By: Shaina Oliver, Colorado Organizer, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: July 10, 2025
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2018–0794
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for listening to my comments today. My name is Shaina Oliver. I’m a Field Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force/EcoMadres in Colorado. We are more than 1.5 million parents, guardians and caregivers fighting for clean air and a healthy climate across the US, with 43,079 Colorado members. We are united in supporting recent strengthening of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that protect communities health from toxic heavy metals that can increase the risk of fatal heart attacks, cancer, and developmental delays in children.
Importantly, I’m an Indigenous Díné Mother of four and we’re descendants of the genocide of the “Indian Removal Act” known to the Díné as “The Long Walk of The Navajo”. I know from experience as a tribal affiliate of the Navajo Nation that Tribes are historically impacted by the harms of environmental injustices through unjust policies and laws. Because of these environmental injustices, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-wealth communities have seen a disproportionately impact on health from pollution. On the Navajo Reservation we’ve seen greater increases in asthma, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, adverse birth outcomes, mental illness, and premature deaths than the general population. These statistics include me- I’m impacted with asthma and was born with developmental abnormalities. And I am also vulnerable to these health impacts, especially as I get older. My grandfather was a coal plant worker, and he was forced to retire early due to frequent asthma attacks on the work site, he died prematurely of leukemia. In 2019 the Navajo and Hopi Tribal members collectively acknowledged that protecting public health and the environment is important to protecting our children and maternal health for our future mothers.
In Díné/Navajo traditional beliefs it was said to never eat fish, beyond traditions this has become true due to the risk of mercury entering our bodies by consuming fish contaminated by coal power plants. Mercury is a dangerous and deadly neurotoxin that permanently damages babies’ brains due to how mercury attaches to fatty tissues in the brain, leading to developmental delays, learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and birth defects. Coal-fired power plants release mercury into the air and it falls into waterways, where it converts to the neurotoxin methylmercury which accumulates in the fatty tissues in the fish that families eat. Tribal members in the Great Lakes Region, near Rivers, and Coastal Regions rely on the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of their ancestral lands and have a right to have access to clean water, clean air, and good health. It’s our right as Indigenous Tribal members of United States to exist and to protect all children’s right to a safe environment with access to our ancestral lands and traditional ways of life.
As an Indigenous Díné Mother of four and as a representative of tens of thousands of parents in Colorado, I urge you to protect and not weaken the recently updated Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that help protect families from the pollution that can cause cancer, lung disease, brain damage in children, and other serious health harms. Our communities deserve to keep up best available technology that reflect the latest innovations in available pollution control technology, building on highly successful and cost-effective MATS practices that protect our children and communities that rely on fishing from multiple harmful hazardous air pollutants beyond mercury like lead, cadmium, arsenic, nickel, and chromium. Thank you for taking time and consideration on this important matter.