ABOUT LOREEN TARGOS:

Loreen Targos is Executive Vice President of the American Federation of Government Employees-Local 704, which represents about 1,000 EPA workers.

ABOUT LISA WOZNIAK:

Michigan League of Conservation Voters

/

michiganlcv.org

Lisa’s career spans over two decades of environmental and conservation advocacy in the political arena. She is a nationally- recognized expert in non-profit growth and management and a leader in Great Lakes protections. Lisa is a three-time graduate from the University of Michigan, with a bachelor’s degree and two ensuing master’s degrees in social work and Education.

Lisa serves a co-host and content partner in 89.1 WEMU’s ‘1st Friday Focus on the Environment.’

RESOURCES:

Michigan League of Conservation Voters

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

EPA Region 5

American Federation of Government Employees Local 704

TRANSCRIPTION:

David Fair: This is 89 one WEMU. And welcome to the first Friday in March. On the first Friday of each month, we bring you a look at environmental topics vital in importance to the state of Michigan and here in Washtenaw County. I’m David Fair, and this is WEMU’s First Friday Focus on the Environment. In order to best steward the environment, you need people. You need resources. It appears there may be less of both as we move forward. Here to help steward today’s conversation is my co-host for this monthly conversation series. Lisa Wozniak is executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. And, Lisa, rather uncertain times we’re dealing with.

Lisa Wozniak: Indeed, David, indeed! And some of that uncertainty deals with what our environmental science, regulatory and enforcement agencies will end up looking like. The Trump administration has already taken aim at the Environmental Protection Agency, and that could have a significant impact on protections and enforcement in our state. Our guest today can get us up to date on where things now stand and where they may be headed. Loreen Targos is executive vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, which represents nearly 1,000 EPA workers in the Great Lakes region. Thank you so much for joining us today, Loreen!

Loreen Targos: It’s my pleasure! Thank you!

David Fair: I can’t imagine that you were shocked when some of the employment announcements came down. Or were you?

Loreen Targos: Some of us were shocked, and some of us remembered what it was like under the first Trump administration when they wanted to do these things. And it seemed like this time around, they were very much ready to move at a really quick pace.

Lisa Wozniak: So, what has happened over the last many weeks, Loreen? How significant have the cuts been in EPA Region Five?

Loreen Targos: Well, we’re coming up in just about a week on the end of a continuing resolution, which has kept our agency funded up until this point. And we’re not sure if the government is going to be shutting down at that time. And so, under President Trump, we saw a government shutdown in 2019 that had devastating impacts for our communities, and that might be happening again in about a week. And at the same time, we saw some workers from our region here in Region Five, in the Great Lakes area, terminated from environmental justice programs or probationary workers. And we’re really concerned that that’s going to continue.

David Fair: And it seems to me, should that continue, a lot of valuable experience may be shown the door. What might we lose when it comes to regulatory oversight and enforcement as a result?

Loreen Targos: Well, we’re worried that we saw the president come out and say that they were going to terminate 65% of staff and then correct that with we’re going to cut 65% of funding. And so much of our funding, particularly grant funding, goes to state environmental agencies. So, it’s not only going to be federal enforcement that gets cut but also state enforcement that gets cut.

David Fair: This is WEMU’s First Friday Focus on the Environment, and our conversation continues with the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 executive vice president Loreen Targos. We’re looking at cuts in employees and resources in EPA Region Five. The other voice you hear today is that of my co-host, Lisa Wozniak from the Michigan League of Conservation Voters.

Lisa Wozniak: So, Loreen, you’ve noted there have been conflicting reports coming out of this administration. You noted that the white House first announced 65% cuts to staff, and the next day walked that back, saying it was 65% of funding. So, I’d love to dig into this. From your perspective, what and how will these reductions impact the mission and the performance of EPA?

Loreen Targos: Well, our mission is to protect human health and the environment. And by making these cuts, they’re showing that our mission to protect human health and the environment is not a priority. For example, if the EPA administration cut the appropriation, like the White House has said, just in Michigan, we would lose $185 billion in funding for the Safe Drinking Water and Clean Water Grant. And we would lose about 670 staff out of a thousand that are in in the state agencies. That’s something that we’re concerned about.

David Fair: One of the federal programs that has paid tangible and measurable dividends is the Great Lakes Initiative and the Great Lakes Action Plan. How might our Great Lakes and our sources of drinking water be impacted by all of the funding uncertainty, as well as the real possibility, protections and standards will be weakened or eliminated?

Loreen Targos: Absolutely. We have several areas of concern throughout the Great Lakes, including in Michigan, including on the Detroit River and all around the state. And if those areas don’t receive critical funding on a timely basis, then we can see remediation actions, as well as the buildup to those remediation actions halted, slowed down, inhibit the recovery–the economic and environmental recovery–of those areas.

Lisa Wozniak: So, throughout Region Five and here in Michigan, the Great Lakes system is dependent upon wetlands and rivers and lakes, all of which face their own individual challenges. These are systems that feed the world’s largest body of freshwater. Have you begun to assess the potential impacts on those areas?

Loreen Targos: We’re very concerned with those areas not being protected. We are planning, right now in our union, to go back to Washington, D.C., to lobby our representatives in Congress to let them know that these critical theaters for our clean water supply are in danger. If the Trump administration leaves these water supplies unprotected, we’re already seeing in our enforcement actions that when we do do an inspection and it comes back that we need to do an enforcement action, those enforcement actions now need to go through eight levels of approval all the way up to headquarters in order to just move forward on the first step. So, polluters are getting the message that they’re not being enforced.

David Fair: We’re talking with American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 executive vice president Loreen Targos on 89 one WEMU’s First Friday Focus on the Environment. I want to talk and look into the realm of environmental justice, Loreen. Anything with the letters DEI included have been targeted. And that’s being applied with varying definitions. Environmental harms can have greater impact on lower income and traditionally marginalized portions of our communities. $81.7 million in environmental justice funding was granted to projects in Michigan. That was delayed by Trump’s freeze on federal grants. We’ve made strides in environmental justice over the years, but we can all agree there’s a long way to go. What harms do you fear most on that front?

Loreen Targos: I fear most that the people who need the protection of the Environmental Protection Agency the most will not get it. Environmental justice, in a sense, is triage. It’s a targeted intervention to the people who are most at risk of environmental harm, exposure to cancer-causing chemicals and all sorts of things that we need to protect human health from. When we undermine environmental justice, we undermine the most critical resources going into people who are most affected by environmental justice. For example, in areas where working class people live, those are areas where industry might also concentrate and have the least political power to push back against more emissions and more contamination to the water. And by focusing on environmental justice or triaging those items, we are focusing on the people who are most impacted. So, big cities and rural areas are areas where these big industries might concentrate, and we need to have a focus on that. And when Trump says he wants to pull back, he’s telling the people who are in these concentrated areas of industry that the human health there doesn’t matter as much as it does in, possibly, a more affluent area that isn’t near heavy industry.

Lisa Wozniak: So, Loreen, the repercussions of these decisions could last for generations, not only for the environment and public health, as you pointed out in the short term, but in the ability to provide stewardship in the future. And with all that’s going on, do you anticipate that there will be a drop in the number of people who are training and choosing to go into civil service careers?

Loreen Targos: There’s already been a chilling effect for people who want to go and do public service in the federal government. One of the benefits of serving in the Environmental Protection Agency, for example, or serving in a state environmental agency, was that maybe you aren’t paid the best as you would in private industry, but you’re serving a mission. And we’re seeing that the mission isn’t being served. Even right now, just over a month into this administration, they’re showing us that these institutions are not going to be protected. And so, what assurance do people have for investing in a career right now to go into that sort of job knowing that, month to month, it’s going to be a question of whether they can provide housing for their families. It’s destabilizing the whole infrastructure of human resources, going into doing the work that protects human health and the environment.

David Fair: Our time together is winding down, but one final question, Loreen. How optimistic are you that you can win at least a good portion of the battles that you are now engaged in?

Loreen Targos: Well, the fact of the matter remains that every single human being listening to this radio station right now, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, every single one of them needs clean water, every single one of them needs clean air and have a duty to protect that not only for themselves, but for the generations that are coming along. And that’s where the workers of AFGE 704 are investing their efforts: organizing, building power within our communities to protect our resources. Because, ultimately, the people who profit from taking away those resources are very few. And so, if we are working together, strengthening our relationships and overcoming these artificial divides, we’ll see that we at the EPA are very devoted to our communities in a way that the people who are dismantling our agency are not. And so, we need to build those strong coalitions that are able to push back and protect our critical resource here in the Great Lakes. And I believe that, ultimately, people will be able to unite around that really important cause.

David Fair: Well, thank you for sharing your time today and your perspective, Loreen! Much appreciated!

Loreen Targos: Thank you so much!

David Fair: That is Loreen Targos, executive vice president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, representing nearly a thousand EPA Region Five workers serving the Great Lakes area. And thank you, Lisa Wozniak! We’ll see you on the first Friday of April!

Lisa Wozniak: Thank you, David! Thank you, Loreen! Look forward to our next show, David!

David Fair: That is Lisa Wozniak, executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and my co-host on First Friday Focus on the Environment. I’m David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89 one WEMU FM, Ypsilanti.

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