“The purpose of this communication is to notify you that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is hereby terminating [your] Assistance Agreement.” With that short sentence, we lost $15 million dollars. It was ## May 2025 , just after my spring semester ended, and I was excited to begin what was supposed to be environmental justice work aimed at helping community residents near my university in Tampa, Florida, who experience chronic flooding and have contaminated drinking water in their homes (Figure 1). The University Area neighborhood, which consists of mostly Black and Hispanic families who were resettled here in the 1960s–1980s from urban renewal projects, is one of the poorest in the state for human and environmental health. Credit: E. Christian Wells Figure 1: Aarans Pond, a county-managed stormwater pond in the University Area Community that is contaminated with nutrients and heavy metals, overflowed into the community during Hurricane Milton on October 9-10, 2024.…