The safety of our country’s groundwater is in danger with EPA’s proposed closure of Oklahoma lab

The Environmental Protection Agency has long been a favorite target of the budget knife, but a new looming threat is different in magnitude and impact.

The Office of Research and Development has long been the nerve center of the EPA, generating the critical research behind the action.

Under a proposed agency plan unveiled in March, the Office of Research and Development would be cut and over 1,100 scientists would either lose their jobs or be reassigned to positions in other places.

In Oklahoma, this office is located at Robert S. Kerr Environmental Science Research Center in Ada, and would be liquidated under the plan. Canceling it would be like removing EPA’s brain and just hoping that the limbs of the body still know what to do.

Many EPA administrators or Interior secretaries have been hostile to environmentalism, but current EPA head Lee Zeldin takes it to a new extreme. He wants to cut the agency’s existing $10.9 billion budget by 65% and has announced the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history” with 31 policy proposals designed to roll back Obama and Biden policies on climate change, environmental justice and tribal consultation.

If someone accidentally dumped 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel right next to your city’s water supply, you would rightly be extremely concerned that your water would become contaminated and maybe people would become ill. If the diesel got into an aquifer, that water might be ruined for thousands of years and the very existence of the city would be threatened.

It’s actually the Robert S. Kerr Environmental Science Research Center that helps state and federal officials figure out how to respond to such environmental disasters. Kerr Lab is the sole federal groundwater research lab in the country. One of its tasks is to do research on the characterization and remediation of ground water. Because of the research performed at Kerr Lab, when disaster strikes, first responders have research on what to do. Strategies have been tested in the lab and again under real world conditions.

It is very hard to get people to care about groundwater when they can’t see it or drive their boat on it. But when our groundwater becomes undrinkable, I am sure people will wonder what happened.

Oklahoma is a leader in water science because of former U.S. Sen. Robert S. Kerr’s vision. Kerr, also a former Democratic Oklahoma governor, perceived the state’s water related opportunities and had the political leverage to act upon these needs. Through his urging in the U.S. Senate, the Kerr Lab was built in 1966 in Ada after the passage of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1961. The EPA was authorized in 1970 and groundwater became the lab’s focus in 1979.

The Kerr Lab made more history in 2024 when it became the first EPA lab in the country to sign a memorandum of understanding with a Native tribe, the Chickasaw Nation. A hydrologist was recently hired under this plan to research aquifers of interest to the Chickasaw Nation and the State of Oklahoma.

Kerr called his revelation about the importance of water to Oklahoma “the flood of conviction” which occurred at Muskogee in 1943. The Arkansas River flooded, killing 26 and washing away crops and topsoil. The damage was over $31 million. As governor, Kerr promoted farm pond construction and 66,700 ponds were built between 1943-1947 for flood control. The concept of “leaky ponds” is one that EPA scientists in Ada are still working on regarding aquifer recharge research. Kerr envisioned a research mission to solve problems, not just analytical labs.

As director of the Water Resource Policy and Management masters of science degree at Ada’s East Central University, I regularly collaborate with Kerr Lab. Eliminating the Office of Research and Development would shame Kerr’s legacy and deprive Oklahomans and Americans from needed groundwater research.

It is actually not clear how eliminating the Office of Research and Development would be accomplished because it was created by statute. Only Congress would be able to eliminate the office. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) calls the move illegal.

In any case, one thing is for sure, the 76 EPA employees in Ada set to be fired or reassigned are watching the news very closely. Let’s hope our state and federal officials are doing the same.

Christine Pappas is a professor of political science at East Central University. Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.