DOEE and EPA Visit Ivy City
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Contact
(202) 596-5271
The Washington, DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) Director Tommy Wells, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 3 Administrator Adam Ortiz, and EPA Environmental Justice Director Matt Tejada participated in an environmental justice walking tour Thursday hosted by Ivy City residents working with Empower DC. The walking tour began at the long-abandoned Crummell School in the Ivy City neighborhood and ended at the industrial site of National Engineering Products. Coinciding with Air Quality Awareness Week, the tour came on the heels of multiple resident complaints submitted to the DOEE and the district’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA).
Ivy City, a historically Black community, has not always been burdened with environmental injustice. Once a working-class suburb surrounded by fields and farms, the area along New York Avenue over time became concentrated with industrial land and experienced decades of blight and neglect resulting from systemic racism.
Residents’ complaints focused on long-standing grievances with National Engineering Products, a chemical facility that since the 1970s has polluted the air with the stench of formaldehyde and burning tar. Residents note the air quality is so bad they cannot open their windows and are concerned with the air they breathe in.
During the walking tour, residents discussed with EPA and DOEE officials the poor air quality and conditions that have led to temperatures 10-20 degrees hotter than other areas of the District due to the heat island effect.
One resident, Shawn Scott, purchased her home adjacent to the chemical facility ten years ago through an affordable housing program. “We can’t open our windows or sit outside because of the strong chemical smell. My son’s bedroom is closest to the facility’s exhaust pipe, and he gets constant headaches. Another son has severe asthma. I lost my sense of smell,” she said. “I can’t believe no one told us this was here when I bought my home. I can’t believe this is allowed to be here.”
Complaints about National Engineering Products have prompted DCRA to investigate whether the facility is operating within its fifty-year old Certificate of Occupancy Permit. The Safety Data Sheets on the company’s website show that their products involve known toxins such as lead, mercury, and formaldehyde. Even brief exposures to vapors released by the chemical plant may cause breathing difficulties and dizziness, while repeated exposures can lead to organ damage, cancers, and asthma.
DOEE Air Quality Division Director Kelly Crawford, who participated in the walking tour, said, “This facility has been here since the 1930s. Air quality regulation came much [later], and it’s one of those things that fell between the cracks,” she said. “We didn’t become aware of it until the community made us aware of it. We are conducting an air emissions study on the facility so we can characterize the emissions, quantify them, and permit the facility.”
“We recognize the urgency of getting this facility under control,” she added.
Ivy City resident and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Sebrena Rhodes said, “We are glad that DOEE and EPA are visiting the community to hear directly from residents impacted by environmental injustice. We hope that DOEE’s enforcement actions bring swift change to this hazardous facility, and we urge EPA to do everything in its power to aid us in protecting the health and safety of Ivy City residents.”
The Ivy City residents are working with Empower DC, a nonprofit working to enhance, improve and promote the self-advocacy of low and moderate-income DC residents to bring about sustained improvements in their quality of life.