They chanted and held signs reading, "East Chicago Demands Clean Water". Pruitt was scheduled to to tour the complex where roughly 1,000 people were ordered evacuated because of lead contamination.
Beyond that, the "basics" of the original authorization seem to suggest that the EPA would be establishing, enforcing, providing research for, and enabling others to comply with policies meant to protect the environment - just as many laypeople expect it should.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt entered the fire during his Wednesday visit to the Chicago region as he sought to calm anger over proposed EPA budget cuts, including the defunding of the agency's Office of Environmental Justice, and how those cuts would affect clean-up efforts at a Superfund site in East Chicago, Indiana.
Pruitt is scheduled to visit a Superfund site in East Chicago, Ind., on Wednesday. It was listed on the "National Priorities List" of the worst contaminated hazardous waste sites in the country in 2009.
Kaplan also said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt plans to go to the Chicago office this week "to discuss how we can make sure our efforts in East Chicago are successful".
Mike Mikulka, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, which represents local EPA workers, said the regional office extended an invitation to Pruitt, but was told he was unavailable to meet during his visit.
If the Trump administration - which has already proposed cutting almost one-third of the EPA's budget next year - were to consider closing the office, however, critics were ready to charge that it is a move that would hurt the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes. Only ignoring the environment and the public good can create a real job. In attendance were residents, NAACP national President Cornell Williams Brooks and community members.
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Bolling-Williams, who was invited to Pruitt's meeting, said: "Pruitt listened to all of our concerns but he did not offer any solutions".
Clean-up would continue in East Chicago, lawmakers said. The NAACP presented Pruitt with a list of demands, including a call for an executive order that would include a greater commitment to communities like East Chicago.
"There are a lot of issues", says Anjali Waikar, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, "but we're also hoping for clear affirmative action from the EPA with respect to the drinking water". Instead of digging up two feet of contaminated soil for disposal, digging up eight feet.
They said they've only gotten "non-denials" in response.
EPA spokesman J.P Freire called the reports "a hoax".
"The administrator and governor are arriving at a moment where the residents of this city, these cities, literally are watching or witnessing their children being poisoned by lead in the water, heavy metals in the soil, contamination in their homes", Brooks said.
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