Two local legislator candidates joined several state lawmakers and other candidates to demand that Indiana not relax pollution and environmental standards during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in March that it would relax pollution reporting requirements and enforcement for industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. The EPA wrote in a letter saying worker shortages, social distancing recommendations and other coronavirus-related factors could make it difficult for polluters to fully comply with environmental responsibilities.
The organization 25 Women for 2020, which aims to elect more women to the Indiana General Assembly, along with seven current state legislators, wrote a letter to state administrators, including the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), Attorney General Curtis Hill and Gov. Eric Holcomb, asking them to not follow the EPA’s new guidelines during the pandemic.
Two Democratic candidates in Johnson County took part were named in the letter: Angela Elliott, who is running for House District 93; and Cindy Reinert, who is running for House District 58.
"The new guidance from the EPA gave kind of a loophole for people to get by with doing less," Elliott said. "We want to ensure that in Indiana, we are not allowing people to take advantage of that loophole."
Protecting the environment is a top priority for both Elliott and Reinert.
"Just because there’s a relaxed code that EPA is putting out, that doesn’t mean we have to follow that," Reinert said.
In the letter, the group listed six calls for action, including IDEM publicly announcing that it would not follow the EPA’s "non-enforcement" policy, and to publicize any entity in the state that asks for leniency during this time. The group is asking for transparency from the state and industries, Elliott said.
"I don’t think they will do everything we ask … this letter is a great opportunity for us to ask for transparency, and if they don’t provide transparency, then we can ask, why not?" she said.Â
IDEM released a letter on its website May 4 saying that the agency "has not identified any regulatory requirements that should be generally waived as a result of workforce impacts due to COVID-19." The agency will not relax reporting requirements but instead asked all regulated entities to communicate if they expect to have trouble meeting environmental obligations. IDEM will react accordingly, the letter said.
Also in the letter from 25 Women for 2020, is a point asking IDEM to acknowledge racial disparities in communities affected most by the pandemic and heavy pollution, Elliott said. Without proper regulation, the group worries about these communities and their environments, she said.
"Those environmental impacts are more likely to occur in low-income or minority communities," Elliott said. "Those are the same communities that have direct impact from the COVID-19 crisis, so it’s really important we’re not exacerbating those things at the same time."
The group is also concerned that without the EPA, IDEM won’t have some of the resources it needs to enforce pollution reporting requirements, Elliott said.Â
"This really concerned us, that this might make a problem that’s already a problem, a bigger problem," she said.
"I’m excited to see a group of women in elected offices and women running for office work together … There’s power in numbers and there’s power in having more than one voice."
