Pocatello EPA Office To Close

The Pocatello office for the Environmental Protection Agency will soon be closing its doors, and some local environmental activists aren’t too happy about it.

The EPA said it has changed its prioritizes, and the resources used to keep a small office in Pocatello open could be better used somewhere else.

Sue Skinner is the lone worker in the soon-to-closed EPA office, but she’s not facing a layoff. She has been offered a new job with the EPA in Seattle.

The EPA said even though the local office will close sometime in the next few months, the Boise office will work to protect southeast Idaho’s environment.

Pocatello got the EPA community outreach office about nine years ago. Local environmentalist Muriel Roberts said Pocatello needed the EPA office then and still needs it now.

?That indicated that EPA really cared about this area and our particular problems. I’m not sure all those problems have been solved and we don’t need an outreach person here,? Roberts said.

Skinner said she hasn’t made a decision yet on whether she’ll move to Seattle to take the new EPA job.