In this presentation I argue that policy discontinuation or non-implementation led by political turnover goes beyond discussions of good governance but can impact efforts to advance Environmental Justice (EJ). I draw on interviews with municipal staff in São Paulo, Brazil, to discuss how they view politicians' influence on policies, highlighting how politicians often discontinue policies, independent of their quality, based on who their predecessor was and their political agenda. I build my argument by combining EJ theory and public policy literature on governance and policy implementation. EJ research, broadly, explains how historical patterns of policies and government practices have forced marginalized groups to live in areas of environmental risk (Horowitz, 2020). Although EJ discusses policies, it rarely engages with public policy literature. Within public policy, governance is a useful concept. Governance theories provide insights into “… how different actors, jurisdictions, levels and institutional arenas interact to exchange knowledge and ideas, coordinate action and collaborate in making authoritative decisions that produce collective outcomes.” (Ansell & Torfing, 2022, p.1). Related to governance, policy implementation literature focuses on the gaps between what is on paper and what is put into practice, as well as the different political actors involved in implementing a policy, from high-ranking policymakers to street-level bureaucrats (Sager et al., 2024). These public policy debates can contribute to EJ research by identifying the mechanisms beyond the enacted policies that can lead to environmental injustices. This paper contributes by bringing the voices of mid-level bureaucrats, specifically those contributing with technical expertise to policies, about the difficulties of enabling environmentally just initiatives.