By SHANNON O. WELLS
As the Environmental Protection Agency’s Mid-Atlantic regional administrator, Adam Ortiz doesn’t have a lot of time to make purely ceremonial, “feel-good” visits to schools and universities that lie well beyond his Washington, D.C., office.
When he devotes a day to spend in the Pittsburgh area, whether talking with third- and fourth graders about environmental concerns, learning first-hand about challenges in the larger community, or touring the Pitt campus for a sustainability-themed roundtable meeting — as he did on April 2 — Ortiz likes to make it count.
“We don’t go to places like the University of Pittsburgh or to a primary school for the sake of doing it,” Ortiz said a media briefing at the University Club. “We do it to influence the world in a way. Seeing the kids run around and show us rain gardens today or seeing (Swanson School assistant professor) Sarah Haig’s research, going in the basements of people in communities that suffer flooding, it’s really the same thing.”
Ortiz’s agenda included visiting students at Pittsburgh’s K-12 Environmental Charter School; meeting with Pitt faculty and doctoral-degree students in a roundtable discussion of current projects, research trends and innovative approaches to current environmental issues; visiting residents with basement-flooding problems; and a late-afternoon tour of the future Pitt BioForge, a $250 million biomanufacturing facility planned for the Hazelwood Green site.
Hosted by the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation and the Office of Sustainability, Ortiz’s participation in the interdisciplinary roundtable included representatives from Pitt’s Collaboratory for Water Research, the Covestro Circular Economy Program and the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.
The discussion gave Ortiz an overview of initiatives at Pitt, including the Sustainability Institute, and how the University is addressing environmental justice in surrounding communities through grant-funded research.
Calling his visit “inspiring and heartening,” Ortiz, who oversees federal environmental and public health protections in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, and for seven federally recognized tribes, added that “it’s really about getting out there and putting your hands in the dirt to solve problems. As an agency, we’re excited to partner more closely with the University and the partners here at Pittsburgh.”
Of his visit to the Environmental Charter School, Ortiz said the institution “isn’t just focused on educating young people, but teaching them agency in their ability to affect the environment in the future.”
Meeting with Pitt scholars, Ortiz was updated on an EPA-funded research project helmed by Sarah Haig, assistant professor in the Swanson School of Engineering; Emily Elliott, professor in the Department of Geology & Environmental Science and her colleague, Associate Professor Daniel Bain.
The team is examining the impact of flooding in historically minority-based neighborhoods, including residents’ exposure to resulting contaminants, and seeking to formulate unique solutions through community-engaged research and community- and citizen-based science.
Ortiz praised the efforts as “taking on some of the real tough stuff here in the region, environmentally,” he said. “The focus on applied education and applied research and applied sciences to the local community is really where it’s at.”
Melissa Bilec, co-director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation and special assistant to the provost for sustainability, said the center hosted Ortiz to highlight potential collaborations and issues in the region “with a specific focus on environmental justice and collaborations that the University can have with the EPA.”
Equally important, she added, “is for us to hear about all the wonderful work that they have done and how we can effectively and positively communicate that to the communities that we all serve.”
Bilec also emphasized the environmental justice work of Tina Ndoh, School of Public Health associate dean for public health practice, who shared her efforts as part of the roundtable. “She comes from the EPA,” Bilec noted. “Tina has been a leader in her short time here to think about how to effectively work with communities and to develop trusted and authentic relationships.”
In his EPA role, Ortiz works with state partners and local stakeholders to focus on areas including infrastructure, enforcement, climate change, environmental justice, and restoring the Chesapeake Bay.
Before his federal position, Ortiz served as director of Maryland’s Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection. There, he launched programs boosting recycling, curbside-compost collection, building energy efficiency standards, and watershed-restoration projects with a focus on equity.
A key part of his current role involves learning about community-based challenges and facilitating ways to connect local, regional and federal efforts and resources.
“We’re on the road a lot. And everywhere we go, we do try to connect with academic institutions, community organizations, nonprofits, local government — and it’s characteristic of this trip,” he said. He also met with members of the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds as well as local philanthropic leaders and dignitaries including Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato.
Noting the “tremendous intellectual and human resource capital” at Pitt, Ortiz said the University is “incredibly invested and passionate in the local environment, in every dimension.”'
“One of the reasons why we do this sort of multi-sector engagement is because these environmental problems are multifaceted and challenging,” he added. “And we need all the help we can get, and each of these stakeholders has a unique contribution.”
Calling the April 2 visit a “great first conversation,” Ortiz vowed to continue the dialogue about what affects air, land and water, including beyond the “hard science aspects” to also include social sciences, communication, engagement and empowerment.
“One of the things we love about the collaborative here is that it’s interdisciplinary. Because the environment is interdisciplinary. The challenges that we have are interdisciplinary,” he said. “It’s not just the impact of the built environment, but it’s also social, cultural, economic and racial decisions — and policymaking in the past — that we’re trying to overcome.
“We need all the disciplines participating, and the University of Pittsburgh gets that,” Ortiz added. “That’s what this represents. And that’s exactly the kind of partnership that we need.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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