The Environmental Protection Agency changed course Tuesday and allowed media to attend a summit on combating chemicals in drinking water, after an outcry from major news outlets that were barred from covering it.
The Associated Press, CNN, and E&E News were barred from the meeting Tuesday, while 10 other outlets were allowed to cover the first hour of it, during which EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt delivered an opening address.
An AP reporter who tried to cover the summit was “forcibly” pushed out of EPA headquarters, according to the news outlet.
AP said one of its reporters attempted to go through a security checkpoint inside the building but was stopped by security guards. The reporter then asked to talk with a member of the EPA’s public affairs team, but security guards grabbed her by the shoulders and “forcibly” shoved her from the building, AP reported.
Jahan Wilcox, a spokesman for the EPA, originally said the banned news outlets could not attend the day-and-a-half long summit meeting due to a lack of space.
“This was simply an issue of the room reaching capacity, which reporters were aware of prior to the event,” he said in a statement. “We were able to accommodate 10 reporters, provided a livestream for those we could not accommodate and were unaware of the individual situation that has been reported.”
The Federal Advisory Committee Act says “any committee, board, commission, council, conference, panel, task force, or other similar group” used by an agency “in the interest of obtaining advice or recommendations” for the federal government must be open to the public.
Wilcox later sent out a new statement saying all media, including the previously barred outlets, could attend the afternoon session, from 1 p.m. until 5:30 p.m.
The summit, attended by state, local, tribal, industry, and nonprofit officials, is focused on the challenge of removing toxic chemicals known as per- and poly-fluorinated chemicals, or PFAs, from water supplies. The chemicals have been linked with thyroid defects, problems in pregnancy, and certain cancers.
The stain-resistant chemicals have been used since the 1940s in Teflon, nonstick pans, electronics, water-repellent clothes, and firefighting foam.
The meeting comes after emails produced by a Freedom of Information request showed that the EPA helped delay the release of a study that found PFAs in water supplies are harmful to human health at lower levels than the agency previously deemed safe.
