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New head of EPA New England wants to engage with 'historically overburdened' communities

Nancy Eve Cohen
/
NEPM

The New England office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a new top administrator.

President Joe Biden has appointed David Cash as the administrator of the agency's regional New England office.

Cash recently was the dean of a public policy graduate program at UMass Boston.

He also served in leadership positions in Massachusetts government including in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the Department of Public Utilities and the Department of Environmental Protection under Governor Deval Patrick. Cash was director of air, energy and waste policy under Governor Mitt Romney.

Early in his career, Cash taught science in the Amherst public schools.

Cash inherits the EPA's controversial plan to clean up the Housatonic River, which includes a disposal site for low-level PCB waste in Lee. PCBs are considered "probable human carcinogens" by the EPA.

In a statement, Cash said he's eager to engage with "all New England communities, especially those most vulnerable and historically overburdened."

Copyright 2022 New England Public Media. To see more, visit New England Public Media.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a senior reporter focusing on Berkshire County. Previously she served as the editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaborative of public radio stations. Earlier in her career she was the Midwest editor for NPR in Washington, D.C. Before working in radio, she recorded sound as part of a camera crew for network television news, with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in 1992.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.