Effects of USGS Shutdown on Services to the Nation Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 16:59:59 GMT To: "E - All WRD Employees" From: "Robert M Hirsch, Chief Hydrologist, Reston, VA" (Robert M. Hirsch) Subject: USGS shutdown impacts - FYI Effects of USGS Shutdown on Services to the Nation Because of its unique role and presence in all 50 states, the USGS provides vital water and earth science information that touches the lives of every citizen every day. As a result of the Shutdown, that vital information link with the citizen has been badly damaged and the effects worsen each day. At least 30,000 requests for information on water quality, earthquakes, maps and a hundred related subjects have already gone unanswered. At the USGS National Center alone, 29 pallets of mail wait to be opened and the same is true at 200 USGS offices across the country. The USGS is responsible for keeping tabs on the quantity and quality of the Nation's water resources and to provide quick information on earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and flood potential through a network of more than 50,000 instruments across the country. But that promise could be broken if the instruments cannot be kept running . * In New Jersey, wastewater treatment plant permits are on hold at 25 sites because the USGS is unable to provide the data on low flow of streams that is needed for discharge permits. * In Oklahoma, permits for solid-waste land fills require a topographic map, earthquake hazard map and a floodplain map -- all products of the USGS that are not available during the shutdown. * In South Dakota, more than 270 contract employees have been laid off at the EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls. * In New Mexico, 25 contract employees essential to the USGS mission to operate earthquake monitoring seismograph stations in the U.S. and around the world cannot be paid. In Colorado the skeleton crew on duty at the USGS international earthquake information center has been swamped with requests for information as a result of recent earthquakes in southern California and Nevada. They can see little relief from the long hours without backup support and can only hope there are no major earthquakes before the Shutdown ends. In addition, some $4 million in USGS earthquake hazard reduction work has not gone to small businesses, states and universities as planned. In addition, $5 million in water research funding support for about 1,300 students at over 100 colleges and universities in every state has not been released. ** In Michigan, local telephone and power companies have threatened to turn off power to USGS stream-gaging stations because funds are not available to pay utility bills. This will eliminate the first line of warning for flood alerts needed by the National Weather Service in northern Michigan. ** Nationwide the USGS operates 3,500 stream stations that provide flood warning information to the National Weather Service and many city, county and State emergency management agencies. A small number of USGS employees has been called back to make emergency repairs to some critical gages, but the integrity of the entire network cannot be assured. **The USGS employees who have been called back to try and maintain the flood network are doing so at some personal sacrifice with no guarantee of pay: ++ In Iowa, Doug Goodrich, 42, of Coralville, was asked to come back to work on Tuesday (Jan. 2, 1996) to service streamgages on the Mississippi and Iowa rivers. Goodrich, father of three girls, is working long hours in chilly, 5 degree weather to maintain and adjust instruments in the streamgage. Although the government cannot pay Goodrich until the furlough is over, the instruments he works on are critical to the safe operation of some engineering structures along the Mississippi. The instruments sense and radio information about river depths and flows to Federal, State, and local agencies, who use the data to forecast river conditions and operate engineering structures. The Mississippi River gage is operated for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Iowa River gage is operated for the City of Marshalltown, Iowa. The City needs the data to operate the City water treatment and wastewater treatment plants. Goodrich's wife, Cindy, works for the Social Security Administration and is also an excepted employee who is working today, also without pay. ++ In West Virginia, Gary Crosby a lead hydrologic technician stationed in the U.S. Geological Survey office in Charleston, West Virginia braved sub-freezing temperatures and snowy conditions to service streamgaging stations in the Gauley River basin, Wednesday, January 3, 1996. Making measurements of streamflow that require wading the streams, Gary, 44, was ensuring that the gages are in working order to provide flood warnings and information for water-resource management. Married and the father of an elementary-school-aged son, Gary has worked for the U.S. Geological Survey for 16 years. He is considered one of the foremost experts in his office in the collection of water-resource information. ** Small towns across the country have been feeling the impact of the Shutdown. In Rolla, Mo., the USGS provides a weekly payroll of $385,000 in a town of 15,000 people. In Sioux Falls, S.D., the weekly $300,000 USGS payroll is vital in a town of 85,000 people. Also in Sioux Falls -- as in many USGS facilities -- food and other services are supplied by handicapped contract employees. Dick Cole and his family (he and his wife, both visually handicapped) lost their sole source of income with their jobs in the USGS cafeteria due to the shutdown. * Small business and private companies are getting caught in the squeeze. Contractors who provide guard services, for example, are mandated by law to protect life and property. Yet despite the mandate, the government has no funds to pay for these services. In Lakewood, Colo., oil and other industry groups are being denied access to the USGS Rock Core research Center that is critical to the search for energy and mineral resources around the world. * The Federal Government is losing $50,000 a day in the sale of USGS maps, but more important, thousands of citizens and public and private organizations have not been able to obtain the basic mapping and cartographic data needed to plan, build and enjoy the Nation's resources. ** More than 80,000 chemical analyses on 4,800 samples of the Nation's rivers, lakes and ground-water resources could not be made by the USGS during the first three weeks of the Shutdown, leaving unanswered questions about changes in water quality and possible threats to human health and the environment that local, state and other Federal agencies depend on the USGS to detect. ********************************************************** * Robert M. Hirsch Phone: 703/648-5215 * * Chief Hydrologist Fax: 703/648-5002 * * 409 National Center Internet: rhirsch@usgs.gov * * U.S. Geological Survey * * Reston, VA 22092 * **********************************************************