EPA Legal Tools to Advance Environmental Justice
The document urges the incorporation of environmental justice considerations into various state-implemented programs including the Clean Air Act; Clean Water Act; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund); Safe Drinking Water Act; and state involvement in the National Environmental Policy Act process.
The guidance urges states to pursue environmental justice by:
Engaging disadvantaged communities early and often in decision-making processes.
Focusing enforcement efforts in communities disproportionately affected by environmental hazards to ensure compliance and protection.
Using EPA tools and data to assess the cumulative impacts of various environmental stressors on vulnerable communities and prioritizing actions to mitigate these impacts.
Going beyond minimum legal requirements for data collection and voluntarily submitting this data to the EPA to support federal efforts and prioritize regulatory actions.
Aligning state-level enforcement with federal civil rights statutes to address both intentional discrimination and those policies or practices that have unjustified discriminatory effects on certain communities.
State officials should scrutinize the potential impact of pursuing these recommendations on overall program objectives.
