The Environmental Protection Agency has terminated a $10 million, five-year award to run an environmental justice center at Wichita State University, university representatives said in an email.
The Heartland Environmental Justice Center is now pausing all activities, it said in a statement.
The center was established in 2023 as part of former President Joe Biden’s emphasis on environmental justice, in which the government focused on disadvantaged communities burdened by disproportionate levels of pollution. Current President Donald Trump has rescinded several executive orders that championed environmental justice as part of his opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The EPA did not respond to a request for comment on why funding for the center had changed.
The Heartland Environmental Justice Center was meant to help Midwest communities – especially low-income and minority ones – access federal grant dollars to improve the environment. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and 2022 Inflation Reduction Act made millions of grant dollars available to address environmental issues.
Though the Heartland Environmental Justice Center couldn’t write grants, it was able to provide feedback on grant applications and help connect community organizations with appropriate funding sources.
The center played a role in helping the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas obtain a nearly $500,000 grant in December that is meant to provide free job training to workers to clean up polluted sites. Training could include skills like asbestos abatement and hazardous materials transportation.
The center – which also served Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri – was placed in Wichita after a historically Black community learned in 2022 about a decades-old chemical spill running beneath their neighborhoods. A health study later found that the rate of babies with low birth weights born to mothers living above the plume was significantly higher than the rate in Wichita, though it is not clear whether the chemical is the cause of this high rate.
Aujanae Bennett is a community activist and neighborhood leader who lives near the spill. She’s worked with the Heartland Environmental Justice Center on finding federal grants that her recently formed nonprofit can apply for to improve her neighborhood.
“It's frustrating,” Bennett said of the center’s closure. “It's like we have no help. We had little help when we had DEI and had the environmental justice entity component, or whatever we need to call it, available. … But now, everything has been taken away.”
Bennett said one of the grants she’s applying for is no longer available.
Monique Garcia, whose family owns Connie’s Mexico Cafe, has also been focused on environmental justice issues in the North End of Wichita. That includes traffic delays and the tailpipe emissions that result when trains block traffic on 21st Street. She said it’s “disappointing” that the Heartland Environmental Justice Center halted operations.
Garcia is also a grant writer. She worked with the center to apply to bring an AmeriCorps member to Wichita who would focus on environmental justice. Garcia said the center provided feedback on the proposal she wrote up.
“It’s very … technical and complex, and they were able to help us see things at a 30,000-foot view to be able to make our application competitive,” Garcia said. “Thankfully, we were able to receive funding.”
The AmeriCorps member recently began work out of the Wichita nonprofit Storytime Village, but Garcia said the position will no longer exist in 30 days because the program is being terminated.
Other community members who worked with the Heartland Environmental Justice Center, such as Robert Chavez, support the decision to close it.
Chavez is also a community advocate on the North End of town, which is directly adjacent to an industrial corridor and former oil refinery. He wants brownfields – polluted properties – addressed as well as a community park tested for pollution.
He said the lack of communication and cultural competency that came from the center ultimately frustrated him, especially with the program’s $10 million price tag.
“That is enough money … to pay people the correct wages, for the correct people to be in position to address our issues,” Chavez said. “And what we got was basically a rookie squad or a novice of the issues. And so we need experts.”
At least 13 people were on the Heartland Environmental Justice Center’s “team,” according to a January presentation by a leader of the program. Some appeared to be employed by other departments within Wichita State University.
“The loss of this funding impacted several grant-funded employees,” wrote Lainie Mazzullo-Hart, the university’s director of communication, wrote in an email to KMUW. “The university is working closely with those individuals to provide support and assistance during this transition.”
In a statement, the Heartland Environmental Justice Center wrote that residents could continue visiting its webpage and contact staff at heartlandej@wichita.edu. The email address will be managed by the staff at the Environmental Finance Center at Wichita State University.
“This transition does not diminish the center’s deep commitment to environmental sustainability,” Mazzullo-Hart wrote in an email.
