The 12th and final episode of AFGE’s new series, The Activist, highlighting our union members who have stepped up to help make a difference in the lives of their colleagues and our government.
Marie Owens Powell is president of Council 238 representing EPA employees across the country. She’s also an underground storage tank inspector at EPA Region 3 in Philadelphia and has been a member of AFGE for about 20 years.
As a storage tank inspector, her job is to inspect underground storage tanks at local gas stations and ensure that individuals are monitoring their tanks, their piping, and there’s no petroleum releases to the environment. She’s basically protecting the ground and drinking water for those local communities.
“We’ve lost a lot of staff. I think we’re down over 1,000 inspectors across the country, so it becomes harder and harder to inspect the correct number of facilities that we need to,” she said. “And that’s not just the underground storage tanks communities; that pretty much strikes across the board.”
She said the American people should support the agency getting more staff.
“Right now, we’re doing it, but we’re doing it with fewer people. Those people are starting to burn out,” she added. “You need to get people in, get them trained up and get these inspections done, get these permits written, get these grants issued. That’s what we have to do. We have to get in and get our job done. We need more people to do that.”
Listen to Marie talk about why she decided to join the union and what keeps her going:
For 94 years, AFGE’s mission has been to improve the lives of government workers and make sure they have the resources they need to serve the American people.
Read More
Hundreds of AFGE leaders and activists are newly empowered to stamp out discrimination in federal and D.C. government workplaces thanks to the training they received at the 2026 S.T.A.N.D. Conference.
Read More
Federal employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are hoping the agency’s newly confirmed leader will work to repair the relationship between workers and management.
Read More
