EPA sets December 31, 2026 date to shut its online web archive
Original title: The EPA Is Quietly Killing Its Web Archive
The archive holds tens of thousands of EPA documents back to the 1990s; the agency did not respond to a comment request.
The Environmental Protection Agency updated a webpage to say its online web archive will be decommissioned on December 31, 2026. Environmental Data and Governance Initiative co-founder Gretchen Gehrke said the collection, dating back at least 20 years, would be lost if taken down. The Biden-era EPA delayed and then softened an earlier shutdown plan; the site has not been updated for about three and a half years but stayed public. The page points to snapshot collections, which critics say may not preserve the full record.
Unconfirmed: It is unconfirmed whether snapshot collections will retain all, or only part, of the archive.
- A 2022 FOIA response put yearly upkeep at roughly $2 million.
- A 2022 shutdown plan was delayed to July 2023, then left without an end date in March 2023.
- The archive preserved Camp Lejeune investigation documents and deleted climate pages from Trump's first term.
- The updated page says historical information can still be found in EPA snapshot collections.
- Countries
- United States
From the original article
4 min read at motherjones.com
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By robtherobber · motherjones.com
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