The Environmental Protection Agency told more than 450 employees working in diversity, equity and inclusion -- as well as environmental justice -- they would be fired or reassigned.

The reduction-in-force letters were sent to nearly 200 employees of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights.

From her home on Louisiana's "Cancer Alley," Lydia Gerard looks down at her 8-month-old great-granddaughter and wonders if she will one day suffer the same fate as her many friends and relatives whose lives were cut short by the disease.