Due to funding cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory has lost about 35% of its 52-person workforce since February 2025. Severe spending limits on government credit cards have also made purchasing even basic research equipment, such as filters and containers for processing samples, difficult.
The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory monitors toxic algal blooms in the Great Lakes, helping local water authorities manage drinking water and prevent public health crises. The funding cuts have delayed the launch of data-collecting buoys, and the personnel, supplies, and technical support issues threaten the lab’s ability to operate the buoys.
According to Nicole Rice, who worked at NOAA for ten years before being fired from the lab, “[i]t has taken over a century of bipartisan cooperation, investment, and science to bring the Great Lakes back from the brink of ecological collapse. But these reckless cuts could undo the progress in just a few short years, endangering the largest surface freshwater system in the world.”