NEW CASTLE, D.E. (KYW Newsradio) — Environmental justice is what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the Delaware City Refinery in a letter was the reason it was cancelling a grant to monitor air quality at the facility.
The letter said that such considerations “are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.
Kathryn Urbanowicz, deputy director of the Clean Air Council, said the move undercuts the mission of the EPA.
“This agency should be taking care of all of us, looking out for the environmental health of all Americans and environmental justice would be directing resources where they are needed,” she said.
She said the grant was about giving residents around Delaware City the tools and information they needed to protect themselves and their health from things like chemical releases during industrial fires. It was issued by the Biden Administration in 2023.
“This would have been a network of air monitors and training for community members to help identify pollutants and track this information,” said Urbanowicz.
Last year, the refinery settled $75,000 in fines for violations of their operating license. The grant was set to fund monitoring through 2027.
Urbanowicz said the new direction from the EPA attempts to turn environmental justice into “something scary.”
“Or some kind of boogeyman,” she said. “It's just directing resources where they're most needed, like to people who live right next door to a polluting facility that could give them cancer.”
She also said there was no negotiation or discussion with the EPA before the grant was cancelled.
The EPA and PBF Energy, which runs the Delaware City Refinery, did not respond to requests for comment for this story.