Rep. Barragán, EPA Administrator Regan Tour Harbor
WILMINGTON — Rep. Nanette Barragán invited Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan to see and hear the effects that pollution has had on Wilmington. Wilmington was one stop on a California tour for Regan. However, this was the first time activists of the Harbor Area were able to meet the director of the EPA in person. While he toured the 44th District, activists were able to highlight the continued decades-long environmental injustices within the district.
Before the press conference started, Barragán and Regan heard from Wilmington residents and local activists as they recounted the effects of decades long impacts of pollution on their and their families health. Ashley Hernandez, Wilmington resident and community organizer for Communities for a Better Environment, spoke about the impact of oil refineries on her community without residents even knowing it.
“A lot of youth that are in these spaces that are coming here in their formative years to play and learn and to achieve greatness are stuck smelling emissions, [these industries] have no business being near [our] communities or homes.”
Barragán started off sympathizing with the community residents.
“…[I]t’s a terrible injustice that people living in low-income communities, communities of color are often exposed to severe pollution that our neighbors in the more wealthy affluent communities are not. This pollution harms the health of these communities and it’s wrong. All of us deserve equal protection from dangerous pollution regardless of where we live.”
Barragán announced she is introducing a bill that would establish a 2,500-foot public health buffer around oil and gas production. She noted that this legislation is one that her “constituents have been asking for.”
Barragán also spoke about the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that passed the Senate recently and efforts to insure that it comes through the reconciliation process to fight back against environmental injustices.
“Regan and I are going down to the Port of Los Angeles now. The port is an economic engine for the region, providing jobs and [fostering goods] movement and trade, but it is also a major source of air pollution and water pollution that harms the health of our neighbors and community.”
The twin ports of LA and Long Beach are the single largest source of air pollution in the Southern California region. Regan took the podium to address the crowd on what the EPA began to do and what they were hoping to do moving forward.
He first thanked Barragán for her support and noted that the EPA had recently been allocated $50 million under the American Rescue Plan for community environmental projects. Regan noted that the EPA is engaging with environmental justice leaders in preparation for another $50 million in funding for air quality monitoring, including grants specifically for communities. We’re making progress.
Regan said he directed all of his EPA leadership staff to incorporate environmental justice and equity in every single thing the agency does.
Whether it’s, “Our regulatory activities, our permitting, our policies, our contracting and our procurement, we will continue to fight to ensure that every child in the United States of America can safely drink from a faucet, can inhale a full breath of clean fresh air, can play outdoors without risk of environmental harm and do it where they eat, live, learn and play,” Regan said.
At the end of the conference, Barragán and Regan walked over to an oil pumping site located right behind the Boys and Girls Club of Wilmington, before proceeding to the USS Iowa at the Port of Los Angeles for a private meeting with local environmental justice activists.
In the closed door meeting at the battleship longtime activists presented Regan with a list of existing zero emissions vehicles and Port— Freight Transportation — Energy Funding Sources. They also voiced support for zeroemissions vehicles and opposition to natural gas, drawing attention to recent reports that the natural gas industry had hired a consulting firm to hire local residents to testify at public hearings in favor of natural gas trucks, a clear subversion of public comment process.
This meeting as well as Regan’s tour of the rest of California was geared to gather the issues that he intends to address as administrator of the EPA during his term.