To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate

Don't let Trump's budget destroy the Superfund Program or the EPA

Don't let Trump's budget destroy the EPA or the Superfund program. No person deserves to live in a toxic nightmare like my community in Love Canal did.

Why is this important?

I lived at Love Canal—which was the catalyst for the national Superfund program—with my two small children. More than 20,000 tons of chemical wastes were buried in our community—causing disease and painful illness.

My daughter had a rare blood disease, and my son suffered from many medical problems, including liver disease, asthma, and epilepsy. Our house was worthless and our American dream taken away through no fault of our own. Fifty-six percent of our children were born with birth defects.

I am also old enough to remember the black smoke of the steel mills, the rivers catching fire and sickness and death in communities that surrounded the factories. The magnitude of cuts suggested by this administration will take America back decades.

There is no gentle way to state the obvious: Donald Trump's priority is corporations over people, children, and the planet. These cuts will gut the agency removing protections for American families.

Cuts in the EPA budget mean no one is watching the polluters. No one will be there to make the polluters pay for cleanup and the costs of sick children from asthma, cancer, birth defects, and so much more.

Rather than weakening the EPA and environmental protections, we should be strengthening rules to protect communities from the impacts of factory farms, fossil fuel production and use, and other pollution sources, and we should be working to ensure all people have access to clean water, safe food, and a livable climate.