Local opinion: TCE ban could be permanently reversed

A new home is supposed to signify a new start — safety, stability, and hope. But when my family moved to what we thought was a better neighborhood in southern Tucson, we didn’t know danger had followed us. Trichloroethylene, or TCE, a toxic solvent that is linked to causing cancer and birth defects, had spread from a military base into our water, soil, and air. We fled once, but it was not enough.

TCE doesn’t respect the boundaries of fences or zip codes. It travels in plumes underground, in water and vapor, and lingers for decades in our neighborhoods. And now, just as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally passed a ban on all TCE’s deadly uses, some members of Congress are working to let it keep wreaking havoc on our health. They are doing it quietly, using a loophole called the Congressional Review Act. If they succeed, they will protect corporate profits at the expense of our lives.

Lawmakers have a moral decision to make: will they stand with the people they are meant to serve, or will they bail out the industries poisoning them?

The facts aren’t in question: TCE exposure can be deadly. It’s been linked to kidney and liver cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Parkinson’s, and fatal heart defects in unborn children. For decades, companies have exposed communities to this toxic chemical through industrial practices. The Tucson International Superfund Site is a glaring example — but not the only one. From Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to Phoenix and Yuma, Arizonans are still living with the consequences.

This is personal. Like many families unknowingly exposed to TCE for decades, I have unjustly paid the price for the government’s inaction. My older children were born with health complications, one of my daughters died from a rare form of kidney cancer just before she turned 20 years old, and my niece died from a rare brain cancer. Families like mine have grieved in silence while many elected officials and corporations dodged responsibility. We have had enough.

When the EPA finally acted last year and passed a complete TCE ban, it was not hasty or extreme. After years of research, the agency found that TCE poses an unreasonable risk to human health. The ban gives corporations years — sometimes decades — to transition to safer alternatives. Many companies already have. But still, lobbyists are pushing back, and now some in Congress are listening.

Let’s be clear, delaying or dismantling the TCE ban will cause real, measurable harm. People will get sick. Children will be born with terminal conditions that could have been prevented. Some will die. How can any elected official justify any of that?

Industry claims it can’t afford to change its deadly habits. But what about the cost to communities like mine — costs measured in cancer treatments, missed work, birth defects, and buried loved ones? What about the long-term toll on workers that these companies expose on the job, or the parents who have to tell their kids they can’t drink from the tap?

We have seen what happens when the government looks the other way. Tucson knows it all too well. We are still living it.

This isn’t just about TCE. If Congress can override a science-based ban on a chemical this well-documented, what’s next? Are we going to let corporations rewrite the rules on lead, asbestos, and PFAS? That’s the precedent being set. And that’s why this fight matters, not just for Arizona but for the country.

Lawmakers have a choice to make, protect people or polluters. There is no middle ground.

To our representatives in Congress, your constituents are watching. We’re not asking for special treatment. We are asking for the right to clean air, clean water, and a life not defined by toxic exposure.

Don’t let another generation grow up breathing and drinking poison. Don’t let another family learn too late that their home was never safe. The time for action is now.