Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Federal environmental grant applications across Utah are in limbo — at least for now — given multiple reports that the Trump administration ordered a temporary freeze on any new grants or contracts from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
A University of Utah researcher proposing to study the cause of algal blooms at Utah Lake and what methods might work to best detect the problem at an earlier stage is now worried the $760,000 research grant is in jeopardy.
The grant application was submitted two weeks ago to the EPA for money to carry out a detailed analysis on the problem, which reached an unprecedented size and duration last summer in the July heat.
Ramesh Goel, a professor in the university's civil and environmental engineering department, said the three-year research project would probe the causes of bloom formation and develop new tools for earlier detection, as well as enhanced prediction methods.
"Utah Lake is a local problem, but it is one of the largest fresh water lakes in the western United states," he said. Harmful algal blooms have impacted many of the nation's waterways, such as Florida's coastline, and are causing problems in China and elsewhere around the globe, he added.
Goel said the research, in collaboration with Brigham Young University and Auburn University in Alabama, was designed with Utah Lake as the model, but its findings would have been applicable elsewhere.
Last summer, an algal bloom outbreak persisted for weeks at Utah Lake, covering nearly 90 percent of its surface and prompting hundreds of calls to the Utah Poison Control Center by concerned residents.
The toxins produced by the outbreak of cyanobacteria at Utah Lake also spread to the Jordan River, leading to worries over contamination of secondary water supplies used to irrigate crops, lawns, pastures and gardens. The lake, marina and associated beaches were posted off-limits due to public health concerns over exposure to the cyanobacteria, which had extremely high counts of toxins that affect the liver and nervous system.
While Utah is carrying out its own research efforts, infused with a $1 million emergency grant from the Utah Water Quality Board, federal funding from agencies like the EPA can often augment locally driven studies.
In the environmental arena, the state of Utah and federal partners like the EPA routinely combine funds in multiyear research projects, including a wintertime ozone analysis in the Uinta Basin and a new effort to probe the chemistry and meteorology at play in the state's inversions of fine particulate matter.
Alan Matheson, the executive director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, said his agency has no information about the possible Trump move.
"The state has received no information regarding the reported freeze on federal funds. We are actively seeking additional information so we can understand the impact of this action on our ability to administer critical programs," he said.
ProPublica and multiple national media outlets like The Associated Press and The Washington Post quoted unamed EPA employees and an email to detail the reported contract and grant freeze directed by Trump.
The White House had not released any formal statement by Tuesday afternoon, but temporary hiring or spending freezes are not uncommon in a change of administration or with the onset of a budget crunch.
In 2010, then-President Barack Obama had plans for a three-year spending freeze on national budgets, exempting only national security agencies. A year later, he detailed a five-year discretionary spending freeze.
