Calgary Scott Pruitt Visits A Polluted City That Could Be Crushed By EPA Budget Cuts | HuffPost Latest News - Action.News ABC Action News WestNet-HD Weather Traffic

To call Wednesdays visit by Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in East Chicago, Indiana, highly anticipated would be putting it mildly.

Local residents are struggling with a lead contamination crisis that has left their unfiltered tap water undrinkable and forced hundreds of families to evacuate their homes due to toxic soil. The situation is so severe that Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) declared a disaster emergency in February.

The predominantly low-income city is working to address the contamination issues, but community members and advocacy groups have said more resources are needed. They fear that the dramatic budget cuts proposed for the EPA including the rumored closing of its Region 5 office in downtown Chicago could potentially hinder cleanup efforts .

Hoping to catch Pruitts attention, dozens of community members gathered for an emergency rally on Wednesday morning, many of them carrying signs declaring East Chicago demands clean water.

While in town, Pruitt toured the epicenter of its lead crisis, the West Calumet housing complex. Built on the site of a former lead refinery in 1972, the complex has been part of a federally designated, 322-acre Superfund site since 2009.

Pruitt also met with government officials including Holcomb, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D) and Sen. Todd Young (R) and a small group of local residents. He then briefly addressed the media but took no questions, saying that the meeting had covered concrete steps to be taken to address the citys lead issues in an efficient and effective way.

Its the EPAs objective, and my objective, to make sure the peoples health is protected here in East Chicago, Pruitt said.

Meeting with community leaders and @EPAScottPruitt to talk about how we work together in East Chicago. pic.twitter.com/ef6ev1qC6F

Senator Todd Young (@SenToddYoung) April 19, 2017","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Senator Todd Young","author_url":"https://twitter.com/SenToddYoung","cache_age":86400,"description":"Meeting with community leaders and @EPAScottPruitt to talk about how we work together in East Chicago. pic.twitter.com/ef6ev1qC6F— Senator Todd Young (@SenToddYoung) April 19, 2017\n","provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Senator Todd Young on 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Meeting with community leaders and @EPAScottPruitt to talk about how we work together in East Chicago. pic.twitter.com/ef6ev1qC6F
Senator Todd Young (@SenToddYoung) April 19, 2017

Pruitts remarks did not address the fate of the nearby Chicago EPA office, nor did he stop at that office. The American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, which represents some 1,000 EPA employees in the Midwest, had invited Pruitt to attend a lunch meeting there.

Michael J. Mikulka, president of Local 704, said the union never received a response to its invitation.

Employees want to hear from the administration to dispel it or confirm it, rather than be on pins and needles wondering if theyre going to lose their job, Mikulka said. We wanted him to come for lunch and tell our employees the truth of the matter.

Ahead of his visit, environmental advocates said they were hopeful that the administrators arrival might signal additional support for East Chicagos residents, although they also said they have yet to see any indications of pending action. Pruitt was also apparently missing in action at an environmental justice roundtable event on Wednesday in East Chicago that included NAACP president and CEO Cornell William Brooks.

Meleah Geertsma, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups behind the effort, noted that the EPA had yet to acknowledge the petition and that their requests for meetings on the lead crisis have been denied so far.

East Chicago is a perfect example of the need for the specialized input and oversight of the EPA where there are concerns about the local and state response, Geertsma told HuffPost. But we havent heard anything that we should be excited about. There hasnt been any indication that well get additional commitments of additional help coming in for the city.

EPA officials did not respond to questions concerning the petition. In a statement, spokesman J.P. Freire said the agency is focusing on getting results by improving environmental conditions and human health in places like East Chicago.

As for any plans to close the Chicago office, Robert Kaplan, the EPAs acting Region 5 administrator, called the reports not true and pure speculation in an email to employees. But other stories have said the agency has been instructed to eliminate two of its regional offices .

Rather than focus on politicized rumors, we are working with residents to make sure they and their families can live in a safe and healthy environment, Freires statement read.

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