EPA’s national office to aid long forgotten neighborhoods saddled with pollution, created with much fanfare during the previous administration, is in trouble.
The bulk of its staff have been placed on administrative leave. Its foundational executive order has been rescinded. And front-facing media for the program, including its online tool spotlighting environmental dangers in disadvantaged communities, have been ripped off the Internet.
Supporters of EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights now expect it to fade away under the Trump administration to a shell of its former self, at best.
“They deserved better. They did nothing wrong,” Vernice Miller-Travis, executive vice president at Metropolitan Group and a longtime environmental justice advocate, said about the EPA employees placed on paid leave. “They went and above beyond each and every day, though they were still understaffed for the task at the hand.”
In response to questions for this story, EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said in a statement that the agency was implementing President Donald Trump’s executive order to root out diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs in the federal government.
“President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to do just this,” Vaseliou said. After a review of who had “statutory duties or core mission functions,” that led to 168 staffers being placed on administrative leave.
“EPA is in the process of evaluating new structure and organization to ensure we are meeting our mission of protecting human health and the environment for all Americans,” said the agency spokesperson.
There has been no action taken yet to eliminate or reorganize the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights and the 10 regional branches’ environmental justice offices, according to EPA.
Still, those staff now on administrative leave are expected to be let go. Last month, guidance from the Office of Personnel Management said agencies should send “reduction-in-force” or layoff notices to “environmental justice” office positions within 60 days.
The move also fits with Project 2025, the plan drafted by conservative think tanks for the next Republican president. Its EPA chapter proposed closing the environmental justice office at the agency.
Matthew Tejada, formerly EPA’s deputy assistant administrator for environmental justice who is now at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the agency’s staff was “the vanguard” of the government’s efforts to protect everyone.
“Without them, communities will face increased levels of toxic pollution, another generation of children drinking lead contaminated water, and the persistent damage to our nation’s health and wealth,” Tejada said.
Placed on leave ‘effective immediately’
EPA employees who work in the environmental justice office were told Wednesday that the agency would wind down the office and some of them would be placed on administrative leave, but it was not known at that time whom, according to two former EPA officials who were granted anonymity because they fear retaliation. Those details came down Thursday afternoon.
EPA employees received emails saying they had been identified as working in “environmental justice” or holding DEI positions, according to messages seen by E&E News. They were being placed on administrative leave “effective immediately” and told they could not access their EPA computers and cellphones, or even log into the agency’s network.
That could block staffers who want to take part in Trump’s mass resignation offer, which allows them to go on paid leave until Sept. 30 if they decide to resign by the new deadline of Monday night. Federal employees are supposed to email the word “resign” to OPM from their government accounts.
The paid leave notices spread swiftly across EPA to its outer branches. One EPA employee, granted anonymity because they feared retaliation, said their colleagues “were given 15 minutes’ worth of a heads-up” before their notices arrived in their regional office.
Alison Cassady, who served as EPA’s deputy chief of staff for policy and later in the environmental justice office during the Biden administration, said the move was not about cutting federal spending.
“This is about making it even easier for big polluters to screw over communities that don’t have the political clout and financial muscle to fight back,” Cassady said.
For over 30 years, EPA has had an environmental justice program. It was first created in 1992 under President George H.W. Bush as the Office of Environmental Equity. Later, it was renamed the Office of Environmental Justice during the Clinton administration in 1994.
The office survived the last Trump administration, then under Tejada’s leadership. It was moved from the enforcement program to the policy office, which worried advocates at the time.
Then, in 2022, Administrator Michael Regan created the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights at a high-profile ceremony in Warren County, North Carolina, considered the birthplace of the environmental justice movement. The new national program was a merger of three EPA offices: environmental justice, external civil rights and conflict resolution.
The budget for EPA’s environmental justice work expanded rapidly under the Biden administration. More than 200 employees work on environmental justice in the agency’s headquarters and its regional offices.
In addition, the agency received $100 million for those activities in congressional appropriations for fiscal 2024. The national office is also responsible for administering $3 billion in environmental justice grants under the Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s signature climate law.
Theresa Segovia from the Justice Department was hired in 2023 as the office’s top career official, or principal deputy assistant administrator. But Biden never nominated anyone to fill its Senate-confirmed leadership post, or assistant administrator.
Segovia also has seen her title change during the Trump administration. Her moniker is now deputy assistant administrator, according to a former EPA official. That mirrors what has happened to other career executives in the enforcement, mission support, science and solid waste offices, The New York Times reported earlier this week.
It’s not clear what Segovia’s status is at the agency. Vaseliou with EPA didn’t respond to follow-up questions about the agency official. Segovia didn’t answer a request for comment.
Much of this infrastructure is now under threat during this administration. Trump not only rescinded a Biden order but also what’s considered the underpinning document for environmental justice work in the federal government, President Bill Clinton’s 1994 order.
Web pages, social media go offline
EPA has begun take down webpages and social media for the environmental justice office as well.
Its X account, @EPAEnvJustice, no longer exists. The home page for the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council has been taken down. And EJScreen, EPA’s celebrated online tool to identify pollution in underserved areas, is no longer available.
Vaseliou’s statement didn’t address why that media was removed or when it will be available again.
As of Friday afternoon, the homepage for EPA’s environmental justice office is still online and indicates it has been updated since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. The page, however, still lists three Biden appointees among the office’s leaders, who have all left the agency.
Tejada said EJScreen has been a popular tool since its release in 2015, helping the public as well as environmental and health departments to identify waste in their zip codes.
“Its shuttering is not just bad for government and a setback to environmental health protection, it’s another blow to the basic respect for transparency and science,” he said.
EPA stood up NEJAC, a federal advisory committee, in 1993 to receive advice from those outside the agency working on environmental justice. Its home page going down has worried former officials.
“By silencing the NEJAC, the Trump administration is showing they don’t care about fairness or listening to people harmed by pollution,” Cassady said.
What remains of the office may be the staffers who handle its civil rights function, considering that is grounded in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Miller-Travis noticed the EPA spokesperson’s statement referenced “statutory duties.”
It is a distinction that advocates have struggled with since they believe the law already provides equal protection from environmental harms but have pushed Congress to pass legislation to enshrine that right, she said.
“Politicians could once and for all stop splitting hairs when it comes to vigorously and equitably enforcing environmental laws and regulations in the places where we live, work, go to school, worship and recreate,” Miller-Travis said.
Reporter Ellie Borst contributed.
