Duluth EPA scientists rally support to stave off any closure of Great Lakes lab

DULUTH – The closure of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division lab in Duluth would jeopardize critical freshwater fish, recreation and drinking water research, a union president said Monday.

The lab’s workers and Nicole Cantello, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, are trying to rally public support to help save it.

“Tell them you did not vote for dirty air and dirty water,” Cantello said inside City Council chambers, at a meeting where lab employees shared their work with the council.

Cantello asked Duluth’s City Council to share its recent resolution of lab support with EPA leader Lee Zeldin, and asked residents to write to Minnesota’s congressional delegation.

The Trump administration has proposed closing the lab that employs around 170 people as part of shutting down the EPA Office of Research and Development.

Duluth native Carlie LaLone is a bioinformaticist scientist at the lab, which is built next to Lake Superior.

“We are a world-recognized leader in ecotoxicology,” she said, researching everything from better ways to test toxicity to emerging environmental contaminants like PFAS chemicals, and wastewater discharge and harmful algae blooms.

The Great Lakes-focused lab workers “are very passionate about our mission, which is to protect human health and the environment,” LaLone said.

Landscape ecologist Tom Hollenhorst said the lab is in the middle of a long-term study of safe fish consumption in the St. Louis River estuary, designated as a federal Area of Concern.

“As we think about some of the risks that we’re facing at the lab and the potential closures, I think it’s really important that we consider the long term data sets that we’ve been collecting and that we continue to make those available,” he said, to assess progress decades from now.

Biologist Alex Cole said he is among the early career scientists who have benefited from the expertise at the lab, working among colleagues who are considered at the top of their fields internationally.

“Not many people in life get to meet their own role models, let alone work with them,” Cole said.

Several council members voiced support for the lab.

“We rely on your work” for fresh, clean and safe water, Council President Terese Tomanek said, and “we hope and pray your jobs will continue here.”

Duluth residents held a large rally in support of the lab in March, on the road that runs in front of it.

Cantello said Zeldin’s reorganization plan hasn’t been made public, but the Trump administration indicated last week it was moving forward with layoffs and reorganizations.

When asked to comment on the potential closure of the Duluth lab, the press office provided the following statement: “Throughout the agency, EPA is continuing to invest in research and labs, including Duluth, to advance the mission of protecting human health and the environment.”

Cantello said 1,500 scientists among the various EPA research labs are facing a “devastating reorganization and dangerous layoffs” through a “cruel and confusing path forward” that includes applying for fewer new roles.

In April, U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith sent a letter to Zeldin asking a series of questions about rumored cuts and offering a blunt warning.

“Firing career scientists and shutting down a lab that leads the nation in freshwater toxicology research would have huge impacts on Minnesota and all Americans,” wrote Klobuchar and Smith.

Rep. Pete Stauber, the Republican who represents much of northern Minnesota, including Duluth, has said that no office had “officially been confirmed for closure by the EPA.”

He said in an April statement that he encouraged the EPA “to prioritize important programs and essential staff” as the EPA conducts its reviews.

A 2018 University of Minnesota Duluth study found the lab’s economic impact to the region then was $24 million annually, considering employee spending.