12/19/2025
Illinois among states with most cuts to environmental agencies, report shows.
Article by: Christiana Freitag Chicago Tribune.
Photo by: Stacey Wescott
"In the past 15 years, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has faced major budget cuts and a 21% decline in staffing, according to a recent report from the Environmental Integrity Project.
Illinois is among the 14 U.S. states with the most significant cuts to its state environmental agency, the report by the national nonprofit says. These states, which cross political and geographic boundaries, will likely conduct fewer inspections and weaken protections against pollution, said Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project.
“These agencies ensure that our drinking water is clean and safe, that the air we breathe is free from harmful pollution, and that our rivers, lakes and coastal waters remain healthy,” Duggan said. “Their efforts safeguard lives and enhance the overall quality of life for people across the United States.”
As the administration of President Donald Trump pushes for a 55% cut to the U.S. EPA for fiscal year 2026, these findings should raise alarms for states, said Jennifer Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, an organization that advocates for environmental policies.
“This report is a warning,” Walling said. “If both lines of defense, our state agencies and the U.S. EPA, are weakened at the same time, pollution enforcement will falter, emergencies will happen and public health will suffer.”
The report highlights a nationwide trend that saw over half of U.S. states cut their environmental agency budgets. Illinois ranks high on this list, with over 193 IEPA job cuts between 2010 and 2024, according to the Environmental Integrity Project report. In 2024, IEPA had 760 staffers.
Environmental budget cuts are occurring at the state and federal level, with the U.S. EPA budget shrinking by 40% since 2010. This means state environmental agencies have been left to pick up the slack, according to Duggan.
“If EPA capacity to do its job is further diminished, how prepared are our states to shoulder more responsibility from these threats?” Duggan asked. “Unfortunately, not well, as it turns out.”
In Illinois, the IEPA budget has shrunk partially due to the state’s failure to contribute general revenue to the agency since 2003, the report says. This has forced the IEPA to rely on unstable funding streams like permit fees and industrial and federal grants, Walling said.
“We’ve asked our environmental agency to do more every year while giving it less than it had a generation ago,” she said.
The IEPA didn’t initially comment on how a lack of general revenue from the state since 2003 has affected operations at the agency.
Walling also said she believes IEPA budget strains are affecting how quickly open positions can be filled at the agency. Slower hiring has caused major program delays, including a backlog for closure permits for toxic coal ash ponds across the state.
“When state capacity is stretched thin, that pressure falls on already cash-strapped cities like Chicago and other local governments that are juggling urgent public health, housing and infrastructure challenges, ” Walling said.
The report spotlights recent Illinois environmental hazards, like the 2021 explosion at the Chemtool manufacturing plant in Rockton.
In June 2021, the Rockton plant caught fire and released an estimated 700 tons of carbon monoxide and 58 tons of toxic organic compounds, according to the report. Residents were forced to evacuate and it took nine days for crew members to put out the flames.
Many Rockton residents, like U.S. Army veteran Brent Loomis, say they felt betrayed by Illinois agencies in the wake of the environmental disaster. Loomis had left the windows in his home open that day. Less than a mile away, the plant exploded, destroying his house and, he says, eventually causing the fatal cancer that killed his service dog a year later.
“I wound up having to leave because everything I own got destroyed,” said Loomis, who moved to Florida. “All these chemical catastrophes are destroying everything and everyone, as far as I’m concerned.”
Loomis said it took days for cleanup crews to arrive at his home, where chemicals had settled into the soil and coated the sides of nearby houses. He and other residents, including Evan Schoepski, say they resent having to shoulder the consequences of the plant’s negligence.
“A small town like Rockton cannot afford to clean up the multidecade environmental impacts of machinery, engineering waste and petroleum products seeping into the groundwater,” Schoepski said. “They’re already struggling with the loss of a corporation that negligently blew itself up.”
Rockton is one example among many across Illinois, as the state’s environmental agency remains underfunded and short-staffed, according to Walling.
“These types of disasters can be prevented by strong permitting, inspection and enforcement,” Walling said.
In Chicago, a massive asphalt spill at the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal last February has left behind an environmental crisis that has gone unresolved, she said.
“Pollution remains and cleanup has stalled because the federal government has simply walked away from an incomplete cleanup, ” Walling said. “Local and state agencies simply don’t have the resources to pick up the cases when the U.S. EPA steps back, all the time.” While the IEPA is the smallest it’s been in 15 years, Illinois has also experienced an increase in major polluters in recent years. The study notes that since 2016, Illinois has had a nearly 8% increase in polluters like oil and manufacturing plants coming to the state, requiring more IEPA regulation and oversight.
The report noted that the IEPA has seen improvements since Gov. JB Pritzker took office in 2019, with increased staffing, climate programs and the number of environmental enforcement cases sent to the Illinois attorney general’s office.
IEPA spokesperson Kim Biggs confirmed the agency has added 223 staffers during Pritzker’s administration. She said the IEPA’s state-funded budget has increased by over 57%, or $228 million, since 2019. However, Walling said this isn’t enough. “IEPA is still operating at a deficit of resources compared to what Illinois communities truly need, ” she said.
Other states that have significantly cut funding for their environmental agencies include Texas and New York, as well as neighbors like Wisconsin and Iowa. Mississippi slashed its budget by 71%, the most of any state.
As Congress prepares to vote next month on the 2026 budget that includes funding for the U.S. EPA, members of the Environmental Integrity Project say they hope this report serves as an urgent call to action for state and federal lawmakers to do more to ensure environmental safeguards nationwide.
“If both lines of defense fail through harsh cuts to federal
and state environmental agencies,” Duggan said, “public health, our natural ecosystems and the global climate will suffer serious and lasting harm.”
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