Puget Sound
Credit: olyportal

A draft Trump administration plan, proposing deep cuts in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, would slash the EPA’s budget for Puget Sound cleanup by an astounding 93 percent. (emphasis added)

During the current fiscal year, the EPA will have spent $28 million on restoration and monitoring of the Sound. The money has been spread among local governments, Native American tribes and nonprofits.

The spending has been driven by a longtime bipartisan goal on putting Puget Sound at the same priority cleanup level as Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, the the Great Lakes.

The Trump EPA proposal would cut that spending to $2 million.

It is part of an overall plan to cut programs and reduce EPA spending from $8.24 billion this fiscal year, to $6.16 in the next fiscal year. A newly released draft plan would also ax 17 percent from the current budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“On the heels of a speech in which President Trump committed to working for clean water and good jobs, this proposal would devastate efforts […]

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