EPA tells hundreds of Research Triangle Park scientists to reapply for jobs under Trump office cut

Brian Gordon, McClatchy Washington Bureau on May 5, 2025

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The Environmental Protection Agency is reorganizing its science research office in a move expected to impact, and likely eliminate, several hundred jobs at the agency’s Research Triangle Park campus in North Carolina.

During a virtual meeting Friday, EPA leaders encouraged staff within the Office of Research and Development to reapply for positions across other EPA offices, including a newly formed Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions, the agency confirmed. More than 1,500 ORD staff can apply for roughly 400 to 500 open positions nationwide, said Holly Wilson, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3347, which represents EPA employees in the Triangle.

“It looks like ORD will no longer be an independent program office,” she said.

ORD maintains a significant presence in Research Triangle Park, where it had around 600 scientists as of last year, according to Chris Frey, an associate dean at the NC State University College of Engineering who served at the EPA under the Biden administration. The research office accounts for roughly half of the agency’s total workforce in Durham.

Frey identified ORD’s three main focuses as measuring the health effects of air pollutants, partnering with businesses to assess toxicities, and researching homeland security threats. Another research priority is man-made PFAS, nicknamed “forever chemicals” for their long-lasting compounds that have been connected to adverse human health effects.

“The agency is going to lose most of its capacity to respond to emergency,” Frey said.

In an opinion piece published by Newsweek on Friday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin wrote that his agency is “integrating” ORD into other offices to “better ensure that research directly advances statutory obligations and mission-essential functions.”

The EPA had planned to dissolve its research office, according to documents shared in March with The News & Observer, and cut at least half of the office’s 1,540 positions. While the EPA has not yet confirmed this report, Zeldin said Friday that his agency aimed to lower spending by $300 million and reduce employment to its 1980s level.

“Under Trump, we are making the government work most effectively for the American people,” he wrote.

Competing for fewer EPA positions

Local EPA employees described uncertainty Monday as they returned to work and contemplated whether to apply for new roles or accept the agency’s deferred resignation agreements.

“The mood is mass confusion,” said a local EPA scientist who was not authorized to speak to the media and did not want to be identified because of concerns about job security. “Fear of loss of hundreds of top environmental scientists, and sadness about the effects this will have on the protection of people and the environment. It feels like a direct attack on science.”

Wilson compared the current situation to a sports league draft, where EPA managers in other offices are recruiting research scientists to apply for their teams.

On Friday, the EPA announced “workforce changes” affecting four offices — though not ORD — agency spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said in an email. All EPA employees, Vaseliou noted, are eligible to apply for positions in the reorganized offices.

President Donald Trump’s budget proposal last week seeks to cut $235 million in EPA Office of Research and Development spending. “The Budget puts an end to unrestrained research grants, radical environmental justice work, woke climate research, and skewed, overly-precautionary modeling that influences regulations — none of which are authorized by law,” the administration wrote.

The EPA is a top-20 employer by size in Durham County, state data shows. Its current Triangle campus opened in 2001 and today is the agency’s largest physical site.

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