About Environmental Justice

In sum, environmental justice is the goal to be achieved for all communities and persons across this Nation. Environmental justice is achieved when everyone, regardless of race, culture, or income, enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.

Background:
How Did the Environmental Justice Movement Arise? The environmental justice movement was started by people, primarily people of color, who needed to address the inequity of environmental protection services in their communities. Grounded in the struggles of the 1960's civil rights movement, these citizens from every facet of life, emerged to elucidate the environmental inequities facing millions of people. These communities rose to articulate and to sound the alarm about the public health dangers which posed an immediate danger to the lives of their families, their communities and themselves.

Early in 1990, the Congressional Black Caucus, a bipartisan coalition of academicians, social scientists and political activists met with EPA officials to discuss their findings that EPA was unfairly applying its enforcement inspections and that environmental risk was higher in racial minority and low-income populations. In response, the EPA Administrator created the Environmental Equity Workgroup in July 1990 to address the allegation that "racial minority and low-income populations bear a higher environmental risk burden than the general population."

The Workgroup produced a final report "Reducing Risk in All Communities" Volumes I and II in June 1992 which supported the allegation and made ten recommendations for addressing the problem. One of the recommendations was to create an office to address these inequities. The Office of Environmental Equity was established November 6, 1992. The name was changed to Office of Environmental Justice in 1994.

On February 11, 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898 "Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations" to focus federal attention on the environmental and human health conditions of minority and low-income populations with the goal of achieving environmental protection for all communities. The Order directed federal agencies to develop environmental justice strategies to aid federal agencies identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of their programs, policies, and activities on minority and low-income populations. The Order is also intended to promote nondiscrimination in federal programs substantially affecting human health and the environment, and to provide minority and low-income communities access to public information on, and an opportunity for public participation in, matters relating to human health or the environment. The Presidential Memorandum accompanying the Order underscores certain provisions of existing law that can help ensure that all communities and persons across this nation live in a safe and healthful environment.

One of the provisions of the Executive Order, established an Interagency Working Group (IWG) on environmental justice chaired by the EPA Administrator and comprised of the heads of eleven departments/agencies and several White House offices. These include the EPA, the Departments of Justice, Defense, Energy, Labor, Interior, Transportation, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, and Health and Human Services, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Council of Economic Advisors. The IWG meets on a monthly basis to continue the collaborative projects. Fifteen demonstration projects have been selected which depict this with additional projects to be selected each year.

The statutes that EPA implements provide the Agency with authority to consider and address environmental justice concerns. These laws encompass the breadth of the Agency's activities including setting standards, permitting facilities, making grants, issuing licenses or regulations, and reviewing proposed actions of other federal agencies. These laws often require the Agency to consider a variety of factors, which generally include one or more of the following: public health; cumulative impacts; social costs; and welfare impacts. Moreover, some statutory provisions, such as under theToxics Substances Control Act (TSCA), explicitly direct the Agency to target low-income populations for assistance. Other statutes direct the Agency to consider vulnerable populations in setting standards. In all cases, how the Agency chooses to implement and enforce its authority can have substantial effects on the achievement of environmental justice for all communities.

Since the Office was created there have been significant efforts across EPA to integrate environmental justice into how the Agency conducts its day-to-day operations. Information on these activities can be found throughout the Agency. Every Headquarters Office and Region has an environmental justice coordinator to serve as a focal point within the organization. This network of individuals plays a key role in outreach and education to external as well as internal individuals and organizations. Many questions are received concerning environmental justice and some of the more frequently asked questions seemed a good way to explain what EPA has done and plans to do in the future.

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