At least 7 environmental workers in Philly’s EPA office placed on leave over critical letter

The Wednesday before the Fourth of July, the union that represents Environmental Protection Agency employees started hearing about workers being placed on leave.

At least seven of them are based out of the Center City Philadelphia office, according to Brad Starnes, president of the union, AFGE local 3631. Starnes said the EPA alleges that these seven were among the dozens of EPA workers who signed a letter criticizing the agency’s current leadership.

Calling this consequence “heavy-handed is an understatement — to put individuals on admin leave for expressing their opinions to their management,” said Starnes.

Some 60 EPA employees and supporters rallied in Center City Wednesday afternoon to demand that the workers be reinstated. At the rally, Starnes said he had signed the letter himself, describing its message as “respectful, objectively delivered, and on point.”

Dozens of workers across the agency have been placed on leave after signing the letter, The Associated Press has reported.

The letter, addressed to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, pointed to “five critical areas” of concern: using EPA platforms to “promote misinformation and overly partisan rhetoric;” contradicting prior EPA findings on risks such as asbestos and greenhouse gases; canceling environmental justice programs; dismantling the Office of Research and Development; and “promoting a culture of fear” within the agency.

“Today, we stand together in dissent against the current administration’s focus on harmful deregulation, mischaracterization of previous EPA actions, and disregard for scientific expertise,” the letter reads.

Starnes said the members he represents who have been placed on leave are feeling fear, anger, frustration, and shock. He declined to share their names and job titles due to privacy concerns. According to the union, their work includes facilitating clean water programs as well as managing grants for cleanups and reducing exposure to toxic pollution.

“Anything that you do in the current political environment as a federal employee, you expect that there’s going to be a certain degree of scrutiny, and sort of intolerance of anyone who speaks against the prevailing winds of the administration,” said Starnes.

“However,” Starnes added, “the response that the agency provided in the context of this particular letter did shock employees. It shocked the union.”

An EPA spokesperson, in an email on Wednesday, said the agency “has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November.”

Philadelphia EPA employee Andrew Kreider, who’s been at the agency for nearly 29 years, also signed the letter and used his full name. He is already in the process of retiring, and was not one of the seven letter-signers placed on leave.

“To me, everything in there was common sense,” said Kreider, who attended Wednesday’s rally holding a sign that read “Save Science. Save Lives. Save the EPA.”

He noted that Zeldin has said he respects the EPA‘s career scientists and engineers, and would seek their input.

“In my mind, it’s an open letter to the administrator from current and former EPA employees offering their guidance, as he had requested,” said Kreider. “His response is — I wish I could say surprising, but I can’t. I’ll just say it’s very disappointing.”

In addition to the seven letter-writers Starnes knows of, it’s possible that more EPA employees in the Philadelphia region were placed on leave because of the letter, he said, perhaps including some not represented by his union.

Some professors, Nobel Laureates, and other supporters also signed the letter, which is published on the website of Stand up for Science, a nonprofit launched after President Donald Trump took office for the second time in January.

Starnes said the employees placed on leave have a multitude of protections, and the union believes it will “prevail in this matter.” As of Monday, he hadn’t heard of any of them being called in for the investigation yet.

Justin Chen, president of the national union for EPA employees, AFGE Council 238, has called for an end to the investigations and demanded that all workers placed on leave be able to return to their jobs.

“Instead of listening to these concerns and engaging in dialogue, the Trump Administration chose to retaliate, aiming to intimidate and silence those brave enough to sound the alarm,” Chen said in a statement Monday.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia EPA workers protest at City Hall, saying ‘clean water is under attack’ amid Trump’s cuts

At the rally on Wednesday, Joyce Howell executive vice president of AFGE Council 238, brought up federal workers’ commitment to the U.S. Constitution, which was signed in Philadelphia and protects freedom of speech through its First Amendment.

“Ten city blocks away, we the people agreed to the rule of law. We chose freedom over tyranny,” said Howell. “We chose to protect the freedom of speech. It’s embodied in our Constitution, and we as civil servants swore an oath to uphold that Constitution.”

Fallout from the letter is just the latest blow to EPA workers.

In EPA’s Region 3, which includes the Philadelphia area, 14 employees carrying out environmental justice work were put on leave in February. Some had been called back to work by March, but others remained in limbo.

The Trump administration has also cut EPA grants, impacting local organizations that depend on those dollars.

They included a multiyear EPA grant of up to $700,000 for the Overbrook Environmental Education Center, a $500,000 grant for Bartram’s Garden to support planting trees and gardens, and a $500,000 grant to plant trees and weatherize homes in Hunting Park.

In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, tens of millions of dollars in EPA funding were potentially at risk, The Inquirer reported in April.