In Akron, we are no strangers to public comments. We have used them to fight for our neighborhoods, challenge polluters, and make sure the people living on the fenceline have a voice in decisions that affect their health.

The Trump administration’s EPA is proposing to remove public notice and comment requirements for certain minor-source air pollution permits.

We need you to tell the EPA: KEEP PUBLIC COMMENT FOR MINOR-SOURCE POLLUTION.

Submit your comment TODAY:

https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-1212-0001

WHY THIS MATTERS IN AKRON

Akron is a bellwether city when it comes to the cumulative impacts of pollution.

Our communities don’t experience pollution one smokestack at a time. We experience the combined burden of multiple industrial facilities, multiple pollutants, traffic, contaminated land, and other environmental hazards — all in the same neighborhoods.

A facility may be permitted to release an “acceptable” amount of benzene. But what happens when another facility nearby is releasing its own “acceptable” amount? What happens when multiple pollutants interact? What happens when families have lived alongside these facilities for generations?

Those are the questions that communities need the opportunity to raise.

Akron also knows what happens when pollution sources are classified as “minor” while communities experience the consequences as anything but minor. Residents living on the fenceline of industrial and experimental facilities are often the first to notice changes in air quality, odors, emissions, and other impacts that may not show up in a permit application.

Who will tell regulators what is actually happening on the ground if residents are no longer given an opportunity to comment?

Public comment is one of the few ways residents can put their lived experiences, local knowledge, and concerns directly into the regulatory record. It gives communities a way to speak truth to power and challenge decisions that could affect their health and their neighborhoods.

Without that opportunity, communities like Akron lose an important tool for holding polluters and regulators accountable — and our health disparities could deepen.

This could make Akron’s cumulative pollution burden FAR WORSE.

And here’s the thing: you do not have to live in Akron to comment.

This is a federal rulemaking, which means anyone in the United States can submit a public comment.

⏰ DEADLINE: 11:59 PM TONIGHT — AUGUST 21, 2026

Tell the EPA that we need to KEEP THE MANDATE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT ON MINOR-SOURCE POLLUTION.

Make your comment now:

https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-1212-0001