Other EPA Public Involvement Brochures
Introducing EPA's Public Involvement Policy
How to Plan and Budget for Public Involvement
How to Identify People to Involve
How to Provide Technical and Financial Assistance for Public
Involvement
How to Do Outreach for Public Involvement
How to Consult with and Involve the Public
How to Review and Use Public Input and Provide Feedback
How to Evaluate Public Involvement
How to Improve Public Meetings and Hearings
How to Improve Working with Tribes
How to Overcome Barriers to Public Involvement
More Information about the Policy
Copies of the Policy and the Framework for implementing it are
available at http://www.epa.gov/publicinvolvement/policy2003/policy
2003.pdf and http://www.epa.gov/publicinvolvement/policy2003/
framework.pdf
The Website for the "Internet Dialogue on Public Involvement in
EPA Decisions" is http://www.network-democracy.org/epa/epa-pip
EPA's Response to Comments on the Draft 2000 Public
Involvement Policy is available at http://www.eDa.gov/public
Involvement/policy2003/response.pdf
"Involvement brings the pieces together" artwork is the
creation of Erica Ann Turner, who contributed the work
through an agreement between the Art Institute of
Washington and EPA.
How to Involve Environmental
Justice Communities
Involvement brings
the pieces together
United States Environmental Protection Agency
National Center for Environmental Innovation
Public Involvement Staff
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW1807T
Washington, DC 20460
_
77 Wtst Jackson Boulevard, 12th Float
Chicago, IL 60604-3590
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"Often times, members of these communities suffer... disparate
impacts from numerous forms of pollution and toxins ... their lack
of participation, or silence on the matters should not be read or
interpreted as lack of concern about the issues that affect them."
Sarah Kraemer, Golden Gate University
Public Comments on the 2000 Draft Public Involvement Policy
Work Your Plan
There are special ways that EJ communities can best
participate in agency decision-making processes, but all of the
general rules of public involvement also apply. (See the
brochures for Step #4, "How
to Do Outreach for Public
Involvement," and for Step #5,
"How to Consult with and Involve
the Public," for other basic public
involvement steps.)
Consult with
the Public
i Make allies in
existing groups
i Publicize activities
i Prepare information
i Meet & focus on
primary
environmental issues
i Listen
i Be fair and credible
Once your plan is established,
make certain the participants
understand the process and its
limits. Be open to the community's
ideas for improving the plan.
- Present complex technical
information clearly, with
understandable displays,
especially where science literacy
may be limited.
- Go to the people where they
gather - churches, shopping
malls, housing developments,
senior centers and work places.
- Some ethnic and low-income groups prefer small group
meetings where they feel they can more easily participate.
Consider a series of smaller meetings in various settings
rather than one big meeting where valuable community
information may be missed.
- Other groups may prefer more formal meetings. Ask
community leaders how, when, and where meetings might be
best held.
- In communities where English is not the primary language,
you will need to develop materials in the suitable language.
Local community leaders may be willing to help you do this.
- Remember that people who speak English as a second
language may have limited literacy in standard forms of their
native language. Translations must use idioms they clearly
understand. Consult the Agency Limited English Proficiency
Guidance for compliance with Executive Order 13125.
http://www.epa.gov/civilriahts/docs/lep fs.pdf
- Cultural differences may affect how you implement your plan.
Know and respect what is unique about the community
where you are working. Sometimes, use of a third-party
facilitator may help achieve public participation goals.
- In many communities where an historic tradition of oral
communication persists (African-American, Hispanic), radio
is far more influential than print media.
- Use local public service programs to relay your messages, and
request placement of public service announcements (PSAs).
EPA's Office of Public Affairs can help you produce PSAs.
- People outside government service see little difference
between agencies and levels of government. To them, you
are "the government." Be prepared to politely refer questions
not related to your project to appropriate agencies.
- People in EJ communities may not trust or, in some cases,
may fear "the government" because of perceived or actual
breaches of trust or experiences of injustice.
- EJ communities are more likely to need help to participate
than more affluent or highly educated communities.
Consider providing financial assistance for participation, such
as scholarships to attend critical meetings, or technical
assistance to decipher complex Agency findings. (See the
brochure for Step #3, "How to Provide Technical and
Financial Assistance for Public Involvement.")
Additional Resources
The Model Plan for Public Participation. Office of
Environmental Justice, National Environmental Justice
Advisory Committee. EPA-300-K-00-001 http://www.epa.gov/
oeca/ej/main/nejacpub.html
Public Involvement Techniques for Transportation Decision-
Making with Ethnic. Minority and Low-Income Groups. U.S.
Department of Transportation, http://www.ftiwa.dot.gov/reports/
pittd/contents.ritm
"...even though a group may be identified and targeted as
under-served, there is still an incredible amount of diversity
within any given group. If you're serious about making an
impact, you've got to educate yourself about them."
Johnathan Hilton, Self Reliance Foundation -Acceso Hispanico
Dialogue on Public Involvement in EPA Decision Making
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Many EPA decisions have direct and indirect effects on EJ
communities. Several Agency statutes and regulations contain
public involvement and other requirements relevant to EJ
communities. The Office of General Counsel (OGC) identified
some of these authorities, about environmental justice in the
permitting process, in a memorandum dated December 10,
2000: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/ej/ej
permitting authorities memo 120100.pdf. Ask OGC to help you
understand how regulatory requirements and EJ may apply to
your project.
Participation throughout the Process
Public involvement works best when you consult with the
community early and often and when involvement efforts follow
a decision-making process the potentially impacted community
understands and has had a role in designing. If you wait until
the later stages of a project, you risk misunderstandings from
incomplete and/or delayed information. Consulting early helps
establish productive, ongoing relationships that can result in
the best solutions to environmental problems and in win-win
opportunities.
A good decision-making process usually includes at least
five stages:
• Defining the problem or opportunity
• Establishing criteria for an effective solution
• Identifying alternatives
• Evaluating alternatives
• Selecting a course of action
For participation to be "meaningful," the community needs
opportunities to participate in all five stages. Recognize that
not everyone will want to participate at every stage, and plan
for people entering and leaving the process throughout.
Plan Your Work
Research Environmental Justice
- Seek out other EPA program or regional staff to learn how
similar communities have responded to comparable or
related projects and issues.
- Ask your colleagues, your Office of General Counsel, or
Regional Counsel about environmental justice requirements
that apply to your project/issue.
- Gather information from organizations that represent EJ
communities: grass root organizations, local environmental
groups, churches, and neighborhood advisory groups.
- Review census materials and newspaper coverage of
related issues.
- Use the Online Environmental Justice Assessment Tool:
http://www.epa.gov/enviro/ei/.
- Hold individual or small meetings to help identify the
community's interests and knowledge, and focus the goals
and objectives of the larger meetings.
- Consider using a facilitator or other third party.
Your research may show that a more intensive public
involvement effort is needed to effectively reach the EJ
community. Consider the costs as an investment in building
relationships with communities traditionally under-represented
in Agency decision-making processes.
If your project or issue is national in scope, you will need to
adapt your research and process designs to fit both a larger
number of people and a greater diversity of interests.
Define Your Environmental Justice Plan Process
- Decide which individuals and groups you're trying to reach
for each phase of your work. (See the brochure for Step 2,
"How to Identify People to Involve.") In EJ communities, work
with existing organizations to help you reach individuals and
groups more effectively.
- Use a mixture of involvement techniques that suit different
situations to ensure participation from a diverse pool of
individuals, groups, communities, and interests. Select from:
InformatiorLExehange - Listening to, being available for or
at sessions in public settings such as "town-hall" meetings,
churches, libraries, schools, or any other type of open
forum; workshops co-sponsored with local organizations
and government agencies; focus groups, interviews,
telephone hotlines; Internet-based discussions, radio and
television discussions and programs
Recommendations - Advice for EPA on particularly
complex or controversial issues from: technical
committees, technical advisory groups, citizen advisory
groups, and grass roots organizations whose members
represent the community
Agreements (legally non-binding) - Mutually developed
and accepted decisions between EPA and affected
community, concerned citizens, or interested people
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How to Involve Environmental
Justice Communities
Goal:
- To ensure that environmental justice communities have a
meaningful opportunity to participate in EPA decision-making
processes
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its
new Public Involvement Policy in June 2003. The Policy's
seven steps for effective public involvement provide guidance
to EPA managers and staff on how to better involve the public
in Agency decision-making processes.
This brochure (one in a series) offers advice to help you
"get started" working with environmental justice communities
and groups representing their concerns. It also suggests ways
for experienced practitioners to be more successful.
Environmental Justice - A Definition
Environmental Justice - EJ - is the fair treatment and
meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race,
national origin, or income with respect to the development,
implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws,
regulations, and policies.
Fair treatment means that no group of people, including a
racial, ethnic, or a socioeconomic group, should bear a
disproportionate share of the negative environmental
consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and
commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local,
and tribal programs and policies.
With meaningful involvement:
- Potentially affected community residents have an appropriate
opportunity to participate in decisions about a proposed
activity that will affect their environment and/or health.
- The public's contribution can influence the Agency's decision.
- The concerns of all participants involved will be considered in
the decision-making processes.
- Decision makers seek out and simplify the involvement of
those potentially affected.
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. This includes
greater public involvement in how the Agency develops and
implements its rules and policies.
Why Work with EJ Communities?
Because you can help each other to succeed. Early public
involvement protects the interests of both EPA and the
communities in which we work. Working closely with such
communities, the Agency can develop projects or activities
that mitigate existing disproportionate impacts and avoid
creating or worsening them.
These efforts are important because they.
- Give first-hand information on issues about which the Agency
might not be aware. Communities have unique knowledge of
their goals, needs, and vulnerabilities.
- Provide fresh perspectives on what are often long-standing
environmental issues.
- Flag potential controversies.
- Provide feedback on the best ways to involve environmental
justice communities.
The greater the consensus among community members, the
more likely a plan or project will succeed.
Objectives of Outreach to EJ Communities
Outreach to EJ communities has several unique objectives,
beyond the basic goals of good public involvement:
• Convey issues in ways that are tailored (for example,
translation, timing, location) to each community
• Bridge cultural and economic differences that affect
participation
• Use communication techniques that enable more effective
interaction with other participants
• Develop partnerships on a one-to-one or small group basis
to ensure representation
• Develop trust between government and potentially affected
population
• Develop community's capacity to effectively participate in
future decision-making processes
• Increase participation of under-represented groups so they
can influence decisions
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