WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Environmental Protection Agency advised employees last month not to answer questions from journalists, the Government Accountability Office or the agency's inspector general, according to an EPA e-mail made public Monday.
California Sen. Barbara Boxer has said the EPA is becoming a "secretive, dangerous ally of polluters."
"Please do not respond to questions or make any statements," the June 16 e-mail said, advising staff to direct questioners to senior staff members cleared to answer questions from outside the agency.
Robbi Farrell, chief of staff of the EPA's compliance assurance division, sent the e-mail to 11 managers in the department.
The e-mail was posted on a Web site of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The group, an alliance of state and federal environmental professionals, labeled the communication a "gag order."
"The order reinforces a growing bunker mentality within an EPA that is the subject of a growing number of probes into political interference with agency operations," the group said.
EPA press director Roxanne Smith rejected that characterization, saying the e-mail was about efficiency, not secrecy.
The memo was a response to a May 2007 audit by the Inspector General's Office that found the EPA did not respond earlier to IG reports on problems with water enforcement and other issues, The Associated Press reported. The audit, however, did not make any recommendations governing communication between staff and the Inspector General's Office.
"A senior staffer in the enforcement office sent out an e-mail to simply help her office efficiently respond to requests from the press, GAO and EPA's inspector general," Smith told CNN.
