Trump proposed EPA cuts could add up for state.
Under the president’s proposed budget, the North Dakota Department of Health Environmental Health Section would lose all federal funding for at least seven of the national regulatory programs it administers.
The Environmental Health Section received more than $27 million in EPA funding last biennium and, before the president’s budget announcement, was expecting $26.7 million this coming biennium.
The department had expected to receive $8.4 million for these programs in the next biennium.
Glatt said elimination or shrinking of some programs won’t greatly affect the state but things like clean air and clean water funding very well could.
The radon program for air quality also would be eliminated, along with $8.05 million in associated grants.
Glatt said the state only gets a small grant on radon regulation, so this is one elimination that will have a small impact.
Wetlands Program Development grants are another the state could live without, but the programs’ $4.42 million reduction would mean less money passed on by the state to universities for the research that shapes state program implementation.
About $21 million in multipurpose grants will be eliminated, though the state was not expecting to receive anything from this one-time funding program in FY 2017.
The Nonpoint Source Section 319 grant program was eliminated.