Staffing cuts to agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency are a willful cruelty one former leader of the agency hasn’t seen in her lifetime.
Debra Shore, former regional administrator for EPA Region 5, has been distressed watching the agency undergo attacks from the Trump administration, including staffing changes, grant cancelations and deregulations.
Shore was appointed by former President Joe Biden in October 2021 and served as administrator until Jan. 20.
“What I found in my time leading Region 5 was a remarkable team of smart, devoted professionals who had a shared sense of mission,” Shore said. “They wanted to help protect human health and the environment, and they were doing so.”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Wednesday announced “the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” according to a news release from the administration.
Actions include reconsideration of power plant regulations, vehicle regulations and terminating environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion arms of the agency.
“We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more,” Zeldin said in the release. “Alongside President Trump, we are living up to our promises to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission.”
Shore mentioned multiple concerns with Zeldin’s announcement, particularly that he didn’t mention protecting human health and the environment. The deregulation isn’t about reducing spending or identifying waste and fraud, Shore said.
The agency was created in 1970 in the wake of growing concern about the impact of industrial and agricultural pollution on public health across the country. Locally, multiple fires broke out in the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, fish dieoffs occurred in the 1960s along the Grand Calumet River, and open hearths at steel mills routinely pumped dust into the atmosphere that rolled over Gary like a blanket of fog.
An internal memo to the EPA said Zeldin plans to reorganize and eliminate offices of environmental justice at all 10 EPA regional offices and the one in Washington, D.C., the New York Times reported. The EPA had reached out to local communities like Gary to be
Shore doesn’t know how many staff members will be impacted in Region 5 because of the environmental justice office closures. However, that will make communication between the Region 5 office and communities like those in Northwest Indiana more difficult.
“That’s going to affect their ability to disperse funds and inspect facilities and more,” Shore said. “You can remove the label ‘environmental justice,’ but you still have those communities — many of them rural — that are overburdened by pollution from nearby chemical plants, manufacturing plants and power plants.”
Gary activist Kimmie Gordon near the entrance of Gary Works, one of the nation’s biggest polluters, Oct. 13, 2023. She and other residents formed Gary Advocates for Responsible Development to oppose projects like a trucking hub in the west side neighborhood where Gordon grew up, or a gasification plant to turn Chicago’s plastic trash into fuel. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
In Indiana, Gov. Mike Braun signed two executive orders targeting the environment, including one to make state regulations consistent with national ones and one prohibiting the use of “environmental justice” in permitting, enforcement and grant decisions.
“…the concept of ‘environmental justice’ has become increasingly politicized and has often led to the introduction of subjective, non-scientific factors into environmental policy and regulation…” one of Braun’s executive orders read.
Hoosier environmental advocates have expressed concerns with Braun’s actions.
Coupled with EPA deregulations, environmental protections are at risk and rollbacks can have deadly consequences, said Robyn Skuya-Boss, chapter director for the Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter.
“It’s sort of this question that if the federal EPA is looking to roll back environmental protections, then can this be followed suit by Indiana and our state agencies in reducing those environmental protections?” Skuya-Boss said.
Although Skuya-Boss is not surprised by the actions of Zeldin and Braun, he is disappointed to see the environment isn’t prioritized.
A sign at the former Federated Metals smelting plant on the border of Hammond and Whiting warns visitors to not trespass on an area of the property that is heavily contaminated with lead and other toxic chemicals. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed that the property belongs on the Superfund National Priorities List, a list of sites where releases of contamination pose significant human health and environmental risks. (Christin Nance Lazerus / Post-Tribune)
Skuya-Boss encourages local leaders and advocacy groups to become more engaged and make their voices heard, especially in more polluted communities, like those in Northwest Indiana.
“Pollution is not distributed equally,” Skuya-Boss said. “Promises were made by our government in addressing these sort of long-standing environmental impacts, what we’re really seeing is those promises being broken under the guise of these public policy changes and environmental protection rollbacks.”
Northwest Indiana environmental groups also reacted to EPA changes and Braun’s executive orders. Gary Advocates for Responsible Development said in a press release that shutting down environmental justice offices means more serious health harms in the city.
“The country is going to see more people with asthma, cancer, lung diseases and health problems,” President Dorreen Carey said in a news release. “This will be especially true in the communities like Gary that already suffer from being overburdened with air, land and water pollution.”
Susan Thomas, director of policy and press for Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said Zeldin’s actions are not science based, and rollbacks will be damaging and dangerous to communities nationwide.
“This ends three decades of work the EPA has tried to push forward addressing the disparities between low income and minority communities, and the brunt they have historically had to bear against polluting industry,” Thomas said. “This removes all protections. We are in a very precarious spot, and there will be pushback.”
Zeldin’s actions won’t safeguard community health or the environment, Thomas said.
Closing environmental justice offices will put communities at a disadvantage and will no longer help communities advocate for themselves.
EPA cuts will not immediately happen, Shore said, because action will be taken in the courts. However, it’s dangerous to roll back measures that monitor air and water quality and that hold corporations accountable.
“Those efforts to both monitor and then enforce will be reduced because of cuts to people and cuts to budgets, and so many residents of communities that live near polluting industries won’t know what they’re being exposed to,” Shore said. “They’ll still suffer from air emissions and degraded water quality, but they just won’t know about it.”
If federal standards are taken away, Indiana standards will also be gone, Thomas said after Braun’s executive orders were released.
Reducing environmental regulations will have negative economic effects, Thomas also said. People want a healthy, vibrant quality of place, Thomas said, and if the quality of place is decreased, those communities will suffer.
“What EPA (deregulations) and these executive directors do is rip the rug out from under that,” she added. “Industry and businesses really need to look at how they are impacting the quality of place because that has a strong economic impact.”
Crew members begin the April 2018 demolition of the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago, which was contaminated with lead and arsenic from an existing U.S.S. Lead Superfund site. (Suzanne Tennant/Post-Tribune)
Indra Frank, coal ash advisor for the Hoosier Environmental Council, said she’s worried how deregulation is going to impact coal ash cleanup.
In Zeldin’s Wednesday announcement, he said the EPA plans to prioritize its coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and update coal ash regulations. However, changing coal ash rules can take years, Frank said, and it could stall cleanup.
“Coal ash cleanup projects are large, multi-year projects,” Frank said. “Changing the federal rule in the middle of cleanups that were already happening because of the rule in place just throws that off. How are our industries supposed to plan and budget for these multi-year projects when the rule keeps changing? That inconsistency can be very costly.”
Coal ash is a byproduct that is created primarily from burning coal in power plans, according to the EPA. Communities statewide have had issues with coal ash, including the Town of Pines, which has fought for cleanup measures from NIPSCO for more than 20 years.
Coal ash contamination also negatively impacts the economy, Frank said, because it contaminates groundwater and makes large amounts of land unavailable for development.
Going forward, Frank said she plans to still advocate for responsible cleanup of coal ash and protecting Indiana communities. She encourages community groups to advocate for better environmental standards locally.
Shore continues to tell staff at EPA Region 5 that American people want and deserve clean water, clean air and safe places to live. Staff need to continue advocating for Americans while their jobs are under attack, Shore said.
“Science supports what the EPA has been doing, and it’s clear cut in many places,” Shore said. “I think when Americans start realizing what’s at risk, as they have with other parts of society, they will let people know. That’s my hope.”
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
