All 18 environmental justice employees at the regional Environmental Protection Agency office in Chicago have received layoff notices. It’s part of the Trump administration’s efforts to close EPA environmental justice offices around the country.
These staff members help people suffering from a disproportionate amount of pollution. In Indiana, that’s often lower-income, Black and Brown residents.
Nicole Cantello is president of the the union that represents the regional EPA office, American Federation of Government Employees Local 704.
She said Indiana was also supposed to receive nearly $24 million in grants from the environmental justice program. That money is earmarked for lead pipe replacements and projects to make cities and homeowners more resilient to things like flooding.
Cantello said EPA’s environmental justice staff also helped communities advocate for themselves when polluting facilities try to move in.
“All that role that environmental justice folks had is now lost. There are no environmental justice folks at EPA," she said.
Abre’ Conner is the director of the NAACP Center for Environmental and Climate Justice.
"Indiana has made great strides with electrifying more transit as well as providing more technical assistance for green infrastructure, in part because of the technical and scientific assistance the EPA staff provided with their environmental justice teams," she said in a statement. "These staff reductions are a direct attack on local advocates who have made progress to finally holding polluters more accountable and utilize resources to create more sustainable communities."
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About 100 of the regional office’s probationary employees were fired in February. Cantello said they’ve since been hired back, but were put on administrative leave. That means they’re being paid, but not doing any work.
Cantello said that seems contrary to the Trump administration's efforts to limit "waste, fraud and abuse."
"That's waste, fraud and abuse — just putting these people on administrative leave and not allowing them to help the people that they swore to serve," she said.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.