{"id":27982,"date":"2025-06-13T15:52:03","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T19:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=27982"},"modified":"2025-06-13T15:52:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T19:52:04","slug":"news-following-pressure-from-sens-ossoff-rev-warnock-trump-admin-reverses-planned-closure-of-norcross-water-quality-office","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/news-following-pressure-from-sens-ossoff-rev-warnock-trump-admin-reverses-planned-closure-of-norcross-water-quality-office\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWS: Following Pressure from Sens. Ossoff & Rev. Warnock, Trump Admin Reverses Planned Closure of Norcross Water Quality Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, Sen. Ossoff <\/em>pressed<\/em><\/a> Trump Admin\u2019s Interior Secretary to reverse planned closure of USGS office [<\/strong><\/em>hearing video footage here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norcross, Ga.<\/strong> \u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff successfully pressured the Trump Administration to protect a key Georgia water quality office in Norcross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock demanded answers<\/a> from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) about impacts on water quality and supply following the Department of Government Efficiency\u2019s (DOGE) apparent decision to terminate the United States Geological Survey\u2019s (USGS) Water Science Center\u2019s lease in Norcross, Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USGS facility regularly tests water quality<\/a> to help ensure the safety of Georgians\u2019 drinking water and maintains water gages that are used by local officials across the State to ensure enough water is provided to millions of Georgians every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, following the pressure from Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock, DOI has reversed the termination<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn some cases, the Department took action to reverse a termination due to the critical nature of the mission, unavailability of alternative, cost-effective solutions, or the specialized nature of the facility,\u201d Acting Assistant Secretary Tyler Hassen <\/strong>wrote to Sen. Ossoff<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> \u201cYou will be pleased to know that the GSA rescinded the termination of the USGS lease in Norcross, Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStaff at the Water Sciences Center perform water quality testing to ensure the safety of drinking water and maintain water gauges across Georgia, including Lake Sidney Lanier and on the Chattahoochee River, which supplies most of metro Atlanta\u2019s drinking water,\u201d Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Warnock wrote to Interior Secretary Burgum in April.<\/strong> \u201cLocal officials in metro Atlanta rely on gauges at Lake Lanier to ensure enough water is drawn from the lake to provide water to millions of Georgians every day. These gauges also inform water flows for Georgia\u2019s agriculture industry, nuclear reactors across the state, and Department of Defense installations, among others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, in a U.S. Senate Appropriations hearing, Sen. Ossoff pressed<\/a> Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for answers about the apparent decision to terminate the lease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to read the Interior Department\u2019s letter to Sen. Ossoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # #<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, Sen. Ossoff pressed Trump Admin\u2019s Interior Secretary to reverse planned closure of USGS office [hearing video footage here] Norcross, Ga. \u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff successfully pressured the Trump Administration to protect a key Georgia water quality office in Norcross. Earlier this year, Sens. Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock demanded answers from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27982","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/27982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/27982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27983,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/27982\/revisions\/27983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}