EPA Union, Chicagoland Residents and Advocacy Groups Speak Out on Scott Pruitt’s Visit to Chicago

CHICAGO - Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt made a secret, unannounced visit to Whiting, Ind. just outside Chicago today to make an announcement about the EPA’s Superfund program. American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 704, the union representing some 900 EPA employees across the midwest, joined residents of East Chicago, advocacy groups like the Sierra Club and Union of Concerned Scientists, Moms Clean Air Force and more in Chicago today to speak out about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s secretive, exclusive travel to the region and his damaging policies as EPA administrator.

Pruitt snubbed his own staff, skipping a visit to the EPA’s Region 5 office for the second year in a row after draining the agency of experts on critical Superfund work. Pruitt is known to keep journalists and residents in the dark about his travel and itinerary, limiting participation or engagement with people most impacted by the EPA’s policies and enforcement.

“Since January of last year, we have lost at least 87 staff, and not a single one has been replaced,” said Mike Mikulka, President of AFGE Local 704. “Scott Pruitt’s goals are clear--he wants to hamstring our work to protect human health and the environment any way he can--by weakening environmental laws, and by reducing our staff and capacity to fight polluters, both big and small.”

Under Pruitt’s guidance at the EPA, Congress has offered no funding to the Superfund Remedial program’s environmental justice enforcement component. Pruitt also made the disturbing decision to hire Albert Kelly, an Oklahoma banker who was banned from the banking industry for life, to lead the EPA’s Superfund program.

“When those who are charged to protect our communities fail, frontline communities are left vulnerable. The entire community of East Chicago and many other communities in Northwest Indiana have been uprooted after decades of contamination, and all the while, Scott Pruitt’s been enjoying luxury travel on the taxpayer dime,” said Thomas Frank, Organizer of the Community Strategy Group in East Chicago. “Pruitt can’t tackle the very serious Superfund issues in our community and others while he’s severely cutting the staff and capacity of his agency. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Scott Pruitt’s Superfund photo op today is nothing more than lip service,” said Jack Darin, Director of the Sierra Club’s Illinois Chapter.  “We know the truth -  he’s cutting staff, cutting budgets and putting his unqualified buddies in charge of the Superfund Program.”

“Pruitt has put the health of our communities last, recruiting cronies to oversee the polluting industries they came from and putting millions at risk,” said Kelly Nichols, Midwest Organizer of Moms Clean Air Force. “The policies he advocates for disproportionately impact the most vulnerable to pollution: children, elders, and especially those in communities already suffering from environmental injustice of systemic pollution.”

”Scott Pruitt has ignored his mandate to protect public health, snubbed the dedicated workers at the EPA, and worked to gut science and accountability at the agency,” said J.C. Kibbey, Midwest Outreach and Policy Advocate with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “He has taken his marching orders from big polluting industries while lavishing himself with taxpayers’ money. He is unfit for his job, and should resign immediately or be removed.”

“I was among the many scientists and investigators who worked in Flint, Michigan--searching for the source of massive, epidemic lead poisoning--searching for the victims,” said EPA Water Specialist Felicia Chase, speaking as an AFGE Local 704 member. “Scott Pruitt refuses to meet with EPA employees like me. He doesn’t want to hear stories like mine. Because he knows that his policies are preventing us from doing our lifesaving work.”

Pruitt has a known record of asking staff to “find something for him to do” in order for him to vacation on the taxpayers’ dime, and his last visit to Chicago was no exception. In April 2017, it was reported that Pruitt blew off his office serving Great Lakes states in order to catch a Cubs game.