The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research program and could fire more than 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for rules safeguarding human health and the environment.

Three former Environmental Protection Agency leaders say rollbacks proposed by the Trump administration endanger the lives of millions of Americans and abandon the agency’s mission to protect the environment and human health.

For nearly 100 years, the former Exide plant melted lead-acid car batteries that polluted properties in the mostly Latino region of southeast Los Angeles.