EPA talks to Brawley students
Environmental Protection Agency officials said they like to take advantage of any opportunity to talk and listen to students about the environment. On Thursday, they met with Brawley students.
EPA Director Environmental Justice Office Mathew Tejeda said, “Mr. Flores and his colleagues have a lot of students from a lot of different classes coming together to ask some really good questions not only what’s happening in the environment but what does it mean to them and what kind of responsibility or role can they take to do something positive for the environment.”
EPA officials explained how they work with communities that may be affected by environmental issues.
“A lot of kids don’t really understand what we do as the government, what role we play in working with the state and working with imperial county, because it really takes that collective effort; and it takes citizen engagement; it takes citizens knowledge; it takes citizens being aware of their environment,” Tejeda said.
Students asked questions regarding the use of pesticides, asthma, and how EPA’s work affected the economy.
EPA Senior Policy Advisor Amy Miller said, “They had some really interesting questions and they had very thoughtful questions and were very concerned about issues here in the community.”
Officials say community feedback is important to get things done at local level.
“for us to know what is going on in the community we need the community to be able to communicate with us that they see problems.”
Brawley teacher Jose Flores said EPA and students discussed a range of topics.
“And hopefully they can find one which they can take back home with their parents and engage locally,” Flores said.
Later in the day, EPA officials met with farm workers to let them know they cared about their wellbeing. On Friday, officials plan to be at the annual farm workers breakfast in Calexico.
