Story updated: 1/25/17, 11:52 a.m. Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Jeff Hart was manager for the U.S. Regional Office of Inspector General in Denver for nearly 20 years and was comptroller and planning director with the EPA for 2 years following.

Leaked Trump administration orders to freeze outside spending and employee public communication at the Environmental Protection Agency has left state officials, agency contract workers, and members of environmental groups to speculate on the administration’s full plans for the EPA and what effect those plans might have on the ground in Colorado, where some $200 million in grants and contracts are being fulfilled, including $6.4 million in fiscal year 2017 grants to Colorado businesses.

“We received notice today that the team from the new administration asked the EPA to temporarily suspend grant and contract awards. The communication was ambiguous and did not explain the duration or scope of the freeze,” said Gov. John Hickenlooper in a release issued Tuesday afternoon. “This freeze could potentially impact the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s ability to carry out its federally mandated commitment to protect clean air, clean water and safe drinking water. We have sought clarification from the EPA and have asked for assistance from Senators Gardner and Bennet.”

Denver is home to the EPA’s Region 8 headquarters.

Calls to the Region 8 office went unreturned Tuesday. Indeed, Colorado reporters with regular contacts at agency state and federal offices failed to get callbacks for clarification on the news all day.

A memo reportedly issued to agency employees restricting external communication instructed them for now to suspend publication of press releases, blog posts, social media and agency website content.

Myron Ebell, the man running the EPA transition for the new administration, played down news of the freeze on spending and communications.

“This may be a little wider than some previous administrations, but it’s very similar to what others have done,” he told ProPublica.

President Trump has promised to slash regulations on businesses, including regulations meant to protect the environment. His nominee to head the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, holds a similar view toward EPA regulations and has sued the agency repeatedly on behalf of Oklahoma industry and residents. Trump, Pruitt and Ebell also have each called into question scientific consensus on the accelerating effect of industrial greenhouse emissions on climate change.

Jeff Hart worked as a manager of the Regional Office of the U.S. Inspector General for nearly 20 years. For 2 years following this position, he worked as the acting comptroller and planning director for the EPA’s Region 8 office. Like other sources, he said his concerns for now are tied to the duration of the freeze on spending and free-flowing communication.

“If it’s days, that’s one thing. More than that would raise alarms and have real impact.”

In addition to research projects, Hart said, the EPA does emergency clean up work during floods, train derailments, tornados. EPA employees and contractors must be paid to travel and work.

The Gold King mine spill that made headlines last year, Hart pointed out, was an EPA project where agency managers worked with Colorado contractors. The agency was hammered at the time for badly communicating what happened at the mine and for failing to provide local officials and the public with timely updates on work to contain the spill and treat its effects.

“The public needs to be informed about what’s happening,” Hart said. “I’d be shocked and horrified frankly if these freezes haven’t come with the stipulation that they’re suspended in the case of an emergency.

“I devoted my professional life to bolstering government accountability and transparency,” Hart said. “I’d be worried this kind of information blackout would erode trust in government.”

He said Colorado officials would be “derelict in their duty to the public” if they weren’t pressuring the administration for answers.

Jessica Goad, spokesperson for Conservation Colorado, also hoped state officials were planning to wring as much information from Washington as they could, and as soon as possible.

“The governor should be using his bully pulpit to tell them our clean air and water matter and shouldn’t be subject to politics.”

– john@coloradostatesman.com