The U.S. has entered the fourth week of the federal government shutdown, requiring several agencies to scale back their operations — and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency isn’t spared.

Like other states across the country, environmental protection efforts in Ohio are threatened the longer the shutdown persists.

The big idea: EPA’s contingency plan

It’s officially the second-longest federal shutdown in U.S. history, after the U.S. Congress failed to approve federal spending before previous funding appropriations lapsed.

The U.S. EPA’s contingency plan created last month outlines several programs that will cease operations under the government shutdown.

Those include:

activities at Superfund sites that don’t pose an “imminent threat to human health”

civil enforcement inspec

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