA spokesperson said the agency will respond through the appropriate channels. A lawyer named in Newhouse’s letter, however, termed his allegations “self-serving.”
“It’s laughable that an agency whose mission is environmental protection could be accused of collusion with advocates who work in the public interest with the same goal to protect the environment,” Amy van Saun, a senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety, said in an interview.
