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Last updated on Thursday, September 6, 2018
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Today, Indiana State Representative Carey Hamilton was joined by Environmental Health Director of the Hoosier Environmental Council Dr. Indra Frank, and Indiana Invaders and Natural Resource Multiplier Coach Greg Harger at a press conference at the Indiana Statehouse.
At the press conference, speakers urged Congress to oppose any budget cuts to public health and environmental protection programs, including programs that safeguard drinking water resources and help clean up abandoned toxic waste sites, ahead of the September 30th federal funding deadline.
Rep. Carey Hamilton, Indiana State Representative said:
"Indiana has 39 sites on the EPA's superfund list of the most toxic sites in America. We also have 220 brownfield sites. All of these sites have the potential to be restored into viable, job creating commercial property. We cannot afford a federal budget that makes reductions to programs that clean up these areas and make them available for new economic activity. These programs deliver smart investments in our state's future."
Dr. Indra Frank, Environmental Health Director at Hoosier Environmental Council said:
"I work on environmental problems that impact human health, and what I've come to believe deeply over the 14 years I've done this work is that every environmental problem is also a human health problem. There are air pollution problems that trigger asthma attacks and even heart attacks, water pollution that finds its way into our sources of drinking water, damage to ecosystems that lead to reductions in our communities food, hazardous wastes released into the environment that cause cancers, neurologic problems, and even some that inhibit the development of babies during pregnancy. Given what we know about pollution and its impacts on our health, why would want to make it easier to pollute?"
Coach Greg Harger, Indiana Invaders and a Natural Resource Multiplier said:
"For me it's a real personal location. In the middle of the city we have 230 acres of habitat along our waterways where our athletes train and we engage with other groups who travel to see the fox, coyote, beaver, muskrat, and all of the wildlife that lives right here downtown. It would be a tragedy to see the recovery of this space be reversed."
A full video of today's press conference can be viewed here.
A recent report from the Environmental Protection Network analyses EPA funding cuts and harmful anti-environmental policies included in the House and Senate FY19 appropriations bills. Congress is now in the process of negotiating these bills into a final budget agreement before the end of the month.
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