President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin was clear when he released the agency’s new mission statement in February. A top priority will be “clean air, land and water for every American,” Zeldin said, when he announced, “Powering the Great American Comeback.”
In early June the EPA released its fiscal year 2026 budget. The numbers for clean water and drinking water programs don’t align with this mission statement according to an analysis by the non-profit Northeast Midwest Institute (NEMWI).
EPA’s overall budget would be reduced from $9.1 billion to $4.1 billion, approximately a 54% cut. A “major casualty” of the budget action would be EPA programs that fund Clean Water and Drinking Water initiatives that support infrastructure work at the state level. The combined expenditure for those programs would decrease from $2.7 billion to $305 million, the NEMWI analysis said.
Great Lakes states
The eight Great Lakes states would lose a combined $723 million in clean water program funding if the proposed budget is enacted, that’s 90% of previous funding.
New York would take the biggest hit at $205 million followed by Illinois at $94 million. Minnesota is on the low end at $41 million and the lost funding for Michigan is $84 million, according to the NEMWI analysis.
Michigan’s Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy manages the funding distributed to cities for clean water programs. Spokesperson Scott Dean declined to speculate on future federal actions but said, “a reduction or elimination of federal (SRF) support will directly impact EGLE’s ability to support communities who want to invest to update or repair water systems.”
Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Lynn Sutfin expressed concern about any impact the reduction in federal funds may have on efforts to reduce lead levels in drinking water.
“Federal cuts will have a major impact on programs intended to address lead exposure. We continue to monitor this situation,” Sutfin said.
In May, EPA Administrator Zeldin announced that “Flint’s water system is now in compliance with lead standards” and he lifted an emergency order that had been in place since 2016.
A lawsuit against EPA based on its oversight of Flint leading up to the water crisis remains open in federal court. In February, EPA sought to have the suit dismissed but a judge denied the request.
Minnesota will closely monitor the federal budget proposal for 2026, Department of Health spokesperson Amy Barrett told Great Lakes Now. If the proposed reductions are enacted, “this would greatly impair the ability of Minnesota’s water systems to implement projects to keep water safe and infrastructure sound,” Barrett said.
She added, “the ability of Minnesota and other states to implement the provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act could be significantly compromised.”
In Wisconsin, “the proposed EPA budget removes federal funding that supports the supervision of most environmental programs,” Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Molly Meister told Great Lakes Now.
Included is “supervision of public water systems across the state. This is the funding that enables the DNR to ensure that the water that comes out of your tap is safe to drink,” Meister said.
Additional impacted areas are grants that protect groundwater, surface water and that keep hazardous waste out of waterways, according to Meister.
Great Lakes Now asked the EPA’s regional office in Chicago, which has oversight responsibility for drinking water, to reconcile Administrator Zeldin’s “clean air, land and water for every American” statement with the 90% budget cuts for clean water programs.
Spokesperson David Shark said any statement on the budget had to come from the White House Office of Management and Budget, which did not respond to Great Lakes Now inquiries.
Previously, the EPA declined a Great Lakes Now interview request with incoming Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel to discuss priorities in the new administration.
“Go back to the drawing board”
In a press release, the nonprofit Healing Our Waters (HOW) coalition called on Congress to reject the EPA budget and “go back to the drawing board.”
“The Trump administration’s budget request would gut programs that protect our drinking water, protect our public health, and protect our communities. It’s a complete disaster,” said Laura Rubin, the coalition’s director.
HOW acknowledged that the 2026 EPA budget retains funding for Great Lakes restoration programs.
“We appreciate this budget sparing the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative from the reckless cuts to other core clean water programs,” Rubin said.
In his first term in 2017 Trump proposed an end to Great Lakes restoration funding but it met resistance from Congress and was left out of the final budget. The restoration program has bipartisan support and has brought an estimated $4.9 billion to the region since 2010.
In a press release, the Environmental Protection Network (EPN) said the proposed EPA budget calls for “massive cuts to enforcement.” EPN is a nonprofit organization of former EPA staff and political appointees who work to build and defend the capacity of environmental agencies. The group said the cuts would undermine the agency’s ability to uphold the nation’s environmental laws and protect public health.
“This enforcement cut represents a deliberate dismantling of the agency’s enforcement infrastructure” and the consequences would reverberate through EPA’s partnerships with state agencies, EPN said.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a 2026 budget along the lines of what the White House requested. The Senate is considering the budget now and President Trump said he would like to have a final budget by July 4.
For further research, readers can find the EPA’s fiscal year 2026 budget here and the Northeast Midwest Institute’s budget analysis here.
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Featured image: Water towers, like this one in Akron, Michigan, are the most visible manifestations of a community’s water system. Essential pieces of civic infrastructure, water systems across the state need repairs. (Photo Credit: J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue)[php function=”remove_swift_shortcodes”]