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DEARBORN, MI – Today, Congresswomen Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) continued to express concerns about the closing of the Grosse Ile EPA station. After meeting with AFGE EPA employees recently, the lawmakers again expressed continued concerns with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) closure of the station on Grosse Ile, as well as the health and safety of EPA employees who have been relocated.

“EPA workers dedicate their lives to the Agency’s mission: ‘to protect human health and environment,’” wrote Dingell and Tlaib. “The decision to move EPA employees from Large Lakes Research Station to Ann Arbor endangers that mission and every dedicated EPA employee’s ability to do their job. The Agency must take immediate and meaningful steps to address intolerable working conditions and to provide the people of southeast Michigan, who are overburdened with exposure to environmental toxins, with the protection of their health and the environment that they deserve as taxpayers and citizens.”

The Large Lakes Research Station was the base of operations for EPA first responders in the region, housed personnel from the Criminal Investigation Division, and served as an important post for the Great Lakes National Program Office. With the closure and relocation of EPA employees, new challenges and issues have arisen, including the new working conditions for these employees, labor contracts, and what impact this will have on emergency preparedness and environmental protections.

In June, the House accepted a measures by Dingell and Tlaib to the Interior Appropriations package that would prevent the EPA from closing the Large Lakes Research Station on Grosse Ile. Dingell’s measure prevents the EPA from closing or relocating any office or facility that houses either emergency responders or a criminal investigation unit responsible for carrying out the agency’s mission, such as the station on Grosse Ile. Tlaib’s measure stops the EPA from closing offices in regions that have designated Sulfur Dioxide Nonattainment Areas. The Grosse Ile station manages the Sulfur Dioxide Nonattainment Area in Wayne County.

 A copy of Dingell and Tlaib’s letter can be found here or below:

Dear Administrator Wheeler: 

We are writing to express our continued concerns with the recent closure of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Large Lakes Research Station (LLRS) Grosse Ile Office and the relocation of EPA staff to a portafab unit within the Ann Arbor National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory. After meeting recently with EPA employees, we would like to pass on important data collected and request answers to the questions below.

EPA relocated staff from EPA’s Superfund Division, including On-Scene Coordinators (OSCs) who provide rapid responses to environmental emergencies involving uncontrolled releases of hazardous and toxic substances, Special Agents of EPA Criminal Investigation Division, and the only Great Lakes National Program Office field location in the Great Lakes and within a Great Lakes Area of Concern. We have now learned that the Ann Arbor portafab office is proving to be an unsafe and unsatisfactory location for those EPA staff, and that the facts upon which EPA made the decision to move the office was mission-flawed and wasteful of taxpayer dollars.

We believe that EPA offices must be sited and organized in a way that protects our health and the environment, and the EPA workers that work in them. It is clear that in EPA’s recent relocation to Ann Arbor, the Agency has fallen far short of those goals. 

First, the LLRS was a crucial emergency response asset to Wayne County and the metro Detroit area, which has the greatest need for environmental protection in the State of Michigan—39 percent of time critical removals occur within 25 miles of Grosse Ile. Only 9 percent occur that close to Ann Arbor. After the decision was made to close Grosse Ile, but before the new location was selected, EPA developed and submitted a Purchase Order Request (POR) outlining the mission requirements for any new office that might be selected by the Agency (see attached). 

The process envisioned the selection of a location within seven miles of Grosse Ile, the original office location. That process was canceled. Ann Arbor, which did not meet the requirements (42 miles away) was chosen. The EPA Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics, and Training Detroit Resident Office which needed quick access to the United States Attorney and the Federal Criminal Courts Building in downtown Detroit, now must travel many miles out of its way for court dates and attorney consultations.  The EPA Superfund Division’s mission, to provide quick responses to environmental emergencies involving uncontrolled releases of hazardous and toxic substances or oil into the environment, has already been compromised because the rapid response has been made slower by travel, traffic, and distance. EPA inexplicably chose to place the health and safety of EPA employees and the people of southeast Michigan at risk by moving this office far away from the highly populated and industrial Detroit metro area to a very small portafab unit inside of an emissions testing facility. 

Second, on top of that, there are outstanding concerns about the health and safety of the working conditions for staff sited at Ann Arbor. AFGE Local 704, the union that represents the employees working in the portafab unit, submitted comments to the Agency about the safety and air quality of the new portafab office space at the Ann Arbor National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory. There are still outstanding questions about how safe the air in the portafab unit is, or if the union will receive copies of the as-builts, ventilation surveys, and the second round of air sampling. Further, if there are no as-builts, did the taxpayers get what they paid for? How is air being vented through the building? Is the portafab office adequate for the Agency’s mission? 

There is no room to add additional emergency response staff to the portafab unit, and one position was nearly lost until a staff member was assigned to work in the equipment cage permanently. Why was the portafab unit built, as there seems to be dozens of open cubicles in the GSA building that adjoins the Laboratory? The GSA building was designed for employee occupancy and would have involved much less of a build-out than placing staff in a testing warehouse.

Further, over three months ago on July 8th, 2019, the Agency continued its unprecedented assault on federal employees’ union rights by imposing a unilateral, management anti-worker directive (UMAD) in place of a negotiated collective bargaining agreement on the EPA employees working in the Ann Arbor Office and protecting the Great Lakes in Region 5. The UMAD violates the rights and protections that Congress specifically guaranteed to public-sector employees. By trampling over workers’ union rights, the Agency is jeopardizing the mission of the EPA, the environment, and the public’s health. 

Because EPA scientists’ rights were revoked by the UMAD, AFGE EPA employees and union officers cannot react to health and safety issues in a timely manner. For example, EPA employees cannot talk to management about the air quality issues in the Ann Arbor Office because they cannot consult with their union officials or they need official time pre-approved. 

The UMAD strips employees of a meaningful grievance procedure, denying workers due process and eliminating EPA accountability. It evicts union representatives from office space, even though they are required by law to represent every EPA employee. The UMAD severely restricts the time union representatives can devote to union work, like meetings with employees and management to eliminate problems or obstacles in the workplace. The UMAD removed telework options and makes other work schedule changes that increase EPA’s carbon footprint and hurt EPA employees who commute long distances because they can’t afford to live close to their offices, like employees who were relocated to the Ann Arbor Office. EPA employees are unable to adjust their schedules so they can respond most appropriately to dangerous conditions in the field.  The UMAD limits how and when an employee may clock in and out of work in response to environmental emergencies which may be fast moving and unpredictable. And the UMAD imposes all of these unfair work rules for seven years.

EPA workers dedicate their lives to the Agency’s mission: “to protect human health and environment.” The decision to move EPA employees from LLRS to Ann Arbor endangers that mission and every dedicated EPA employee’s ability to do their job. The Agency must take immediate and meaningful steps to address intolerable working conditions and to provide the people of southeast Michigan, who are overburdened with exposure to environmental toxins, with the protection of their health and the environment that they deserve as taxpayers and citizens.

Sincerely,

Debbie Dingell                                                Rashida Tlaib

Member of Congress                                      Member of Congress

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