FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014\u00a0In Echo Heights, a neighborhood in Fort Worth, a group of Texas-based environmental advocates have joined a class action lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). They say that the billions of dollars cut from grants designated to help improve air quality have put vulnerable communities at risk. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Members of the community say they already face an uphill battle addressing poor air quality in their neighborhood, but the existing lawsuit against the EPA has raised more concerns. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Letitia Wilbourn is one of the members of the Echo Heights Stop Six Environmental Coalition, which is blaming the City of Fort Worth for the industrialization that has caused the health catastrophe in their community. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy kids used to wake up listening to chickens in the morning and roosters,\u201d Wilbourn said, noting the change to the area since her arrival in 1985. \u201cYou got this trucking company that the city thinks is a good idea to put in someone\u2019s backyard. With trucks comes noise, comes pollution.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wilbourn, who is battling a rare brain condition, said, \u201cWe have one of the lowest life expectancies in the state, some of the highest cancer rates in the entire United States, some of the highest pollution rates in the United States.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re now concerned things will get worse after the EPA\u00a0cut $3 billion in federal grants designated to address air quality issues. Texas-based organizations Air Alliance Houston and Downwinders at Risk joined a class action lawsuit against the EPA\u00a0in June.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
They allege the termination of the program is unlawful and impacts the disadvantaged communities the grants were created to assist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The American Lung Association gave Dallas-Fort Worth a grade \u201cF\u201d in 2024 for environmental issues, ranking it among the top 25 metro areas with the worst ozone pollution.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these frontline environmental justice neighborhoods are neighborhoods are predominantly Black and Brown that are disproportionately burdened with air pollution and other environmental pollutions,\u201d said Cindy Hua, board chair of Downwinders at Risk.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Downwinders environmental health study shows disproportionate asthma rates in predominately minority neighborhoods. Of those surveyed, the data shows an 18% rate in the Joppa area and 34% in West Dallas \u2014 well above the U.S. rate of 13.5% and the national Black rate of roughly 16%\u00a0<\/p>\n
Downwinders says the EPA canceled a $500,000 grant that would have expanded a local air monitoring program from Joppa and West Dallas to Echo Heights and other areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a whole situation that we\u2019ve been dealing with for years and years. This is not the first time that we\u2019ve made mention and\/or petition and showed up and showed out and still get overlooked and unheard,”\u00a0Teena James, vice president of the Echo Heights Stop Six Environmental Coalition, said.<\/p>\n
They will keep fighting. As the legal process continues and more groups join the lawsuit, advocates say there\u2019s still work to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be doing what we do best, and that is going on the ground doing community engagement and education workshops,”\u00a0said Hua.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gonna improve everybody\u2019s quality of life,”\u00a0Wilbourn said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014\u00a0In Echo Heights, a neighborhood in Fort Worth, a group of Texas-based environmental advocates have…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,14857,7362,5281,1596,746,7371,7372,50,358,41035,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,60449,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-90928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-app-environment","10":"tag-app-nested-news","11":"tag-ctv","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-fort-worth","15":"tag-fortworth","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-valencia-jones","27":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114912984029244669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}