June 2003
ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
THROUGH POLLUTION PREVENTION
A Report developed from the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council
Meeting of December 9-13, 2002
U.S EPA Headquarters Library
Mai! code 3404T
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460
702-566-0556
A Federal Advisory Committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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This Report represents the efforts of the NEJAC on the topic of Advancing
Environmental Justice through Pollution Prevention to identify and discuss the myriad of
opportunities in applying pollution prevention to benefit environmental justice
communities. Aspects of the issues related to the relationship between pollution
prevention and environmental justice are covered in a consensus report. The individual
perspectives of each of the four stakeholder groups - communities, tribes, business &
industry, and government- are also contained in this Report. The NEJAC would like to
acknowledge the many individuals and groups that have already shared their experience
and expertise.
The NEJAC is grateful for the contributions from the NEJAC Pollution Prevention Work
Group with assistance from Ms. Samara Swanston. In addition, the NEJAC thanks the
Chemical Engineering Branch of the EPA Office of Pollution, Prevention and Toxics for
the picture on the cover of this report, courtesy of Art Today (arttoday.com).
DISCLAIMER
This Report and recommendations have been written as part of the
activities of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, a public
advisory committee providing independent advice and recommendations
on the issue of environmental justice to the Administrator and other
officials of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The EPA has not reviewed this report for approval and, hence, its contents
and recommendations do not necessarily represent the views and the
policies of the Agency, nor of other agencies in the Executive Branch of the
federal government.
U.S EPA Headquarters Library
Mail code 3404T
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460
202-566-0556
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&EB\ NATIONAL
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
ADVISORY COUNCIL
July 9, 2003
Ma ^
Deputy Administrator Linda Fisher ae 3404
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania A
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washingtor i DC : SJS
Washington, DC 20004 202-566-0556
Dear Deputy Administrator Fisher,
On behalf of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), I am pleased to
transmit to you the report entitled, Advancing Environmental Justice through Pollution Prevention
(June 2003).
EPA, through its Office of Environmental Justice, requested the National Environmental Justice
Advisory Council (NEJAC) to provide recommendations on the question:
How can EPA promote innovation in the field of pollution prevention, waste
minimization, and related areas to more effectively ensure a clean environment and
quality of life for all peoples, including low-income, minority, and tribal communities?
In response to this charge, the NEJAC has developed fourteen consensus recommendations in three
major areas: (1) Community and Tribal Involvement, Capacity Building, and Partnerships; (2) More
Effective Utilization of Tools And Programs; and (3) Sustainable Processes and Products. These
recommendations are the result of a deliberative process that involved input from all stakeholder groups,
including communities, tribes, business and industry, state and local government, non-governmental
organizations, and academia. These recommendations also were the subject of a NEJAC meeting that took
place in Baltimore, Maryland (December 9-13, 2002).
The NEJAC's recommendations consist of the following:
Theme I: Community and Tribal Involvement, Capacity Building, and Partnerships
Develop and promote implementation of a multi-stakeholder collaborative model to advance
environmental justice through pollution prevention.
Increase community and tribal participation in pollution prevention partnerships by promoting
capacity-building.
Strengthen implementation of pollution prevention programs on tribal lands and Alaskan native
villages.
A Federal Advisory Committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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NEJAC Letter
Pollution Prevention Report
Page 2
* Promote efforts to institutionalize pollution prevention internationally, particularly in developing
countries.
Thane II: More Effective Utilization of Tools And Programs
Identify and implement opportunities to advance environmental justice through pollution prevention
in federal environmental statutes.
Promote local area multi-media, multi-hazard reduction planning and implementation.
* Promote efforts to incorporate pollution prevention in supplemental environmental projects (SEPs).
Provide incentives to promote collaboration among communities, business and government on pollution
prevention projects in environmental justice communities.
Theme III: Sustainable Processes and Products
* Encourage "Greenbuildings," "Green businesses," and "Greenindustries" through EPA's Brownfields
and Smart Growth programs.
Promote product substitution and process substitution in areas which impact low-income, minority and
tribal communities.
Promote just and sustainable transportation projects and initiatives.
Improve opportunities for pollution prevention at federal facilities.
4 Identify opportunities to promote cleaner technologies, cleaner energy and cleaner production in
industrial and commercial enterprises in environmental justice communities
Optimize and expand solid waste minimization activities.
The NEJAC is pleased to present this report to you for your review, consideration, response and action.
In addition, the NEJAC appreciates any assistance you can provide in processing the recommendations in this
report through the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances with consultation as appropriate with
the Office of Environmental Justice and other relevant offices.
Sincerely,
Veronica Eady
Acting Chair
A Federal Advisory Committee to the U.S, Environmental Protection Agency
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NEJAC ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE THROUGH
POLLUTION PREVENTION REPORT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SUMMARY (v - viii)
PARTI: CONSENSUS REPORT
CHAPTER 1: CONSENSUS CHAPTER (i)
Introduction (1)
Purpose of the Report (5)
Background on Pollution Prevention (6)
o Definition (7)
* Background on Environmental Justice (9)
Pollution Prevention and Environmental Justice (11)
Enforcement and Pollution Prevention (12)
Precautionary Principle (13)
Tribal Government and Pollution Prevention (14)
Understanding Pollution Impacts (15)
* Toward a Multi-stakeholder Collaborative Model (21)
» Pollution Prevention and Environmental Justice Framework (26)
CHAPTER 2: CONSENSUS RECOMMENDATIONS (29)
THEME I: COMMUNITY AND TRIBAL INVOLVEMENT, CAPACITY
BUILDING, AND PARTNERSHIPS
* Recommendation #1-1: Develop and Promote Implementation of a Multi-
stakeholder Collaborative Model to Advance Environmental Justice through
Pollution Prevention. (29)
Recommendation #1-2: Increase Community and Tribal Participation in
Pollution Prevention Partnerships by Promoting Capacity-building. (31)
Recommendation #1-3: Strengthen Implementation of Pollution Prevention
Programs on Tribal Lands and Alaskan Native Villages. (32)
Recommendation #1-4: Promote Efforts to Institutionalize Pollution
Prevention Internationally, Particularly in Developing Countries. (34)
THEME H: MORE EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF TOOLS AND
PROGRAMS (37)
Recommendation #11-1: Identify and Implement Opportunities to Advance
Environmental Justice through Pollution Prevention in Federal
Environmental Statutes. (37)
Recommendation #H-2: Promote Local Area Multi-Media, Multi-Hazard
Reduction Planning and Implementation. (39)
Recommendation #11-3: Promote Efforts to Incorporate Pollution
Prevention in Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs). (40)
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Recommendation #11-4: Provide Incentives to Promote Collaboration
Among Communities* Business and Government on Pollution Prevention
Projects in Environmental Justice Communities. (42)
THEME ffl: SUSTAINABLE PROCESSES AND PRODUCTS (44)
Recommendation #m-l: Encourage "Green buildings," "Green businesses,"
and "Green industries" through EPA's Brownfields and Smart Growth
programs. (44)
* Recommendation #m-2: Promote Product Substitution and Process
Substitution in Areas which Impact Low-income, Minority and Tribal
Communities. (45)
Recommendation #HI-3: Promote Just and Sustainable Transportation
Projects and Initiatives. (46)
Recommendation #EQ-4: Improve Opportunities for Pollution Prevention at
Federal Facilities (48)
Recommendation #ni-5: Opportunities to Promote Clean Production and
Clean Energy (50)
Recommendation #m-6: Optimize and Expand Solid Waste Minimization
Activities (53)
PART II: STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVES
CHAPTERS: COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES (59)
Introduction (59)
* Understanding Pollution Impacts (60)
o Health and Environmental Impacts
o Societal and Developmental Impacts
o Economic Impacts
o International impacts
Enforcement Issues (65)
Addressing Community Impacts Through Pollution Prevention (66)
Areas Where Pollution Prevention Can Improve Environmental Quality (68)
Capacity-Building for Effective Community Participation in Pollution
Prevention (69)
Community Recommendations (70)
Conclusion (72)
CHAPTER 4: TRIBAL PERSPECTIVES (75)
The Legal Status and Rights of Tribes (75)
Tribal Pollution Concerns that Can Be Addressed by Pollution Prevention
(77)
Possible Approaches for Implementing Pollution Prevention In and Near
Tribal Lands (80)
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CHAPTER 5: BUSINESS & INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES (83)
Introduction (83)
Current Business and Industry Efforts (87)
o Multi-Media Approach
o Area Wide Approaches
Removal of Regulatory Impediments to Pollution Prevention
Recycling and Reuse
Pollution Prevention Initiatives in Permits
* Environmental Management Systems
Emissions Reduction in Trading Programs
Pollution Prevention Components in Enforcement Actions
* Communications Initiatives to Provide Incentives for Pollution Prevention
(92)
o Corporate Environmental Reporting
o 33/50 Program
o Information on Product Content
Collaborative engagement to prevent pollution (94)
o Brownfields Revitalization
o Responsible Care
Voluntary efforts (96)
o Product substitution/clean production
o Sustainable production/renewable resources
o Energy Efficiency
o Conservation and Green Space Initiatives
o Sector Identification of "Best Management Practices"
Resources, Incentives and Capacity Building (98)
o Green Subsidies
Renewable Fuel Vehicles and Other Green Energy Incentives
Brownfields Redevelopment Incentives
Subsidies for Installation of Green Technology
o Green Procurement and Recycled Content Mandates and Subsidies
o Research and Development Assistance
o Regulatory flexibility
o Regulatory Focus
o Information
Public Recognition (104)
o Government awards/communication of good practices
o Stakeholder Group Recognition
o Multi-Stakeholder Group Recognition
Facilitation of Collaborative Engagement (105)
o Interagency Working Group (IWG) Template
o Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs)
Business Recommendations to Enhance Pollution Prevention In
Environmental Justice Communities (108)
in
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CHAPTER 6: GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVES (111)
» Historical and Regulatory Footprints (111)
» Pollution Prevention and Environmental Justice (112)
* Questions and Resolutions concerning Pollution Prevention and
Environmental Justice (113)
» Governmental Integration of Pollution Prevention and Environmental
Justice (115)
Federal Government and Pollution Prevention (116)
* State Government and Pollution Prevention (121)
* Local Government and Pollution Prevention (123)
Tribal Government and Pollution Prevention (124)
Governmental Partnerships (126)
o The National Environmental Performance Partnership System
o Compliance and Technical Assistance
Pollution Prevention and Performance Measurement (129)
Pollution Prevention Model (131)
Conclusion (132)
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I: POLLUTION PREVENTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CASE STUDIES
(136)
CASE STUDY #1: HOUSTON SHD? CHANNEL SOURCE REDUCTION PROJECT (136)
CASE STUDY #2: BALTIMORE PARK HEIGHTS AUTO BODY/AUTO REPAIR
SHOP (139)
APPENDIX n: CURRENT POLLUTION PREVENTION MANDATES IN FEDERAL STATUTES
(142)
APPENDIX HI: POLLUTION PREVENTION PARTNERSHD? PROGRAMS (145)
APPENDIX IV: POLLUTION PREVENTION WORK GROUP MEMBERS (152)
IV
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NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ADVISORY COUNCIL (NEJAC)
ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE THROUGH
POLLUTION PREVENTION REPORT
Summary
The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council ("NEJAC") is a formal federal
advisory committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Its charter
states that the NEJAC is to provide advice and recommendations on matters related to
environmental justice to the EPA Administrator. The EPA Office of Environmental
Justice requested that NEJAC examine how the innovative use of pollution prevention
can help alleviate pollution problems in environmental justice communities. This report
and recommendations grew out of a fifteen month long examination of the following
question:
How can EPA promote innovation in the field of pollution prevention,
waste minimization, and related areas to more effectively ensure a
clean environment and quality oflife for all peoples, including low-
income, minority and tribal communities?
In response to the request from the EPA Office of Environmental Justice, the NEJAC
established Pollution Prevention Work Group. This Work Group is composed of
representatives of diverse stakeholder groups, including community and tribal
organizations, business and industry, state and local government, and academia In
addition, the NEJAC conducted an issue-oriented public meeting on pollution prevention
in Baltimore, Maryland on December 9-12, 2002. This meeting received comments on,
discussed and analyzed innovative approaches to use pollution prevention concepts to
advance environmental justice.
As a result of the above, the NEJAC is pleased to transmit this comprehensive report and
recommendations to the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The report and its consensus recommendations reflect the consensus views of the diverse
stakeholder groups represented on the Work Group and Executive Council. For purposes
of the NEJAC report, pollution prevention is defined by members of the Work Group as
mechanisms which protect the environment and improve the quality oflife for
disproportionately impacted low-income, people of color, and/or tribal communities by
systematically reducing, eliminating and/or preventing pollution.
It is hoped and expected that a robust consideration on the part of EPA of the
recommendations included in this report will advance the interests of pollution reduction
and improved environmental quality shared by impacted stakeholders, the general public,
the EPA and the NEJAC. This report works to identify and discuss the particular issues
that this question raises when - as is often the case - those negatively impacted by
pollution are low-income communities, communities of color, and American Indian
tribes/Alaskan Native villages and their members.
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This report consists of two parts. The first part is the Consensus Report and contains two
chapters: a consensus chapter and consensus recommendations. This consensus report
represents positions, which all the major stakeholder groups in the NET AC have agreed
upon, and provides context, background, premises, conclusions and series of
recommendations. The second part consists of four stakeholder group perspectives, i.e.,
communities, tribes, business and industry, and government. Appendices, including case
studies applying pollution prevention methodologies to environmental justice
communities, are also included.
PART I: CONSENSUS REPORT
Chapter 1: Consensus Chapter
Chapter 1 provides an introduction and the purpose of the report. It then gives a
background on pollution prevention and environmental justice, and describes how the
two movements have and can work together, including through the development and
implementation of a multistakeholder collaborative model. The chapter presents a
framework for advancing environmental justice through pollution prevention, as well as
an initial set of critical barriers.
Chapter 2: Consensus Recommendations
Chapter 2 outlines a series of fourteen consensus recommendations, which have been
divided into three themes:
I. Community and Tribal Involvement, Capacity Building, and Partnerships,
II. More Effective Utilization of Tools And Programs,
III. More Effective Utilization of Tools And Programs.
Theme I: Community and Tribal Involvement, Capacity Building, and
Partnerships
Recommendation #1-1: Develop and Promote Implementation of a Multi-
stakeholder Collaborative Model to Advance Environmental Justice through
Pollution Prevention. (31)
Recommendation #1-2: Increase Community and Tribal Participation in Pollution
Prevention Partnerships by Promoting Capacity-building. (33)
Recommendation #1-3: Strengthen Implementation of Pollution Prevention
Programs on Tribal Lands and Alaskan Native Villages. (34)
Recommendation #1-4: Promote Efforts to Institutionalize Pollution Prevention
Internationally, Particularly in Developing Countries. (37)
Theme II: More Effective Utilization of Tools And Programs
Recommendation #11-1: Identify and Implement Opportunities to Advance
Environmental Justice through Pollution Prevention in Federal Environmental
Statutes. (38)
Recommendation #11-2: Promote Local Area Multi-Media, Multi-Hazard
Reduction Planning and Implementation. (40)
Recommendation #11-3: Promote Efforts to Incorporate Pollution Prevention in
Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs). (41)
VI
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Recommendation #11-4: Provide Incentives to Promote Collaboration Among
Communities, Business and Government on Pollution Prevention Projects in
Environmental Justice Communities. (43)
Theme HI: Sustainable Processes and Products
Recommendation #111-1: Encourage "Green buildings," "Green businesses," and
"Green industries" through EPA's Brownfields and Smart Growth programs. (45)
Recommendation #111-2: Promote Product Substitution and Process Substitution
in Areas which Impact Low-income, Minority and Tribal Communities. (46)
* Recommendation #111-3: Promote Just and Sustainable Transportation Projects
and Initiatives. (48)
Recommendation #TJI-4: Improve Opportunities for Pollution Prevention at
Federal Facilities (49)
Recommendation #111-5: Opportunities to Promote Clean Production and Clean
Energy (52)
Recommendation #111-6: Optimize and Expand Solid Waste Minimization
Activities (54)
PART H: STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVES
Chapters 3-6 provide four stakeholder group perspectives on pollution prevention and
environmental justice These are community, tribal, business and industry, and
government perspectives.
Chapter 3 gives an overview of the community perspective of understanding pollution
impacts, including health, environmental, societal and economic impacts. Enforcement
issues and current environmental controls are highlighted and provide a greater
understanding of what has and has not worked outside of the field of pollution
prevention. Areas where pollution prevention can improve environmental quality are
discussed, as well as capacity building for communities to effectively participate in these
pollution prevention efforts. A series of recommendations from the community
perspective concludes this chapter.
Chapter 4 addresses the complex issue of the legal status and rights of tribes. Pollution
concerns in and near tribal lands that can be addressed by pollution prevention and
implementation of these pollution prevention projects are also reviewed.
Chapter 5 begins with current business and industry efforts to employ both multi-media
and area wide approaches to pollution prevention. The next section addresses initiatives
that provide incentives to undertake pollution prevention activities. Collaborative
(Responsible Care) and voluntary (product substitution) efforts are reviewed. Resources
and incentives for capacity building, such as green subsidies and regulatory flexibility are
then addressed. The chapter closes with a section on public recognition, facilitating a
collaborative approach, and the business recommendations to enhance pollution
prevention in environmental justice communities.
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Chapter 6 begins by reviewing the historical and regulatory footprints of the
environmental movement The next portion of this chapter addresses pollution
prevention and environmental justice, including background, questions and resolutions,
and governmental integration. Pollution prevention is then reviewed from federal, state,
local and tribal government perspectives. The chapter closes with performance
measurement and a model for pollution prevention.
Vlll
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CHAPTER 1: CONSENSUS CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
The concept embodied in title of this report, Advancing EnvironmentalJustice through
Pollution Prevention, is part of a transition to a new vision of environmental
responsibilities among business, government and impacted communities. As we move
from our contemporary framework into new relationships, pollution prevention strategies
and approaches can shift our limited resources into more productive, revitalizing work,
strengthened from and enabled by participating community members. We can achieve
benefits of risk reduction and secure the benefits of modernization in our most
endangered communities by using this type of innovation in impacted communities to
augment traditional environmental protection mechanisms. New technologies are
available to build vibrant communities producing and using high quality, low cost
environmentally sound products produced in an environmentally sound manner while
providing jobs and engaging industry in bringing about real change. Environmental
justice communities can serve as learning laboratories for constructive innovation.
Central to the transformations needed in the community are these paradigm shifts:
The control of environmental contamination at the point of release to the
prevention of pollution at the source.
» Continued exposure to the effects of sudden and accidental releases from
industrial facilities to the prevention of these accidents by building inherent safety
and sustainability into the process.
This requires technological, organizational, and work practice changes. The needed
changes may involve more than the adoption of better off-the-shelf technologies and
approaches. Innovation in the development of new products, processes, and approaches
may be necessary. Still more dramatic changes may be required at the system level to
encourage sustainable products and sustainable production leading to sustainable
development. Communities and tribes, business and industry, and government are
essential partners in this endeavor.
Administrator Christine Todd Whitman confirmed * EPA's commitment to
environmental justice, saying "[environmental justice is the goal to be achieved for all
communities and persons across this nation" and that it will be achieved when everyone
enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and has a
"healthy environment where they live, learn and work." U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell's comments at the World Summit targeted poverty and destruction of the
environment as issues that can destabilize nations and described sustainable development
as a "means to unlock human potential through economic development based upon sound
1 Christine Todd Whitman, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA's Commitment to Environmental
Justice, Memorandum, August 9, 2001.
ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE THROUGH POLLUTION PREVENTION
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June 2003
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economic policy, social development based upon investment in health and education and
responsible stewardship of the environment." Secretary Powell described our time as a
"century of promise" but cautioned that the great potential evident comes with a
responsibility to turn it into a "century of hopes fulfilled and sustained development that
enriches all people without impoverishing the planet."3 Secretary Powell's comments
identify the inherent challenge in using pollution prevention to advance environmental
justice through sustainable development.
One of the most significant implications of the 2002 United Nations World Summit on
Sustainable Development4 is greater impetus for addressing both pollution prevention and
environmental justice together. At the World Summit, participants agreed upon a Plan of
Implementation that recognized the linkages among poverty, health and the environment
in addressing environmental health threats, especially as they impact upon vulnerable
populations. The implementation plan calls for "national initiatives to accelerate the shift
towards sustainable... production by... de-linking economic growth and environmental
degradation through improving efficiency and sustainability in the use of resources and
production processes and reducing resource degradation, pollution and waste."5
Historically the environmental justice movement and the pollution prevention movement
developed independently. Environmental justice advocates sought environmental
improvements, despite resistance from critics who argued that environmental
improvements came at a cost to economic growth. Preventing pollution was initially
couched in facility specific and technical terms that left little access for non-technical
members of impacted communities. Yet both movements have traveled similar roads.
Over the last two decades both movements witnessed a surge of public attention and a
substantial catalogue of successes in advancing their objectives. Both movements have
also experienced change. The pollution prevention movement has experienced a slowing
of progress as pollution prevention advanced to a point where more technical and
complex efforts are now needed. The environmental justice movement has experienced
refinement and maturation as it contends with the complexities of developing proactive
strategies that effectively address a multiplicity of environmental, health, economic, and
social concerns.
Over the past fifteen years a number of strategies have been proposed and / or
implemented to reduce the impacts of pollution and improve environmental quality for
tribal communities, low-income communities and communities of color. Some of these
strategies were seen as ways to eliminate disproportionate environmental burdens and
2 Secretary Colin L. Powell, Making Sustainable Development Work: Governance. Finance i
Private Cooperation, at p. 2, Remarks at State Department Conference, Meridian International Center,
Washington, D.C., July 12, 2002.
3 Id.
4 The United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in South Africa in August-
September of 2002.
5 United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, Plan of Implementation. Advance unedited
September 4,2002 text, p. 5, HI, Changing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production at pp. 14.
2
ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE THROUGH POLLUTION PREVENTION
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their attendant adverse health effects,6 and have included executive directives and
statutorily based strategies ranging from new state legislation to litigation using existing
environmental and civil rights laws or regulations.
In addition, an ever-growing body of research has been accumulated from several
programs initiated by both private and public entities, some concomitantly. EPA alone
has a myriad of voluntary partnership programs that are based in pollution prevention
principles and unproved environmental management systems. Many individual major
corporations and business organizations have undertaken important sustainable
development initiatives. For example, in the United States the Global Environmental
Management Initiative, a consortium of major corporations, developed tools for use by
corporations managing their environmental issues, including guidance for addressing
sustainable development, and The Conference Board has conducted and published
research concerning corporate environmental management and corporate social
responsibility. Internationally, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development,
which includes U.S. as well as international corporations, has taken a leadership role in
promoting sustainable development. Another important initiative involves representatives
of major corporations, venture capitalists, and small companies, academic and non-profit
organizations in looking at how to provide low cost, high quality, low environmental
footprint products to poor communities worldwide.
While a variety of these strategies have been effective, environmental justice
communities still need even more tools to eliminate and reduce toxic exposures.
Nevertheless, exploring all of these strategies has allowed us to get to this point where we
can more clearly see and capitalize on our opportunities. Today, there appears to be a
host of benefits in promoting pollution prevention, especially as a means of achieving
environmental justice objectives.
These are complex times for new initiatives and short-term trends are unsettling. The
recent chilling of the recently robust economy means less available resources and more
competition for a dwindling supply of public and private dollars. A heightened concern
over terrorism and national security has re-directed government priorities at both the state
and national levels. Longer-term structural shifts in the national economy also present
major challenges. Increasing globalization with a transition from traditional
manufacturing to services and information technology has emerged in developed
countries and growing operations of transnational corporations across the world
accompanied by a growing distance between those who are doing well and those who are
not. Longer-term trends such as habitat loss and alteration threaten resource
conservation, biodiversity and the benefits that result from it.7 Climate change and fresh
6 Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and
Low-Income Populations. February 11, 1994.
7 National Geographic News, Near Total Ape-Habitat Loss Foreseen by 2030. United Nations Environment
Program, Great Ape Survival Project (The report, released at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development, indicated that less than 10% of the remaining habitat of the great apes will be left relatively
undisturbed if the road building, mining and infrastructure developments continue at current levels.)
3
ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE THROUGH POLLUTION PREVENTION
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water resources will also be a driving factor in the global economy in the immediate
coming years.8 These shifts are certain to affect the generation of pollution and wastes
and on the prospects of those in indigenous and low-income communities and developing
countries.
Amid such challenges appear a wealth of new opportunities that highlight the need for
change. The growing importance of international environmental policies around
chemicals, water use, waste trade, and climate protection9 has created new influences in
shaping environmental policy, and advanced the importance of establishing regulations to
protect the environment and the public health. The importance of international markets
has sharpened the global attention of national businesses. The emergence of interest in
environmental justice around the world offers prospects for new energy and cross-
national collaborations. A new business ethic that embraces environmental management
as a core business objective makes pollution prevention and clean production and their
associated economic benefits welcome values in shaping production and product design
decisions.10 There is also a new focus on the safety of plants that store and manufacture
chemicals, measures that would require plants to look beyond traditional security
measures and examine "substituting less volatile or toxic chemical for substances
currently in use and storing less material on site.
11
As evidenced by the above trends and other indicators, there exists today enormous
opportunities to build upon the natural synergies between environmental justice and
pollution prevention in areas such as community revitalization and sustainable
development. Some of the most promising appear around Brownfields restoration and
redevelopment; around "smart growth" and more integrated transportation and land use
planning; alternative fuels, and around environmental management systems which are
increasingly being adopted by leading businesses.
available at http://news.nationalgeograpfaic.com/ncws/2002/09/0903 0?.09Q3 apes html- BBCI, State of the
Planet, Habitat Loss (stating that half of the world's forest have been lost with the rate of loss ten times
higher than the rate of regrowth, that one sixth of the world's living primate species will go extinct in the
wild in the next 10-20 years and that the only species not truly affected by habitat loss are those which
benefit from human activity such as cock roaches, rats and house finches) available at
www.bbc.co.uk/programnies/tv/state planet/habitat, shtml
8 University of Cambridge, Climate Change.. .The Facts, What Can Be Done to Prevent Further Climate
Change, Climate Change 2001: Mitigation ("The good news is that technological progress to reduce
emissions or find new, non-fossil energy sources has been faster than anticipated in the second FPCC
Assessment Report (19%). More efficient hybrid engines, wind turbines and elimination of some
industrial by-product gasses are examples)" available at www.alphagalileo ore/index cfin
9 Id.
10 David C. Lowy and Richard P. Wells, Corporate Environmental Governance: Benchmarks Toward
World-Class Systems. The Conference Board, Inc., Townley Global Management Center (2000); David
Champion, Environmental Management. Harvard Business Review (1998).
11 The Washington Post, Editorial, Seeking rhemical Safety. September 14th, 2002 at page A20; Carol D.
Leonnig and Spencer S. Hue, Fearing Attack. Blue Plains Ceases Toxic Chemical Use. The Washington
Post, November 10,2001 at p. A01.
4
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... it has been suggested that the
redevelopment of brownfieids could serve
as a check or constraint on urban sprawl by
reducing developmental pressures on
greenfields. This is an area of growing
concern. According to the American
Farmlands Trust, between 1982 to 1992,
13,823,000 acres of land were converted to
urban use. Of this total, 4,266,000 acres
were either prime or unique farmland.
From the report. Public Policies and Private
Decisions Affecting the Redevelopment of
Brownfieids: An Analysts of Critical Factors,
Relative Weights and Area! Differentials (George
Washington University, September 2001)
Energy efficiency and clean production
technologies also present real opportunities to
address some of the challenges we face. These
suggest rich prospects for creative and effective
projects that can protect workers and the
environment and contribute to job creation and
retention in the United States. Rather than
creating job loss or limiting economic growth,
these projects strongly indicate that reducing
pollution through measures that protect the
environment provide economic benefits and
have great potential for new job development.
However, if such projects are to substantively
promote environmental justice they need to
build constructive partnerships, involve
multiple stakeholders, promote local
participation, protect communities and workers
and provide targeted and measurable results.
PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council ("NEJAC") is the formal federal
advisory committee on environmental justice. Its charter states that the NEJAC is to
provide advice and recommendations on matters related to environmental justice to the
EPA Administrator. The EPA Office of Environmental Justice requested that NEJAC
examine how the innovative use of pollution prevention can help alleviate pollution
problems in environmental justice communities. In response to the request from the EPA
Office of Environmental Justice, the NEJAC conducted an issue-oriented public meeting
in Baltimore, Maryland on December 9-12, 2002 and received comments on, discussed
and analyzed innovative approaches to use pollution prevention concepts to advance
environmental justice. In order to provide advice and recommendations to the
Administrator in respect to ways that pollution prevention can advance environmental
justice, the NEJAC has prepared a comprehensive report that reflects the diverse views,
interests, concerns and perspectives of identified stakeholders on the focused policy
issue. For purposes of the NEJAC Report, pollution prevention, as developed from
interviews of the stakeholders, is defined as a mechanism focused on reduction,
elimination or prevention that helps to protect the environment and improve quality of
life in environmental justice and tribal communities. The question presented for analysis
in this report is:
How can EPA promote innovation in the field of pollution prevention,
waste minimization, and related areas to more effectively ensure a
clean environment and quality of life for all peoples, including low-
income, minority and tribal communities?
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A robust consideration of the answers suggested as a result of this inquiry should advance
the interests of pollution reduction and improved environmental quality shared by the
public, all stakeholders, the EPA and the NEJAC.
Since tribes are governments, since a tribe is generally comprised of one or more
common ties (generally "of color" and low income), and since tribes frequently own
business enterprises, each of the chapters in part II includes some discussion of tribal
issues. Since many issues relating to tribes are more or less unique to them, a separate
chapter on tribes has been included.
This report consists of two parts. The first part is a consensus report that provides
context, background, premises, conclusions and series of agreed upon recommendations
by all the stakeholders. The second part consists of four stakeholder perspectives, i.e.,
communities, tribes, business and industry, and government. In addition, the Report
contains four appendices. The first contains two case studies applying pollution
prevention to environmental justice communities. The second examines pollution
prevention mandates in federal statutes, and the third lists pollution prevention
partnerships. A list of the Work Group members comprises the fourth and final
appendix.
BACKGROUND ON POLLUTION PREVENTION
Reducing pollution and improving environmental quality were initially accomplished
though a variety of federal environmental statutes that protected public health and the
environment by controlling pollution after its creation "at the end of the pipe". The focus
of these statutes was not controlling the amount of pollution that was created but limiting
how much was discharged into the environment. These statutes were implemented with
varying degrees of effectiveness. However, industrial growth could not be sustained with
the ever-increasing number of regulations limiting the amount of emissions to the
environment even with the most advanced technology. Ultimately it became obvious that
the regulatory control activities needed to be expanded to include innovative activities
that address pollution prior to its release into the environment. This realization led to the
formation and adoption of the Pollution Prevention Act in 1990. The Pollution Prevention
Act directed that pollution should be prevented or reduced at the source whenever
feasible. Instead of reiterating the "end of pipe" treatment of environmental pollutants,
"pollution prevention" moved upstream to prevent the pollutants from being generated in
the first place.
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Definition
Pollution prevention ("P2") is the reduction or elimination of wastes and pollutants at the
source. By reducing the use and production of hazardous substances, and by operating
more efficiently, we protect human health, strengthen our economic well-being, and
preserve the environment. Conventional pollution prevention encompasses a wide
variety of activities including:
More efficient use of materials, water, energy and other resources
Substituting less harmful substances for hazardous ones
* Reducing or eliminating toxic substances from the production process
Developing new uses for existing chemical-and process wastes
Recycling and reuse
Conserving natural resources
Reducing pollution at its source, or source reduction, allows for the greatest and quickest
improvements in environmental protection by avoiding the generation of waste and
harmful emissions. Source reduction helps to make the regulatory system more efficient
by reducing the need for end-of-pipe [after generation] environmental control by
government. EPA defines pollution prevention to mean source reduction, as defined
under the Pollution Prevention Act, and other practices that reduce or eliminate the
creation of pollutants through increased efficiency in the use of raw materials, energy,
water, or other resources, or protection of natural resources by conservation. The term
source reduction includes: equipment or technology modifications, process or procedure
modifications, reformulation or redesign or products, substitution of raw materials, and
improvements in housekeeping, maintenance, training, or inventory control. Therefore,
pollution prevention as a strategy is more comprehensive and provides greater benefits
than purely toxic reduction.
The process of pollution prevention involves identification, resolution, and action. First,
government, business, consumers society, in general must identify the root causes
and sources of waste and pollutants, and results should be measured. After identifying
the sources, a decision must be made as to how best to minimize the generation of these
wastes and pollutants. Assessing the efficiency, appropriateness, and feasibility of the
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methods to be applied can do this. Finally, action must be taken to implement the plan
that best reduces the production of wastes and pollutants. Throughout this three-step
process, the government can act definitively and reliably as an enabling partner in
fostering pollution prevention.
Additionally, pollution prevention involves multi-media approaches that work to solve
environmental problems holistically rather than focusing on pollution in a single medium
such as air, land, or water. Rules, regulations and solutions that are not multi-media may
make existing problems worse. Sometimes this can result in the shifting of pollution
from one medium to another. For example, in some cases, by requiring hazardous air
emission controls for industrial facilities, other problems might result, such as pollutants
being transferred to underground drinking water through the residual sludge. Pollution
prevention activities ensure the minimization and elimination of wastes, and not the
shifting of these wastes from one medium to another.
Opportunities
Pollution prevention's effectiveness lies in the fact that it is a holistic, multi-media
approach, with practical tools, such as Environmental Management Systems (EMS),
environmentally preferable purchasing, multi-media inspections, and materials
accounting practices that can be tailored to any industrial or community sector. The
wide-ranging pollution prevention tool kit has the potential to tackle the daunting
environmental challenges such as energy and water shortages, global climate change and
chemical safety issues. Pollution Prevention is the only mechanism to provide concrete
steps and identify quantifiable targets for better implementation of sustainable
development.12
The proactive use of pollution prevention can decrease the strains on natural resources in
environmental justice communities. Additionally, pollution prevention can help improve
public health since disease often impacts most heavily on people with weak or
compromised immune systems. Immune system damage often results from polluted
water and pesticide use on chemical-intensive agricultural lands as well as consumption
of crops grown on these lands. Proactive steps to use better technologies and less-toxic
chemicals can likely improve local environmental quality, inequality, and poverty.
Pollution prevention could even provide opportunities for job creation, capacity building
and local empowerment in environmental justice communities.
BACKGROUND ON ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
12 Blueprint for Pollution Prevention and Sustainable Development, National Pollution Prevention
Roundtable, August, 2002.
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EPA defines environmental justice to mean the fair treatment of people of all races,
cultures and incomes with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement
of environmental laws and policies and their meaningful involvement in the decision-
making processes of the government.13 Communities of color and low-income
communities have a long history of involvement in environmental quality issues.l4 Since
the 1980's community organizations have been forming at the grass roots level to work
more intensively on environmental pollution issues.15 Recent concerns about
environmental justice can be traced to public and private regional and national studies
highlighting observational and statistical data indicating that low-income communities
and communities of color are more likely than the general population to be exposed to
pollution and to suffer from associated health effects due to exposure.16
In 1990 the University of Michigan held a conference on Race and the Incidence of
Environmental Hazards.17 Participants at that conference wrote to the Administrator of
the Environmental Protection Agency seeking a meeting and action on a variety of issues
relating to environmental risk in low-income communities and communities of color.18
Former EPA Administrator William Reilly responded to that letter by forming the
Environmental Equity Workgroup to examine issues of disproportionate risk in low-
income communities and communities of color and to review agency programs and
procedures in order to assure that EPA was fulfilling its mission with respect to those
communities.19 In response to public concerns, in 1992 the EPA also created an Office of
Environmental Equity to facilitate the integration of environmental justice into EPA
programs, policies and activities.
In 1993, Former EPA Administrator Carol Browner made environmental justice a priority
stating "EPA is committed to addressing these concerns and assuming a leadership role in
environmental justice to enhance environmental quality for all residents of the United
States." In 1994, President William Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 to establish
environmental justice as a national priority and to focus the attention of federal agencies
on environmental and health conditions in low-income communities and communities of
color with a view towards achieving environmental protection for all communities.
13 Christine Todd Whitman, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA's Commitment to Environmental
Justice, Memorandum, August 9, 2001.
14 See Lawrence v. Hancock, 76 F. Supp. 1004, 1008 (S.D. W. Va. 1948); Simians v. City of Greenboro,
149 F. Supp. 562 (M.D. N. C. 1957); Bonier v. Lane, 204 F. Supp. 168 (S.D. Fla. 1962); Beal v. Lindsay,
468 F. ₯*. 287 (2nd Cir. 1972).
15 Bean v. Southwestern Management Corporation, 482 F. Supp 673 (1979; New Yoik City Coalition to
End Lead Poisoning v. Koch, 138 Misc. 2d 188 (1987); East-Bibb Twiggs Neighborhood Association et al.
v. Macon-Bibb Planning and Zoning Commission et al., 662 F2d 1465 (1987); El Pueblo Para el Aire y
Agua Limpio v. County of Kings, 22 ELR 20357 (1991).
16 United Church of Christ, Commission for Racial Justice, Toxic Waste and Race in the United States: A
National Report on the Racial and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste
Sites (1987).
17 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Equity. Reducing Risks for all Communities,
Volume 1 (1992)
18 Id.
19 Id.
9
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20
As previously stated, Administrator Christine Todd Whitman confirmed EPA's
commitment to environmental justice, saying "[environmental justice is the goal to be
achieved for all communities and persons across this nation" and that it will be achieved
when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health
hazards and has a "healthy environment where they live, learn and work." According to
Administrator Whitman, achieving environmental justice is an objective imbedded in the
federal environmental statutes. "Environmental statutes provide many opportunities to
address environmental risks and hazards in minority and/or low income communities.
Application of these existing statutory provisions is an important part of this Agency's
effort to prevent those communities from being subject to disproportionately high and
adverse impacts, and environmental effects."21 Because it proactively seeks to integrate
environmental justice in the Agency's mission as part of the application of existing
statutory authorities, Administrator Whitman's 2001 memo represents a significant
advance to the commitment to environmental justice made by previous administrations.
The leadership displayed by the EPA has been important to and supportive of the grass
roots environmental justice movement that has always made the 'concept' of pollution
prevention a guiding principle. The thread throughout the Principles of Environmental
Justice, drafted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit
in 1991, is a call for pollution prevention.22 The third principle calls for "ethical,
balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a
sustainable planet for humans and other living things".23 Principle 6 demand? the
"cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials
24
20 Christine Todd Whitman, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA's Commitment to Environmental
Justice, Memorandum, August 9, 2001.
21 Id.
22 Center for Public Environmental Oversight, The First People of Color Environmental Leadership
Summit, Principle of Environmental Justice (adopted: October 27,1991) available at
http://www cpeo.org/pubs/eiprinc.hunl
23 Id.
24
Id.
10
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POLLUTION PREVENTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Pollution prevention, as a concept, was identified at the First People of Color
Environmental Leadership Summit as a policy necessary for achieving environmental
justice because of the clear need to reduce pollution impacts and the broad range of
damaging effects believed to result from pollution exposures. Even though communities
may sometimes view pollution prevention, as defined by government, with skepticism,
pollution prevention can have positive impacts on environmental justice communities by
reducing pollution exposures and thereby improving quality of life.
The development and implementation of a multi-stakeholder collaborative model,
increasing community and tribal capacity to participate in pollution prevention
partnerships, and implementing opportunities to advance environmental justice through
pollution prevention in federal environmental statutes are some of the major
recommendations that have received endorsement from all the stakeholder groups as
ways to effectively achieve these goals. Areas such as multi-media, multi-hazard
reduction, waste minimization and product / process substitution have already
demonstrated reductions in hazardous chemicals and solvents, achieved water and energy
savings, and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. There are promising efforts in the area of
transportation, alternative fuels, and small businesses in environmental justice
communities.
The goals of pollution prevention, source reduction and protection of natural resources,
have the potential to offer a variety of benefits to low-income, minority and tribal
communities and would seem to be a natural coupling with environmental justice.
Pollution prevention can reduce permitted and fugitive emissions and also accidental
releases or spills and their attendant adverse health impacts. In addition to addressing
regulated discharges, pollution prevention activities can go beyond existing
environmental statutes and regulations.
The environmental justice movement is not only committed to the goals and values of
pollution prevention, it actively seeks eliminated or reduced pollution, eliminated or
reduced adverse health effects and improved environmental quality for low-income,
minority and tribal communitiesresults that pollution prevention could produce. The
concept of using pollution prevention as an environmental justice tool would seem to
make perfect sense, but, for a number of reasons, community organizations have not, as a
rule, added it to their environmental justice toolbox. Issues such as lack of capacity, lack
of trust and failure to develop or include communities in collaborative models or
partnerships have presented barriers to wider acceptance of the utility of pollution
prevention in low-income communities and communities of color. Environmental justice
requires that communities have more than an indirect influence on industry's production
process when pollution prevention activities can lead to reduced pollution exposures,
holistic community development and economic sustainability. This influence will benefit
environmental justice communities for years to come.
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For communities to have a direct influence on preventing, minimizing or eliminating
pollution, capacity building in communities must be a priority of government and other
stakeholders. This means communities need a basic understanding of pollution
prevention processes and technologies, by industry or substantive areas, and of the steps
needed to develop a collaborative model in which other stakeholders work with
communities to implement process or technology changes.
ENFORCEMENT AND POLLUTION PREVENTION
It is important to understand the relationship between enforcement and pollution
prevention as discussed in this report. All stakeholders agree that pollution prevention
constitutes progress beyond the protection of human health and the environment
mandated by compliance with all applicable regulatory standards. Pollution prevention is
not a substitute for compliance. Indeed, a pollution prevention strategy improves
environmental quality only if it is coupled with a vigorous enforcement program.
Effective enforcement is the foundation for pollution prevention progress for several
reasons:
First, enforcement assures that all facilities comply with regulatory obligations,
thus incurring regulatory costs. The substantial cost of managing toxic materials
and wastes in compliance with regulatory standards creates an important
economic incentive to find savings through product substitution and other
pollution prevention innovations. This economic incentive is vital because of the
limited resources available to "reward" those who choose to go "beyond
compliance."
Second, enforcement is fundamental to gain community support for pollution
prevention projects. The evidence of regulatory compliance in a strong
enforcement program lends credulity to the regulated facilities themselves.
Having demonstrated ability to comply with regulatory obligations, a facility
earns the community's trust that it has the competence and responsibility to be
recognized for the less-easily-monitored activities that frequently constitute
pollution prevention.
Third, enforcement sustains a level playing field of environmental costs among
regulated entities. Without this baseline, one company cannot take the financial
risk in an attempt to distinguish itself by going "beyond compliance." In a
competitive market, one player cannot exceed by a large and unpredictable
margin the environmental costs of its competitors. If it chooses to implement
pollution prevention options other than those that are likely to produce cost
savings, it will simply price itself out of business.
Fourth, effective enforcement will help to ensure a level playing field for all
companies. Enforcement provides the economic disincentive to violating
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regulatory requirements, while at the same time ensuring that companies in
compliance will be able to benefit from the public good will that pollution
prevention efforts usually bring. Enforcement is the "stick" counterpart to the
economic "carrot" represented by pollution prevention. In that sense, strong
enforcement plays an important complementary role to pollution prevention
efforts.
Thus, rigorous enforcement is the companion of pollution prevention. Complexities
emerge when this principle is applied at the facility and sector level. Smaller, less
sophisticated firms often have difficulty understanding their permitting obligations and
conforming to them. For large firms, the dynamic between pollution prevention and
compliance is relatively simple: pollution prevention projects cannot be used to evade
meeting the environmental performance mandated by applicable regulatory standards.
Pollution prevention means exceeding an established standard, reducing an organization's
environmental footprint in a manner not required by regulators, or improving
environmental performance by reducing unregulated sources of emissions. A company
subject to enforcement action for an instance of non-compliance does not forfeit the
opportunity to engage in pollution prevention activities (which, after all, by definition
reduce ambient pollution); but at the same time its participation in pollution prevention
activities does not bar appropriate penalties for non-compliance.
For small businesses with challenges in understanding and achieving compliance,
enforcement may need to be coupled with compliance assistance tools such as education
and training before pollution prevention opportunities emerge. A more flexible approach
may be required to achieve pollution reductions with sectors struggling to achieve
baseline compliance. For currently unregulated sources (those not subject to permit
requirements or other specific regulatory obligations), any voluntary step to reduce
pollution could be termed pollution prevention. This designation of course goes away if
the applicable regulatory authority creates mandatory compliance standards. In other
words, pollution prevention is a rolling target, always exceeding the environmental
standards promulgated as necessary to protect human health and the environment.
THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
Pollution prevention is consistent with the cautious approach to evaluating and
addressing environmental risks that has been a cornerstone of many U.S. regulatory
programs. Currently law and guidance are replete with examples of caution exercised in
the face of scientific or technological uncertainty:
The Clean Air Act's focus on health impacts without reference to cost
New chemical review standards under the Toxic Substances Control Act
The Food and Drug Administration's new drug approval process
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's implementation of the
general duty clause
13
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This report's recommendation to continue rigorous enforcement of regulatory standards
while also stimulating use of pollution prevention that goes beyond compliance can be
viewed in the light of this tradition of regulatory prudence.
This perspective does not conflict with the intent of the "precautionary principle"
articulated in the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which stated
that u[w]here there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of scientific
certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost effective measures to prevent
environmental degradation." There is scientific and government support in Europe for
the Precautionary Principle theory; however, there has been some criticism that the
implementation of the principle may generate litigation. Components of the
"precautionary principle" support designing and implementing pollution prevention
solutions. Pollution prevention provides an opportunity to act cautiously in the face of
imperfect information, scientific uncertainty and high risk. From this perspective,
pollution prevention presents an opportunity in environmental justice communities to
enhance environmental quality in the face of multiple sources of pollution. To the extent
that current regulatory standards may not have anticipated cumulative impacts or
vulnerable populations, pollution prevention provides an opportunity to add a cautionary
element of improved environmental protection.
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT AND POLLUTION PREVENTION
The concept of environmental justice can be difficult to apply to situations arising within
Indian reservations. In most environmental justice cases, there are several kinds of
entities involved, typically at least: a community comprised of minority and/or low-
income people; a business that either wants to do or is doing something that causes
environmental impacts that the community wants to prevent or stop; and a government
agency that has permitting or other regulatory authority. Often there is more than one
entity of one or another of these categories, for example, both a state and a federal
agency, or more than one minority community that is up in arms.25
In Indian country, the tribe might fit into all three of these categories. The people who
comprise the tribe might be seen as an environmental justice community, in that they are
generally considered an ethnic minority (and perhaps a racial minority) and most of the
families may also be low-income. The tribe is, of course, also a sovereign government,
and as such may exercise regulatory or permitting authority over the facility that would
25 Dean B. Suagee, Dimensions of EnvironmentalJustice in Indian Country and Native Alaska, a policy
paper prepared for the Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit (Summit II),
October 23-26,2002, Washington, D.C. The Summit II policy papers are available on the web site of Claik
Atlanta University, Environmental Justice Resource Center, at: www.ejrc.cau.edu, more specifically:
www.ejre.cau.edu/summitIIPolicyPapereT(Xyhtmh David H. Getches and David N. Fellow, Beyond
"Traditional" EnvironmentalJustice, in JUSTICE AND NATURAL RESOURCES: CONCEPTS, STRATEGIES, AND
APPLICATIONS, at 3, 16-26 (Kathiyn Mutz, et al. eds, Island Press 2002) (discussing the problem of
defining environmental justice so broadly that it could include claims made by any community, and
suggesting that, whatever criteria are used to make the concept narrow enough to be useful, Indian tribes
should generally be considered as EJ communities).
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cause (or is causing) the environmental impacts that the community wants to stop. It is
likely that, in addition to the tribe, a federal government agency or two also has some
authority over the facility, but the tribe's status as a sovereign government is always an
important factor in dealing with polluting facilities within reservation boundaries.
So, the tribe is the environmental justice community and the tribe is also a government
with some measure of authority over the facility. In addition, the tribe may also be the
business that operates, or seeks to operate, the polluting facility. The tribe might do this
through a tribal enterprise or through a joint venture with a private business. Sometimes
the tribe's role as owner/operator may be through a governmental institution, for example
a utilities department that operates facilities such as wastewater treatment plants and
landfills
In non-Indian America, governments may also be involved on both sides of the
regulatory regime, that is, as regulators and as operators of regulated facilities. There are
usually some pretty well established walls, though, between government agency as
regulator and government agency as proponent or operator or funder of regulated
facilities In Indian country, the distinctions between tribe as regulator and operator of
regulated facility are often less clearly drawn and may be hard to maintain. Tribes, after
all, are generally rather small communities, and community leaders often wear more than
one hat. Moreover, people who perform roles in the tribe as government generally also
perform important roles in the tribe as a community.
UNDERSTANDING POLLUTION IMPACTS
Communities of color, low-income and tribal communities suffer from numerous adverse
pollution impacts from non-sustainable environmental practices that could be reduced or
eliminated through pollution prevention measures. These impacts include unfavorable
health effects and adverse impacts which are environmental, societal, economic, and
international. Reducing all of these adverse impacts from pollution is a key concern of
communities that is also shared by the Environmental Protection Agency. The chief
goals of the major environmental protection statutes administered by EPA are "protection
of public health and the environment." EPA's Framework for Pollution Prevention
acknowledges the relationship between preventing adverse health impacts and preventing
pollution by stating that partnership with the public health community is a key objective
in order to demonstrate that "pollution prevention is disease prevention."26
Health and Environmental Impacts
Pollution prevention measures can reduce poor air quality that is believed to contribute to
illness and premature death in communities. Outdoor air pollution is responsible for
26 EPA Pollution Prevention Policy Framewoik, Guiding Social Principles,
www.qia.gov/p2/p2ppolicy/fiainework.htm.
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increased morbidity and mortality locally27 and throughout the world28. Research
supports the community's view that asthma and other respiratory diseases, cancer, birth
defects, liver and kidney damage and premature death, are all attributable, at least in part,
to air pollution exposures29. Air pollution exposures due to residence in exposure zones
of hazardous and other waste sites have also been associated with statistically increased
risks of birth defects, breast cancer, and leukemia and bladder cancer.30
27 Daniel M. Steigman, Is it "urban" or "asthma?". The Lancet, July 1996, at 143-144 (documenting much
higher asthma hospital admission rates in poor and minority communities than in other areas of Boston); R.
Charon Gwynn and George D. Thurston, The Burden of Air Pollution: Impacts among Racial Minorities.
Environmental Health Perspectives. Volume 109, Supplement 4, August 2001 (exploring disparities in
hospital admissions and mortality by race in New York City); Susan M. Bernard, Johnathan M. Samet
Anne Grambsch, Kristie L. Ebi, and Isabelle Romieu, The Potential Impacts of Climate Variability and
Change on Air Pollution-Related Health Effects in the United States. Environmental Health Perspectives,
Volume 109, Supplement 2, May 2001 (stating that air pollution can cause, respiratory diseases,
cardiovascular diseases, alter host defenses, damage lung tissue, lead to premature death and contribute to
cancer).
28 Tom Bellander, Public Health and Air Pollution. The Lancet, January 2001, at 69-70 (estimating the
increase of mortality as a result of long term studies of air pollution in Austria, France and Switzerland).
Kunzli, N; Kaiser, R; Medina, S; Studnika, M; Chanel, O; Filliger, P; Heny, M; Horak, Jr. F; Puybonnieux-
Texier.V; Quenel, P; Schneieder, J; Seethaler, R; Vergnaud, J-C; Sommer, H., Public Health Impact of
Outdoor and Traffic Related Air Pollution: A European Assessment The Lancet, September 2000, at 795-
801 (finding that air pollution caused 6% more total mortality, 25,000 new cases of chronic bronchitis in
adults, 290,000 additional cases of bronchitis in children, 500,000 more asthma attacks and 16 million
person days of restricted activities); Jun Kagawa, Atmospheric Air Pollution Due to Mobile Sources and
Effects on Human Health in Japan. Environmental Health Perspectives 102, Supplement 4, October 1994
(rinding that unfavorable human health effects result from automobile caused air pollution in large cities
and along transportation routes); Tony Sheldon, Reducing Greenhouse Gases Will Have Good Short Tern
Effect British Medical Journal, Volume 321, page 1367, December 2002 (finding that bronchitis in
children fell ten percent in relation to reduced concentrations of particulate matter).
29 Tracey J. Woodruff, Daniel Axelrad, Jane Caldwell, Rachel Morello-Frosch, and Arlene Rosenbaum,
Public Health Implications of 1990 Air Toxics Concentrations across the United States. Environmental
Health Perspectives, Volume 106, May 1998; Rachel A. Morello-Frosch, Tracey J. Woodruff, Daniel A.
Axelrad, Jane C. Caldwell, Air Toxics and Health Risks in California: The Public Health Implications of
Outdoor Concentrations. Risk Analysis, Volume 20 Issue 2, February 2000 (predicting 8600 excess cancer
cases and for non-cancer health effects a median total hazard index of 17). A national study of air toxics
data found that 10% of all census tracts had one or more carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants present in
excess of the defined health benchmark concentrations for cancer and non-cancer health effects and over
90% of census tracts had estimated concentrations of benzene, formaldehyde and 1-3 butadiene greater than
the cancer health benchmark.
30 Sandra Geschwind, Jan Stolwijk, Micheal Bracken, Edward Fitzgerald, Alice Stark, Carolyn Olsen, and
James Melius, Risk of Congenital Malformations Associated with Proximity to Hazardous Waste Sites.
American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 136, No. 11, 1992 (finding an additional risk of bearing
children with birth defects associated with residence near hazardous waste sites); Samuel S. Epstein,
Environmental and Occupational Pollutants are Avoidable Causes of Breast Cancer. 24 Int'. J, Health
Servs., 145,147, 1994; Elizabeth L. Lewis-Michl, Ph.D., R Kallenbach, Ph.D., Nannette S. Geary, James
M. Melius, M.D., Dr. P.H., Carole L. Ju, M.S.,Maureen F. Orr, M.S., Steven P. Forand, Investigation of
Cancer Incidence and Residence Near 38 Landfills with Soil Migration Conditions: New York State 1980-
1989 (showing statistically significantly elevated risks for female bladder cancer and female
among women residing in the landfill exposure buffers).
16
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Pollution prevention can also reduce the risk of cancer and non-cancer health effects in
the occupational context for workers who are typically the first to be subjected to
environmental exposures. However, improperly designed pollution prevention activities
may increase workers' environmental burdens. For example, water based paints reduce
VOCs released to the environment, but the strong non-oxidizing biocides required for
bacterial control pose a greater risk to the worker.
Pollution prevention can also reduce the devastating effects of pollution on the
environment for plants, animals, marine life and other living things including people who
rely on the environment for subsistence food gathering. Some pollutants are persistent
(degrade slowly) and bioaccumulate in the environment, often becoming part of the food
chain ultimately consumed by people. These types of pollutants, persistent
bioaccumulative toxics, are commonly referred to as PBT's. Health effects from
subsistence food consumption can translate into extraordinarily high risks for cancer and
non-cancer health effects '.
Native American and Alaskan Native Nations can benefit from pollution prevention
because they are exposed to many of the same environment threats as other communities
of color. They suffer from adverse effects of pesticides and other hazardous substances.32
These exposures result into a variety of adverse health effects including asthma,
hypertension, thyroid disorders, cancer and leukemia. Pollution has also impacted upon
their ability to engage in traditional cultural practices.33
Risks to Native Nations have not historically been adequately addressed due to erratic
levels of federal technical and financial assistance, particularly in cases where the
funding mechanism failed to recognize the appropriate role of tribal governments. 34 All
activities that impact upon tribal resources should be revisited to determine whether and
31 According to the NEJAC Fish Consumption Report, low-income communities, communities of color and
tribes have subsistence fish consumption rates ranging from the 90* to the 99th percentile rates for the
general population. These fish consumption rates translate into extraordinarily high risks for cancer and
non-cancer health effects;Industrial Technology Associates, EPA Cumulative Exposure Assessment for
Greenpoint-Williamsbure. 2000 (concluding that total cancer risks from fish consumption range from 1 in
10 to 1 in 1000); Jason Corburn, Combining Community-Based Research and Local Knowledge to
Confront Asthma and Subsistence Fishing Hazards in Greenpoint-Willianishiirg. Brooklyn. New York.
Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, Volume 110, Number 2, April 2002.
32 Lorraine Halinka Malcoe, Robert A. Lynch, Michelle Cozier Kegler and Valrie A. Skaggs. Lead Sources.
Behaviors
Factors in Relation to Blood Lead of Native American and White Children.
Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, Volume 110, Number 2, April 2002; Sornini Sengupta, A
Sick Tribe and a Dump as a Neighbor. The New York Times, April 7,2001.
33 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Environmental Quality, Pesticides and Wildlife, Pesticides
and Wildlife. July 2001, http://contaminant5.fws.gov/Issues/Pesticides.cfhi.; Lisa Mastny, Coming to
Terms with the Artie. Worldwatch Institute, WorldWatch, Volume 13, p. 24, January 2000.
34 Mary Arquette, Maxine Cole, Katsi Cook, Breoda LaFrance, Margaret Peters, James Ransom, Elvera
Sargent, Vivian Smoke and Arlene Stairs, Holistic Risk-Based Environmental Decision Making: A Native
Perspective. Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, Volume 110, Number 2, April 2002
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how pollution prevention measures can benefit tribes As sovereign governments,
tribes can play a vital role in pollution prevention and help eliminate the risks associated
with the release of pollution into the environment. Tribes can mitigate the impacts of
shifting pollution from one medium to another while protecting natural resources for
future tribal generations.
Societal and Developmental Impacts
Societal and developmental impacts believed by communities to be pollution related can
be reduced through pollution prevention. Disparities in socioeconomic status result in
health disparities that are exacerbated by environmental exposures.36 Health care
opportunities, health status, educational opportunities, intergenerational transfers of
wealth, poverty and lack of health insurance are all measures of socioeconomic status that
increase the risk of health disparities and are effected by both race and pollution
exposures.
37
The reduction or elimination of pollution, especially PBTs, would be an effective way to
address developmental damage and delay that is more likely to occur when children are
exposed to multiple and cumulative risks in their environment.38 Certain pollutants also
have adverse impacts on the reproductive system, and a special concern is endocrine
disrupters since they are extremely persistent, bioaccumulate, and therefore have a multi-
generational impact. Numerous pollutants targeted for toxic pollution reduction
activities, including lead, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, are neurodevelopment
toxicants and cause learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
developmental delays and emotional and behavioral problems.39
Although the impacts on human health in tribal communities may be similar to impacts
suffered by other environmental justice communities, tribal communities may also suffer
impacts on cultural practices that are unique to them. The inability to carry on traditional
cultural practices such as consumption of wild foods or the use of plant materials in crafts
might seriously impair the ability of the elders of a tribe to pass on traditions to younger
tribal members. This is a kind of disproportionate impact that is largely unique to tribal
communities.
35 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Tribal Council and Tulalip Tribes, Pollution Prevention
and Native American Communities: A Tool for Tribal Environmental Protection and Impact Assessment,
supra at p. 10.
36 Nancy E. Aider, and Katherine Newman, Socioeconomic Disparities in Health: Pathways and Policies:
Inequality in Education. Income and
"Have-nots". Health Affairs, April 2002
the Gaps Between the "Hayes" and the
38 Francine Clark Jones, Community Violence, Children and Youth: Considerations For Program, Policy
and Nursing Roles, Pediatric Nursing, Volume 23, p. 131, March 1997.
39 Ted Schettler, Toxic Threats to Neurological Development of Children. Environmental Health
Perspectives, Volume 109, Supplement 6, December 2001
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Economic Impacts
Communities believe that pollution prevention would be a proactive way to address the
adverse economic impacts of pollution that exacerbate poverty and reduce earning ability.
Pollution exposure has adverse economic impact on the cost of access to health care in
environmental justice communities. Pollution exposures place a huge economic burden
on society. Just four diseases associated with environmental causation cost the United
States and Canada as much as 397 billion dollars a year.40 There is emerging evidence
of economic impacts associated with reduced intelligence from pollution exposures.
Pollution also jeopardizes property values in impacted communities. Decreased property
values translate into loss of equity for use in getting bank loans, and makes it more
difficult to sell the property and relocate. Economic data indicates that residence near the
fence line of industrial facilities has an adverse economic effect on property values
whether or not the property is actually contaminated.41 Property that is actually
contaminated by a nearby source or with contaminated drinking water may be essentially
worthless.
Communities inundated with brownfields, Superfund sites, and other abandoned,
contaminated lands suffer adverse economic impacts and continuing health risks.
Though some funding opportunities exist via new initiatives for brownfields
redevelopment, funding is limited. Despite the Superfund and Brownfields programs,
many contaminated sites have yet to be addressed.
In communities and indigenous lands throughout the country, subsistence fanners and
fisherman depend on the land to provide food for their families. Pollutants, especially
PBTs and heavy metals that enter the food chain can devastate this way of life. In
addition, those small community businesses such as fish farms that depend on the
environmental health of the water and land are also economically harmed.
In urban centers, abandoned properties create blight, accelerating the economic decline of
the surrounding area. Rural communities may suffer similar harms when large tracts of
land become contaminated and are then abandoned.
International Impacts
Pollution prevention has the potential to reduce pollution impacts on an international
level. Globalization has resulted in the shifting of industrial production to developing
40 Tom Muir and Mike Zegarac, Societal Costs of Exposure to Toxic Substances. Environmental Health
Perspectives, Volume 109, Supplement 6, December 2001.
41 Paul S. Kibel, FAB Quarterly Viewpoint, Full Cleanup Preserves Full Value.
www.fablae.com/cleanup.htm.; Mundy Associates, LLC, Contaminated Property: Issues and Answers. June
2002. www.mundyassoc.com/contaminated.htni.
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countries along with accompanying pollution and adverse health-related effects. Global
warming due to fossil fuel use, increased use of pesticides, and exploitation of natural
resources in Third World countries cause loss of biodiversity, erosion and deforestation.
Unsustainable policies and practices could be reduced through pollution prevention
measures.43 Most developing countries also do not have effective environmental
regulation. History shows that lack of environmental regulation enables industries that
produce toxic waste to be less vigorous in preventing pollution.
Pollution prevention is, at heart, a highly ethical concept that is wholly consistent with
notions of environmental justice. That is why reduction of the use of non-renewable
resources was identified at the First People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit
as the 17th Principles of Environmental Justice"using as little as possible of Mother
Earth's resources." This principle is about sustainable development and fairness to
subsequent generations. International efforts to promote sustainable development have
resolved that issue and adopted the concept of "intergenerational equity" as a way to
consider human impacts on the environment through the prism of time and fairness.
Intergenerational equity is said to have three components: conservation of options for
future generations the diversity of the resource base should be conserved so as to allow
future generations to have the freedom to make their own choices; conservation of quality
-the environment should be passed on to the next generation in the same condition as
when the present generation received it; and conservation of access all members of the
present generation should have equitable access to natural resources.44 Intergenerational
equity requires that we conserve existing natural resources so that coming generations
have the resources needed to sustain healthy and productive lives. The focus of pollution
prevention on source reduction is consistent with moral obligations in favor of
subsequent generations of people and other living things.
Using pollution prevention approaches to advance environmental justice is also
supportive of and synergistic with EPA's philosophy of pollution prevention. Issues such
as climate change, that have far reaching national and international ramifications for
recent and future generations, reduction of smog, and energy efficiency improvements
are already part of EPA's programs and policies. Similarly, loss of biodiversity through
habitat loss and alteration and associated impacts on future generations are a concern of
EPA's Brownfields Revitalization Program, a program that strives to assure that
greenfields are protected and urban land is redeveloped in sustainable ways.
42 Khabir Ahmed, World Bank Predicts Development for the Next Century. The Lancet, September 18,
1999; Indoor Air Pollution Exposure Well Over WHO Guidelines. Health & Medicine Week, October 2-
October 9,2000; Kenny Pronezuk, James Akre, Gerald Moy, Constanza Vallenas, Global Perspectives in
Breast Milk Contamination: Infectious and Toxic HaM*ds. Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume
110, Number 6, June 2002.
43 Joy Chen, Rachel Rivera, A Pocket Guide to the Environmental Millennium. The Amicus Journal,
Volume 21, p. 22, January 2000; Richard Fenske, Incorporating Health and Ecological Costs into
Agricultural Production. Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 110, Number 5, May 2002.
44 Duncan French, Sustainable Development and the 1991 Madrid Protocol to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty:
The Primacy of Protection in a Particularly Sensitive Environment, Journal of International Wildlife Law &
Policy, Section No. 3, Vol. 2; Pg. 291,September 22, 1999.
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Pollution prevention can help us meet environmental challenges faced by the human
family. In the words of Administrator Whitman, "[b]ecause we have been entrusted with
the stewardship of this shared planet, we must all work together. By drawing on the
strengths of othersand by willingly sharing our ownwe can fulfill our sacred
obligation to future generations to leave them a cleaner planet than we found."
TOWARD A MULTI-STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATIVE MODEL TO
ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE THROUGH POLLUTION
PREVENTION: Addressing Environmental Quality and Economic Justice Issues
through Multi-stakeholder Pollution Prevention Collaborations
Introduction
Collaborative approaches to improving environmental quality through pollution
prevention have utilized a variety of approaches aimed at reducing or preventing
pollution and promoting a more sustainable economy. The Environmental Protection
Agency's Common Sense Initiative and Project Excel are two of many examples of
successful pollution prevention collaborations. However, community-driven pollution
prevention collaborative models have been the exception rather than the rule, and
community driven collaborative models have lacked a formal structure.
Efforts to use collaborative processes have not always included tribal communities in
appropriate ways. Tribes as governments may have regulatory authority over some
aspect of a problem. Tribes may need to be included in collaboration because they have
rights under treaties or statutes outside their territorial jurisdiction. The people who
comprise a tribe, or a group within the tribe, may be a community with environmental
justice concerns that should be included as stakeholders. In the discussion of
collaborative models in this section, the implications for tribal communities have not
always been elaborated. Readers may want to supply their own expansion on the text
presented.
Currently, no uniform model exists for a community-driven multi-stakeholder, pollution
prevention collaborative. A community-driven multi-stakeholder model would feature
the common goal of a healthy local environment and highlight the need to share
responsibility for achieving that goal. A community-driven model would take a broad
look at environmental concerns in the community, identify the most effective ways to
improve health, and utilize the potential of collaboration and mobilizing local resources
to make progress in improving the health status of local residents. A community-driven
collaborative model would acknowledge the importance of sharing information and
establishing a level playing field for all participants. This kind of collaborative model
can help build sustainable community capacity to understand and improve the
environment. (Details on the structure and action plans towards a collaborative model are
described in recommendation #1.)
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A community-driven multi-stakeholder pollution prevention collaborative model would
need to involve all major stakeholders as equals and incorporate sustainable economic
development with a focus on improving the quality of life and health of community
members. The model would be a means of addressing environmental quality and
economic justice issues through community-driven multi-stakeholder pollution
prevention collaborations.
Initial Scoping Meetings: Drafting the Petition
A community driven multi-stakeholder pollution prevention collaboration would begin
with initial scoping meetings during which the impacted community would get together
as a group and identify their issues and basic concerns in general terms. The universe of
their issues or a specific issue could be the focus of the discussion. The issues would be
discussed orally and issues articulated in a draft Environmental Justice Petition that
would ultimately be presented to a regulatory agency.
The initial scoping meetings would only involve the community and its technical
assistants. Communities routinely have their concerns dismissed and need to be assured
that their instincts can be trusted. The community would need to work with an organizer,
advocate, technical and/or legal support personnel to preliminarily investigate the issues
identified using available data and information on line. The community concerns and
identified issues should be validated and confirmed for the community using
preliminarily available information in an initial training/capacity building meeting.
Building the Collaboration
After the initial scoping and submission of petition meeting, an entity or organization
would help the community organize the initial multi-stakeholder meeting. Working with
its technical support or organizers, the community needs to identify all stakeholders
pertinent to addressing the issues and concerns raised regarding pollution reduction. The
stakeholders should include industry, small business, municipal government, state, tribal
and local environmental regulatory agencies, state, tribal and local health agencies,
elected representatives and emergency responders. Other key stakeholders include
Chambers of Commerce, health organizations, civic organizations, environmental
organizations, as appropriate, and technical assistance organizations, as appropriate. All
stakeholders must be invited to join the collaboration. Reluctant or missing stakeholders
should be strongly urged to participate.
Organizing the Initial Collaboration Meeting
At the initial collaboration meeting, all stakeholders should identify who they are, what
they do and what their interests are. This will enable all participants to understand what
the perspectives and expectations are for participating members. The stakeholders should
brainstorm to identify their needs and what their anticipated benefits will be.
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At this juncture, the community draft environmental justice petition should be shared
with the other stakeholders. In small breakout groups, information and capacity building
needs for each stakeholder should be identified, articulated and documented.
At a minimum, government agencies need a training and information package on how
this collaboration will improve the process and develop trust within the community.
Government needs to know what benefits it can anticipate from this process. A major
function of government in a multi-stakeholder pollution prevention collaboration is
education. Government needs education on how it can more effectively carry out its role
and provide technical assistance. Government needs to commit resources, including an
identified staff person to participate. Government also needs to commit staff persons or
consultants who can serve as technical assistance providers to identify appropriate and
available specific pollution prevention approaches designed to address the concerns
raised. A facilitator may be employed to assist in developing a consensus process.
Finally, an independent observer can assist by documenting the process and measuring
pollution reductions achieved.
The needs of industry must also be met in order for industry and small business to
successfully participate in this process. At a minimum, industry needs an information
package on how they can benefit from the process, including how pollution prevention
can improve profitability. Industry can benefit from compliance assistance centers
developed with the support of government, training on the collaborative process and how
it works, and help from a technical assistance provider to identify appropriate and
available specific pollution prevention approaches designed to address the concerns
raised.
A priority should be placed upon meeting the educational, training, capacity building and
informational needs of the community. The community needs include, at a minimum,
education pertaining to the environmental and health concerns raised, the regulatory
provisions addressing pollution as it pertains to those concerns, and the role of pollution
in affecting local health and environmental quality. A technical assistance provider and
/or organizer is essential to helping the community participate on a level playing field
with other stakeholders. It may be necessary to simplify materials or present them in
language that lay persons can easily understand. Language appropriate training or
educational materials may also be needed if English is not the language spoken by the
community. A suitable regular meeting space is necessary, and the community may need
assistance with communication materials and strategies. Community members also
require financial support to participate in a community-driven collaborative. This support
should include, at a minimum, resources and/or stipends, publication costs and
transportation assistance.
In order to assure the success of the initial collaboration meeting, governmental and
business stakeholders should identify information to be made available to the community
relevant to their issues and basic concerns. Identified information should be shared
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through an information exchange arranged to take place before the next multi-stakeholder
collaborative meeting.
Community Training: Refining the Issues and Setting Goals
Involvement of a non-stakeholder expert or organizing entity in both partnership building
and the relevant subject area is crucial to the success of multi-stakeholder dialogues. This
partnership builder or organizing entity would help to catalyze community-based action
by researching the local concerns, identifying and engaging the stakeholders, adapting the
EPA methodology and dialogue modelto the community concern in question, facilitating
the initial discussion between stakeholders and establishing systems for ongoing
community-based action to resolve the concern. With assistance from the organizing
entity, community organizers or technical assistance providers, the information
exchanged is thoroughly reviewed by technical and legal advisors.
The community training/educational session should be based upon identified issues and
information exchanged. The summary of this information should be fully developed. If
needed, materials in appropriate language should be developed at this juncture to assist in
the training.
The identified issues should be assessed, prioritized and refined by the community. The
assessments should include discussion of the magnitude of the issues, the severity of the
problem including the number of people impacted and whether a susceptible popuktion
is involved, the type of impact, whether there are also natural resources impacts and
issues that present the greatest opportunities for improvement. The rationale for
prioritization should consider these assessment factors. The assessment should produce a
consensus with identifiable, articulated goals, recommendations and an action plan. The
action plan should also contain metrics, such as identified goals, and expected
compliance dates and evaluation dates.
The community training must prepare the community to participate on a level playing
field including preparation respecting how to present their issues. This training and
preparation should occur before the next multi-stakeholder collaborative meeting.
At a minimum, at the community training the technical assistance provider should also
provide information on how compliance can be achieved and on how pollution
prevention measures, appropriate and specific to the prioritized issues, can be
implemented.
Prior to the next multi-stakeholder meeting, government and industry or business should
also undertake training of its stakeholder group in order to assure that all stakeholders
understand the benefits of the process, their role and the need for commitment and
participation of all stakeholders. Materials developed for each training should be shared
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and available for use if the project is replicated. Similarly, the proposed action plan
should also be shared.45
Action Plan Developed through the Multi-stakeholder Process
The action plan should be memorialized in an enforceable agreement such as
Memorandum of Agreements ("MO As") or Good Neighbor Agreements, with identified
demonstration projects and time frames for compliance. Good Neighbor Agreements
between community groups and industrial companies have previously been developed in
certain impacted communities to address acute and chronic environmental and economic
problems. The Good Neighbor Agreements balance community sustainable development
with the welfare of the community. Good neighbor agreements facilitate relationship
building between the community and the industrial facility stakeholders.
Once there is consensus on identified priorities, the action plan and an agreement to
memorialize it, the action should be commenced according to the proposed action plan.
Targets for specific pollution reductions should be clear. Pollution reductions should be
monitored on a regular basis by an independent consultant.
All subsequent multi-stakeholder meetings should include all stakeholders and there
should be a process in place to assure that all stakeholders are invited. The community-
driven multi-stakeholder collaboration process should also culminate in demonstration
projects that can be implemented as identified in the action plan. These projects should
be replicable projects that are consistent with and achieve identified goals. These
projects should also include mechanisms to measure progress over time and assure that,
45 A recent example of a collaborative partnership that demonstrated the need for community capacity-
building can be found in the Common Sense Initiative ("CSI"), Printing Sector, New York City Education
Project.4S See U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Compliance and Pollution
Prevention. Technical Assistance Directory for Printers. New York City. P. 3 (referencing the New York
City Education Project) (1998). This project challenged communities to identify community-based
printers, to engage the printers about pollution prevention and to encourage them to undertake pollution
prevention measures with technical assistance funded by EPA. When CSI community representatives
indicated that EPA was looking at printers, community members asked what printers had done and why
printers were being singled out. In order to educate the community groups that participated, a project
specific Printing Sector Community Education Manual was developed that described the nature of the
printing business including its size, the hazardous substances used in the printing industry, the health
effects of the chemicals and products used in printing, alternatives processes and products available and the
societal and economic benefits of using more sustainable processes and products.
Once prepared with an adequate background on the need for their local printers to undertake pollution
prevention measures, community organizations identified more than 120 printers located in impacted
communities, including some operating outside of the regulatory framework, that were interested in
receiving technical assistance for pollution prevention. The community groups provided these printers with
Design for the Environment and other pollution prevention materials for printers that demonstrated
opportunities to prevent, minimize or eliminate pollution impacts. After receiving training in pollution
prevention opportunities for printers, community groups, as their customers, were successful in
encouraging local printers, to be good neighbors and engage in pollution prevention measures that would
benefit their employees, their bottom line and the entire neighborhood.
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at least on a quarterly basis, progress be evaluated. Once goals are met, it is important to
set new goals.
In closing, community-driven multi-stakeholder collaborations already implemented
using this model have produced win-win situations to industry, communities, and the
government.
POLLUTION PREVENTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
FRAMEWORK
The NEJAC includes representatives from all stakeholder groups, reflects the views of
key stakeholders and was convened to assure that diverse perspectives of those with an
interest in environmental justice and pollution prevention would be heard and addressed.
The workgroup members articulated their expectations from the process, identified areas
of common ground and agreed to a framework for examining pollution prevention and
environmental justice. The framework for examining the relationship between pollution
prevention and environmental justice includes the following premises:
1. Pollution prevention activities should have a strong nexus with health,
environmental and quality of life concerns of impacted communities and risk
reduction and would benefit from process analysis for assessing which are the
most important sources to focus attention on. For impacted communities, an
extremely important value of pollution prevention is reducing health risks and
improving quality of life. However some pollution impacts may be more easily
addressed and others have the potential to achieve greater benefits by reducing
toxicity or impacts to susceptible populations. In order to prioritize pollution
prevention initiatives to provide the greatest benefit to environmental justice
communities, those initiatives must address the most important sources to reduce
risk, and improve health, environmental quality and quality of life.
2. Pollution prevention activities should recognize and respect the importance and
value of community knowledge and experience and include the full participation
of the impacted community. Communities possess information respecting
community vulnerabilities, demographics and operational variation in local
facilities and this information can improve prioritization hi pollution prevention
projects Communities support the idea of pollution prevention but often lack
specific information respecting the facilities susceptible to pollution prevention,
the measures, strategies and technologies available to prevent or eliminate
pollution and the substantive areas where pollution prevention can be useful. This
means that efforts must be undertaken to build capacity within the community to
enable the community to participate as full partners in efforts to prevent,
minimize or eliminate pollution.
3. Pollution prevention activities should focus on all sources, including large and
small facilities, public and private facilities, new and old facilities, and area and
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mobile sources. Pollution prevention initiatives that will advance environmental
justice must include a wide range of sources and activities. Focusing on
stationary sources alone is inadequate to address the range of sources adversely
impacting upon low-income communities and communities of color. At least fifty
percent of the impacts of air pollution result from mobile sources. Pollution
prevention initiatives for small facilities that are numerous such as dry cleaners,
printers or auto body shops located in impacted communities may be just as
important as reductions from individual stationary sources.
4. Polh tion prevention should involve collaborations between all stakeholder groups
and build capacity (through relevant tools, knowledge and education, and
resources, where needed), should include adequate resources at the state and
fedei al level and should promote new and emerging and existing technologies.
Polh tion prevention initiatives that promote environmental justice must include
goal oriented principled partnerships between all impacted stakeholders and
capacity-building support where needed to enable low-income communities,
comnunities of color and small businesses to participate on a level playing field,
and nust advance innovation as well as existing technologies to reduce pollution
5. Pollution prevention should strive to be proactive, positive, solution-oriented, and
holistic in approach (i.e., multi-media, in the context of sustainable and
comnunity development) and involve restoration, redevelopment and building
susti unable economics through pollution prevention. Pollution prevention
approaches that advance environmental justice should not be fragmented or
dem snstrate short-term vision. Traditional single media or media specific
mea >ures set forth in federal statutes and state delegated programs have
limitations in that they often allow transfer of pollution from one media to
another, focus on controlling large sources, ignoring other unregulated sources
that may produce as much or more pollution and accept set amounts of pollution
without incentives for regulated entities to go beyond compliance. Rather,
successful approaches should consider long-term economic impacts on
communities, workers and the environment.
6. Poll ation prevention should involve culture change in institutions and
management systems such as government, business, and schools and include
accountability for measuring, monitoring, reviewing, evaluation and rewarding
(wh ^re appropriate) performance. For pollution prevention to have a
tramformative impact on low-income communities and communities of color, it
must permeate all levels of institutions including leadership in government,
indi stry and educational and cultural institutions and reflect a change in how we
app: oach the relationship between society and the environment. Policy
pronouncements must lead to demonstrated and sustained commitments.
Corimitments should be encouraged with incentives and must be documented by
measurable improvements. Successes should be noted and replicated.
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7. Pollution prevention should apply relevant lessons from global experience.
Successful international examples, especially in developing countries, of waste
minimization, energy conservation and toxic use reduction can be incorporated
into existing pollution prevention programs and policies. Similarly, there are
examples in developing nations of more sustainable production practices that can
be applied to situations in the United States.
8. Pollution prevention should promote the use of new and emerging technologies
(i.e., alternative fuels, renewable energy, etc.). Opportunities currently exist to
meet the needs of society using more sustainable technologies, products and
processes. These new approaches are available to reduce pollution in some of the
important areas for impacted communities including industrial production, land
use and development, infrastructure development, public and private
transportation and of the delivery of goods.
9. Pollution prevention should build on what exists. Federal environmental statutes,
state, tribal and local statutes, programs, policies and initiatives currently exist to
reduce, eliminate or prevent pollution. Tax subsidies, incentives, green
purchasing programs, technical support projects and successful pilots currently
exist to reduce pollution. Successful programs and initiatives should form the
basis for integrating pollution prevention more fully into institutions and societal
awareness.
10. Pollution prevention should address special economic, political, social, public
health, and environmental attributes of at risk and/or underserved subpopulations
(i.e., tribes, children, others, etc). A wealth of evidence indicates that not
everyone is affected the same way by pollution exposures. The developing
neonate, children, the elderly, people with compromised immune systems,
individuals suffering from nutritional deficiencies or other health deficits and
people with inadequate access to health care experience worse health outcomes at
similar levels of exposure. Pollution prevention should be aggressively used to
reduce pollution impacts on vulnerable populations. It offers an opportunity to
target measures that can have the most benefit to susceptible groups in low-income
communities and communities of color.
11. Pollution prevention activities should acknowledge and value the indispensable
role of enforcement as a necessary complement, particularly in impacted
communities. While pollution prevention activities are often defined as those that
go beyond compliance, pollution prevention is never intended to preclude or serve
as a substitute for environmental enforcement and compliance. Many impacted
communities need traditional environmental enforcement mechanisms to be
utilized to assure that compliance takes place. Blank]
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Chapter 2: Consensus Recommendations
The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) is making the following
consensus recommendations to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on
advancing environmental justice through pollution prevention. In making these
recommendations, the NEJAC urges that EPA implement these recommendations with
the full participation of all appropriate stakeholder groups. These include impacted
communities, government at all levels (federal, state, tribal, and local), business and
industry, and others. Implementation of the recommendations will improve the quality of
the environment for all people, in particular low-income, minority and tribal
communities. However, without the active engagement of these communities, sustaining
the benefits of these recommendations will be virtually impossible. An involved
community has a vested interest in the process and this will enhance the chances for
immediate and long-term success. Business and industry also benefit through reduced
environmental impacts as these types of changes often lead to more efficient processes,
save money, and create jobs. By truly involving other groups, government fulfill its
promise as an instrument of empowerment. Therefore, the active participation of all
groups is to everyone's benefit and key to the successful implementation of these
recommendations.
There are 14 recommendations that have been grouped under three different categories:
Community and Tribal involvement, Capacity Building, and Partnerships; More
Effective Utilization of Tools and Programs; and Sustainable Processes and Products.
I. COMMUNITY AND TRIBAL INVOLVEMENT, CAPACITY
BUILDING, AND PARTNERSHIPS
1-1. Develop and Promote Implementation of a Multi-stakeholder Collaborative
Model to Advance Environmental Justice through Pollution Prevention that
Ensures a Meaningful Role in Design and Implementation for Impacted
Communities.
Background: Development of a multi-stakeholder collaborative model to advance
environmental justice through pollution prevention is the recommendation that arguably
has received the strongest endorsement from all stakeholder groups. This
recommendation reflects the desire of impacted communities, tribes, business and
industry, and government for support (programmatic, financial, technical) of community-
driven and community-based processes in pollution prevention that clearly identify issues
of concern, set measurable objectives, yield real environmental benefits, and offer
meaningful opportunities for constructive engagement between the various stakeholders.
A multi-stakeholder model is envisioned as a tool for communities, industry and
government and should effectively gauge environmental impacts, implement pollution
prevention technologies and assess the results from both a monetary and environmental
standpoint.
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From 1995 thru 2001, EPA supported a competitive grants program for Environmental
Justice thru Pollution Prevention. The grants provided support for environmental justice
communities and tribes to try innovative pollution prevention approaches to the
environmental problems that they faced. While EPA no longer funds this program, there
is precedent for EPA to provide funding for the types of activities encompassed in these
recommendations. It is not essential for EPA to restore the earlier grants program, but it
is essential to assure adequate funding and a competitive funding mechanism for the
multi-stakeholder process discussed here, as well as the related recommendations in this
report.
In putting forth this recommendation, the NEJAC is offering a set of guidelines to EPA
regarding how to implement and achieve such collaborative efforts to advance
environmental justice through pollution prevention. EPA should ensure the following:
Secure adequate institutional, technical and financial resources.
Provide assistance and facilitation to build the community's capacity to
meaningfully provide direction to such efforts.
Facilitate the development of multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Identify clear pollution prevention opportunities and methods to achieve pollution
prevention.
Link pollution protection efforts to community based health concerns, lead testing
and abatement, brownfields redevelopment and revitalization, transportation and
air issues; local area multi-media hazards reduction, use of SEPs, promotion of
clean energy, and others.
Assist in developing, with the inclusion of a science based approach that includes
traditional knowledge, measurable goals and clear environmental outcomes.
Provide, where appropriate, use of consensus building (facilitation, mediation)
and dispute resolution.
Action Items:
a. Develop a multi-stakeholder (communities, industry and government)
collaborative model in order to reduce pollution in environmental justice
communities. The content of this model is described in the consensus chapter.
Successful pollution prevention methods and approaches already developed by
EPA and other stakeholder groups should also be incorporated. A process should
be developed to monitor and incorporate new and other sustainable development
and pollution prevention initiatives. This model should be used by all the
stakeholder groups for purposes that include:
1. Capacity building for communities,
2. Innovative technology transfer to industry,
3. Leveraging of government programs.
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b. Identify opportunities to integrate the use of the multi-stakeholder collaborative
model to advance environmental justice though pollution prevention.
c. A program such as Performance Tracks Award, which provides an opportunity for
community involvement to promote multi-stakeholder participation and pollution
prevention, should be implemented and incorporated in the multi-stakeholder
model. This award program should provide incentives not only to manufacturing
facilities and small businesses, but also to the communities in the surrounding
area.
d. Initiate a new Environmental Justice/Pollution Prevention Grants Program
utilizing the multi-stakeholder collaborative model.
e. Build upon lessons learned from earlier programs and approaches relating to
Environmental Justice and Pollution Prevention.
f. Build on successful programs, especially regional programs, and transfer those
successes in implementation of similar programs in other parts of the country.
For example, successful auto-refinishing programs were initiated in Oklahoma,
South Carolina, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maryland, but the programs
were developed in a vacuum and did not use other programs as resource. In
addition, EPA's Design for Environment program has worked extensively in auto-
refinishing and could provide additional material. The utilization of already
developed materials should be used as criterion in the selection of grants.
1-2. Increase Community and Tribal Participation in Pollution Prevention
Partnerships by Promoting Capacity-building for Pollution Prevention in
Communities and Tribes.
Background: Improving incorporation of pollution prevention activities, tools and
policies into community and tribal advocacy strategies requires a concerted effort to build
tribal and community capacity to participate. Communities and tribes must be active
partners in pollution prevention planning activities in order to help identify priorities and
measure progress. To participate on a level playing field, communities and tribes must
have adequate and sustained funding from public and private sources to support their
efforts. Educational materials suitable for the layman must be developed and
comprehensive educational training initiatives should be undertaken. For example, EPA
supported pollution prevention capacity-building for the Common Sense Initiative,
Printing Sector, New York City Community Education Project that empowered
community groups to approach local printers with pollution prevention materials for
printers and information on process and product changes. The US EPA has a policy that
recognizes a government-to-government responsibility in the implementation of EPA
programs on reservations. Tribes, tribal colleges and Native organizations also must have
adequate and sustained funding from public and private sources to support these efforts.
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Actions items:
a. Provide resources to facilitate community and tribal participation in pollution
prevention projects.
b. Utilize and widely disseminate pertinent educational materials already developed
and translated into other languages.
c. Develop a Citizen Primer for Pollution Prevention technologies and strategies
accessible to the laymen. Utilize pertinent materials already developed.
d. Create a pollution prevention-training academy for communities including a
mobile academy that uses a cooperative approach among academic institutions,
public and private training institutions, and resource centers, especially those
designed for the environmental justice communities. This training should be
inclusive of national and international laws that provide guidance in protection of
rights and resources.
e. Create a pollution prevention-training academy for tribes, tribal colleges and
Native organizations.
i
f. Compile a collection of case studies with viable examples featuring community
and tribal representation in pollution prevention. Collaborations would be useful
as an example of successful pollution prevention partnerships. A clearinghouse
with the case studies could be placed on a Website. The multi-stakeholder
collaborative model, once developed, should be provided to local governments
and community organizations. The model will detail the steps to an effective
community involvement process in pollution prevention projects.
g. Where appropriate, compliance penalties in environmental justice communities
should be directed to pollution prevention projects that benefit the health,
environment and quality of life of community members, rather than directing
these funds to state and local general funds, or to the U.S. Treasury. Community
members and facility employees should oversee these projects jointly in order to
assure that community needs are met and improved collaboration between the
penalized facility and its neighbors is facilitated.
1-3. Strengthen Implementation of Pollution Prevention Programs on Tribal Lands
and Alaskan Native Villages.
Background: Tribal governments, tribal communities and Alaska Native villages face
significant challenges in safeguarding their lands and treaty protected tribal resources on
and off the reservations. When a viable tool to assist tribal governments in fulfilling their
duty is available, it should be shared among the tribes and considered for adoption. The
National Tribal Environmental Council (NTEC), an inter-tribal organization comprised of
some 170 tribes, provides an important mechanism for sharing information on successful
tribal government programs, through its annual conferences, its web site and other means.
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Many other organizations can serve as resources for educational programs and for sharing
information, including the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) at
Northern Arizona University and the National Tribal Environmental Research Institute
(NTERI), operated by the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona. NTEC, ITEP, and NTERI are
some of the key entities supported by EPA to provide assistance to tribes.
Tribes generally support the concept of pollution prevention as it already has a long
history in tribal cultural practices. Pollution prevention is key to preserving tribal
resources on and off the reservations and is consistent with tribal values that encourage
planning for future generations.
Tribal governments and Alaska Natives are increasing economic opportunities through
partnerships with business and industry, often with federal program support. Many tribes
and Alaska Natives are using their natural resources to sustain the tribes economically.
Tribal reservations and Alaska Native lands contain a wealth of resources and minerals
from agriculture, timber, water, oil and gas reserves, low-sulfur coal and uranium.
Pollution prevention activities with industry on tribal and Alaska Native lands must
address these industrial activities and their associated environmental impacts. Pollution
prevention is also applicable to efforts to prevent pollution from commercial agriculture,
resource extraction, transportation and other industrial developments in tribal lands. This
should include establishing partnerships to develop research projects, providing technical
direction and administrative support for selected pollution prevention projects and
developing new methods and technologies that would save energy, reduce waste and
emissions.
One example is the Alaskan Native Resources Group that also uses pollution prevention
as a tool to preserve and protect their Alaska Native villages and environment. The
Alaskan Native Resources has used pollution prevention education to protect future
generations from environmental hazards. The Group cites that pollution prevention is a
simple method of following the Three R's. The three R's are:
Reducing purchases that will become wastes (this is consumer source
reduction or waste prevention)
Reusing purchases before discarding them as trash
Recycling46
The Indigenous Environmental Network, a national Native environmental justice
organization, taking a lead from the mid 1990's Earth Ambassadors initiative of the
United National Indian Tribal Youth program have incorporated a fourth "R", that being
Respect. This is based upon most tribal philosophy of a connection to good things
coming in four and for all people to have more respect for the earth and environment.
46 "Pollution Prevention." Alaskan Native Resources. 29 July 2002.
http://www.aladkanativeresouices.coin/D2.html.
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Action items:
a. EPA should provide or offer assistance to tribal governments who need to fill the
enforcement gap by Direct Implementation of Tribal Cooperative Agreements
("DITCAs").
b. EPA should offer assistance to tribal governments in the drafting and
implementing of Tribal Environmental Policy Acts ("TEPAs") that include
pollution prevention requirements.
c. EPA should provide or offer assistance to tribal governments to engage in land
use planning and economic development activities under tribal law that promote
pollution prevention activities on tribal lands.
d. EPA should provide or offer assistance to tribal governments to develop strategies
for incorporating pollution prevention in development projects including walkable
neighborhoods, smart growth principles, and geographic information system
technologies to assist in land use analysis and planning.
e. EPA should provide or offer assistance to tribes, tribal education institutions and
Native organizations to institute educational programs to advance pollution
prevention in and near tribal lands.
f. EPA should work with other federal agencies to provide or offer assistance to
tribes to promote pollution prevention initiatives in industrial development such
as mineral extraction activities operating within and near the lands of tribes and
Alaska Native villages.
g. EPA should provide or offer assistance to tribal governments to develop
memorandum of understandings ("MOU") with adjoining governmental entities
such as states or municipalities. These MOUs can also be generally helpful in
addressing pollution prevention issues and implementing pollution prevention
programs. EPA should investigate the extent to which such agreements already
exist and whether such existing agreements can be used as a model.
1-4. Promote Efforts to Institutionalize Pollution Prevention Internationally,
Particularly in Developing Countries.
Background: Pollution does not recognize political or jurisdictional boundaries. Asa
result pollution generated locally has national and international impacts. There is a need
for increased global environmental protection as well as enhanced economic development
in developing countries. These needs (for protecting the environment and continued
economic development) must be balanced and the tradeoffs between the two objectives
minimized. This requires that governments, industries, and citizens at home and
abroad stop viewing pollution and resource depletion as inevitable by-products of
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"progress." Additionally, the stakeholders should work to incorporate environmental
management into all levels of decision-making. This requires a focus on preventing
pollution before it occurs, and making the most efficient use of existing natural resources.
Measures to address pollution prevention should be promoted on an international level
with a special focus on developing countries in order to assist these countries to improve
their standards of living in more sustainable ways than many of those chosen by the
developed nations.
In efforts to involve all levels of decision-makers in measures to promote pollution
prevention, special attention should be directed to the circumstances of indigenous
peoples. In many parts of the world, polluting industries such as mineral extraction take
place within the aboriginal territories of indigenous peoples, often without any legal
requirement for informed consent of such peoples. An emerging body of international
law, including human rights law, recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain
their own ways of life within their aboriginal homelands, which necessarily includes a
substantial degree of autonomous self-government in matters such as environmental and
natural resource management.47 In many countries, however, national law provides little
or no protection for the rights of indigenous peoples Pollution prevention offers a range
of ways to avoid imposing environmental damage on indigenous peoples, and special
efforts should be pursued to engage them in pollution prevention initiatives.
The USAID's Global Development Alliance has been developed to combine international
assets of governments, business and civil society to work in partnership in implementing
sustainable development programs in developing nations. The GDA seeks to serve as a
catalyst to mobilize the ideas, efforts, and resources of the public sector, corporate
America and non-governmental organizations1 in support of shared objectives. The
International Joint Commission (created by the US and Canada) oversees water quality in
the rivers and lakes that lie along or flow across the United States-Canada Border. The
two countries cooperate to manage and protect these waters. The Commission
established the International Air Quality Advisory Board to identify and provide advice
on air pollution issues with transboundary implications. The North American Agreement
on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) to address regional environmental concerns, to
prevent potential conflicts between trade and environmental protection interests, and to
promote the effective enforcement of environmental law, established the Commission for
Environmental Cooperation (CEC).
Efforts also are needed to improve the environmental quality and affordability of
products distributed throughout the world. Major U.S. corporations including Dow,
Dupont, Hewlett Packard, Coca Cola, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, and Timberland, as
weU as non-U.S. companies such as Unilever are currently engaged in initiatives to
market environmentally sound products in developing countries. EPA can play a role in
encouraging and providing information on initiatives to provide the world with needed,
47 See generally S. James Anaya, Indigenous Peoples in International Law (19%).
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high quality, environmentally benign products at affordable cost. These activities not
only reduce world pollution, but they seek to extend economic vitality to all.
Actions items:
a. Promote sustainable consumption and production patterns both locally and on an
international level.
b. Continue the establishment and support cleaner production programs and centers.
Additionally, the concept of waste minimization circles and clubs (currently in
India, South Africa and Europe) can be expanded to involve greater community
participation. This strategy could help to improve the profitability of SMEs and
be an integral part of local poverty reduction strategies.
c. Continue cooperation with the CEC for implementation of pollution prevention
programs in North American countries.
d. Expand U.S. technical assistance program to governments for development of
environmental protection policies, regulations and laws.
e. Review existing federal program to identify ways to assist indigenous peoples in
realizing the potential benefits of pollution prevention, through technical
assistance for sustainable development within indigenous communities and
through measures to avoid imposing environmental burdens on indigenous
peoples in order to provide benefits for others.
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II. MORE EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF TOOLS AND
PROGRAMS
Q-l. Identify and Implement Opportunities to Advance Environmental Justice
through PoUution Prevention in Federal Environmental Statutes.
Background:
The PoUution Prevention Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C.A §§13101-13109) was enacted to shift
the practices for controlling air emissions, water effluents, and the treatment of waste,
from end-of-pipe approaches to the reduction of pollution at the source The hierarchy
of preferred approaches included changes in inputs/starting materials, final product
reformulation, and process redesign. The Act was passed in the same year as the Clean
Air Amendments that heralded more stringent control of air pollution.
The Pollution Prevention Act was not just one more piece of legislation in the armament
available to EPA. Section 13103(a) of the Act required EPA to establish a "[pollution
prevention] office independent of the Agency's single-media program offices" and
§13103(b)(2) required EPA to develop and implement a strategy to promote source
reduction. Specifically, the Administrator was required to:
ensure that the Agency considers the effect of its existing and proposed
programs on source reduction efforts and shall review regulations of the
Agency prior and subsequent to their proposal to determine their effects
on source reduction...
The mandated oversight and coordinating role for EPA under the authority of the
Pollution Prevention Act was never fully implemented. The Environmental Law Institute
(ELI), in 1993, issued a report on opportunities to advance pollution prevention in federal
environmental statutes. That report identified opportunities in the Clean Water Act and
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for incorporating pollution prevention tools
into management of environment resources. In 2001, ELI developed another report on
opportunities to advance environmental justice under federal environmental statutes.
EPA could benefit from a more critical look at specific opportunities to advance pollution
prevention to address environmental justice issues, particularly in, but not limited to the
permitting process.
Environmental quality review statutes also offer opportunities to incorporate pollution
prevention at the beginning stages of development projects. Use of Tribal Environmental
Policy Acts (TEPA's) may be a useful tool to explore this avenue. For example, the
Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin is developing a TEPA with an EPA Environmental Justice
Pollution Prevention Grant. However there is no reason that new actions governed by
national and state environmental policy acts cannot also require pollution prevention
measures in new buildings and development projects as a condition for approval
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consistent with the underlying goals of these acts to assure the environmental managers
and regulators behave as stewards for future generations.
There are also opportunities for states to improve compliance using pollution prevention.
The Environmental Protection Agency published a document in 1998 detailing ways to
incorporate pollution prevention measures in permitting, enforcement and inspection in
delegated programs. This document, Pollution Prevention Solutions During Permitting,
Inspections (aid Enforcement, includes seventy-one concrete examples of how states have
used pollution prevention to help companies meet or exceed compliance requirements in
all media areas and across all media.
Actions items:
a. EPA should review existing federal environmental statutes to identify avenues to
increase pollution prevention and should identify and explore impediments to
integrating pollution prevention using existing regulatory directives. EPA's
review should list avenues or mechanisms identified, impediments found and
approaches to overcome barriers identified.
b. EPA should staff and empower the Office of Pollution Prevention to carry out its
original mandate to review past and future regulations for their effects on source
reduction.
c. EPA should encourage the states to review existing source reduction opportunities
in the context of state permit issuance, enforcement and inspection programs for
increased opportunities for source reduction and identify impediments for
incorporating source reduction at the state level. Review by the states should
detail opportunities identified and employed to implement source reduction
measures and describe steps examined and undertaken to overcome impediments
to increasing source reduction at the state level EPA should provide some idea of
a regulatory framework to accomplish this task.
d. EPA should, in consultation with tribes, review the implementation of federal
environmental statutes within Indian country to identify ways to integrate
pollution prevention into aspects of federal statutes that EPA implements directly
and to encourage tribes to integrate pollution prevention into those programs for
which they have primary authority. EPA should also provide assistance to tribes
that choose to promote pollution prevention through tribal laws, such as Tribal
Environmental Policy Acts.
e. EPA should instigate a review of federal and state pollution prevention measures
for duplication and eliminate duplication where possible.
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n-2. Promote Local Area Multi-Media, Multi-Hazard Reduction Planning and
Implementation.
Background: Multiple sources of pollutants raise concerns because they may be
concentrated in densely populated geographic areas where large numbers of people may
be exposed. EPA recognizes that pollutants come from new and existing sources and in
many cases from the cumulative contribution of sources including hazardous emissions
from large and small businesses, agricultural run-off and other non-point water pollution
sources and transportation related sources. Pollution prevention should target local
sources with effective solutions. In order to accomplish this goal, toxics reduction plans
should be developed that reduce overall pollution levels equitably in geographic areas
covered by the plans, and assure that potential increases are not disproportionately borne,
local areas covered by the plans should receive benefits and incentives, and the public
should be meaningfully included in the development, implementation and evaluation of
the plans. In addition, hazard reduction in industrial facilities, a key concern for
environmental justice communities, EPA and the nation as a whole, should be addressed.
The potential of these efforts is enormous. More than 113 million Ibs/yr (56,500 tons/yr)
of hazardous chemicals and more than 152 million Ibs (76,000 tons to date) of solvents
have been eliminated through Green Chemistry initiatives. This includes elimination of
CFC and VOC solvents as well as persistent, toxic, and bioaccumulating chemicals.
These programs have also saved 55 million gallons/yr of water, saved 88.9 trillion
BTU/yr of energy, and eliminated 57 million Ibs/yr of carbon dioxide emissions.48
Action Items:
a. Local areas with multiple sources of pollution should develop toxics reduction
plans that reduce overall levels of pollution and allow for assimilative capacity
while assuring that overall toxic levels are going down. These plans should
distinguish between permitted and non-permitted sources and activities and
include proposals for source reduction and elimination. A key component of these
plans should be creation of an inventory of specific sources of toxic exposure
covered by the plan including the amounts of pollution released into the
environment. This inventory should be developed with information from EPA as
well as from environmental and health departments of state, tribal and local
governments.
b. Toxics reductions plans should encourage state, local and tribal governments to
use the broadest possible set of strategies to reduce air emissions, water pollutants
and/or solid and hazardous waste that impact upon communities at risk. Actions
can be source specific or community based and local planning and land use issues
should be incorporated into these plans. Plans can be based upon voluntary
actions or existing statutory authority to require specific reductions from new or
"* Maiy Kirchhoff, The Green Chemistry Institute.
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existing sources, to assure that new sources in the area still result in overall
reductions in pollution and to assure the consideration of health impacts of
exposure reductions and increases. Plans should identify opportunities to include
pollution prevention in permitted facilities. Plans should include measures to
prevent or eliminate potential unacceptable impacts. Plans should use the myriad
of EPA and other methods and approaches in multi-hazard reduction planning.
c. Toxics reduction plans should include measurable goals and mechanisms for
addressing overburdened areas and reducing pollution from permitted and non-
permitted sources. Goals developed should be explicit, measurable, equitable and
consistent with existing statutory and regulatory requirements. Goals should be
developed in coordination with residents of the affected communities, and once
developed, activities should be selected and measures should be chosen to achieve
the goals of the plan while including the impacted community as a key partner.
d. Toxics reduction plans should include the affected community and keep the
community informed of progress in achieving the goals of the plans. This can be
done by providing regular progress reports and creating a public forum where the
reports can be discussed. The community covered by the plan must be given
sufficient information in advance to meaningfully review and comment on the
plans. Communities should also be involved in updating and evaluating the
success of the plans. Options for measuring the success of the plans can include
ambient and/or source monitoring, inventory tracking and activity tracking.
e. State, tribal and local governments that develop and implement multi-hazard
toxics reduction plans using a multistakeholder collaborative model should
be eligible to receive administrative benefits as incentives for development of the
plans. These benefits can include regulatory flexibility, financial support and
recognition.
n-3. Promote efforts to incorporate Pollution Prevention and Environmental
Justice in Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs).
Background: A SEP is an environmentally beneficial project, not otherwise required by
law, which an individual, corporation or government entity (entity) agrees to perform in
settlement of an enforcement action. In exchange for the legal commitment to undertake
a SEP, a percentage of the cost of the SEP may be considered as a factor in establishing
the penalty paid. Both the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
many states promote the use of SEPs. SEPs may arise hi the contexts of either: (1) an
EPA initiated enforcement action or (2) the voluntary self-disclosure of a violation under
the EPA Audit Policy. In the EPA led enforcement context, SEPs conform to the EPA
SEP Policy of May 1, 1998. SEPs must meet certain requirements for EPA to enter into a
settlement agreement that includes a SEP. By far the most limiting of these requirements
is the need for "nexus" between the violation and the proposed project. A nexus exists if:
(1) the project is designed to reduce the likelihood that similar violations will reoccur; (2)
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the project reduces adverse impacts to public health or the environment from the
violation; or (3) the project reduces overall risk to public health or the environment from
the violation.
Pollution Prevention SEPs involve changes that reduce or eliminate some form of
pollution, or reduce pollutants, toxicity prior to recycling, treatment, or disposal. In the
context of SEPs, pollution prevention is synonymous with source reduction. Examples of
pollution prevention SEPs have included: use of less toxic materials to make products;
modifications in the production process to reduce materials losses; changes in product
design which require less pollution processes; and improved housekeeping. Pollution
Prevention SEPs that implement source reductions are especially favored.
Pollution prevention assessments, which fall within the broader category of "Assessments
and Audits," are systematic, internal reviews of specific processes and operations
designed to identify and provide information about opportunities to reduce the use,
production, and generation of toxic and hazardous materials and other wastes. To be
eligible for SEPs, such assessments must be conducted using a recognized pollution
prevention assessment or waste minimization procedure to reduce the likelihood of future
violations. Pollution prevention assessments are acceptable as SEPs without a specific
commitment to implementation. Implementation is not required because drafting
implementation requirements before the results of an assessment are known is difficult.
The EPA SEP Policy emphasizes the value of "SEPs in communities where
environmental justice concerns are present...". However, "[b]ecause environmental
justice is not a specific technique or process but an overarching goal, it is not listed as a
particular SEP category; but EPA encourages SEPs in communities where environmental
justice may be an issue." In addition, the EPA SEP Policy explicitly encourages
community participation in the SEP development process, by recognizing that,
"[soliciting community input into the SEP development process can: result in SEPs that
better address the needs of the impacted community; promote environmental justice;
produce better community understanding of EPA enforcement; and improve relations
between the community and the violating facility.
Actions items:
a. Improve coordination and efficiency of activities through increased programmatic
integration of Audit Policy, compliance assistance, pollution prevention SEPs,
and environmental justice activities.
b. Improve quality of SEPs, increase community participation and reduce transaction
cost to SEP agreement by implementation of SEP-Pollution Prevention training
designed for different stakeholder groups, implementation of SEP-Pollution
Prevention Library; and finalizing the draft "EPA Guidance for Community
Involvement in Supplemental Environmental Projects," 65 Fed. Reg. 40639-
40644 (June 30, 2000).
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c. Increase the number of Pollution Prevention-Environmental Justice SEPs by
encouraging states, tribes, and municipalities to establish SEP policies;
establishing system of incentives both within EPA and outside; and increasing
communication between EPA Regional SEP coordinators and EPA Regional
Environmental Justice Coordinators.
d. Create market based Pollution Prevention SEP through which the entity could
purchase/fund pollution prevention initiatives at non-entity or off-site facilities
benefiting the impacted low-income and or minority communities or other
community with an appropriate nexus.
e. Quantify results of Pollution Prevention-Environmental Justice SEPs through
tracking and monitoring to identify the type and level of use of Pollution
Prevention-Environmental Justice SEPs and enhance compliance with SEP terms
and determine actual levels or pollution reductions.
II-4. Provide Incentives to Promote Collaboration Among Communities, Business
and Government on Pollution Prevention Projects in Environmental Justice
Communities.
Background: Communities, business and government should form partnerships to
implement and sustain pollution prevention programs that target environmental justice
communities. EPA can facilitate these cooperative efforts directly and by encouraging
states to engage in pollution prevention programs and outreach efforts. Government can
provide incentives for communities to embrace pollution prevention solutions by
providing resources for capacity building, disseminating written information concerning
pollution prevention, and considering input from and environmental risks to communities
when issuing permits and setting standards in targeted communities. Government
incentives to businesses to engage in collaborative pollution prevention efforts may
include drafting flexible conditions or pollution prevention compliance options in
permits, employing innovative pilot programs, and providing technical assistance.
Government can also encourage businesses implementing private programs such as the
chemical industry's Responsible Care to focus on pollution prevention initiatives for
environmental justice communities.
An example of a flexible permitting process that creates mutual benefit to communities
and manufacturers is a Project XL program undertaken by Merck & Co. Merck reduced
air emission levels in Elkton, Virginia by converting its coal-burning powerhouse to
natural gas. Use of a cleaner burning fuel enhanced visibility and reduced acid
deposition in the local community and a national park. In exchange, Merck received a
site-wide emissions cap that allowed it to make changes at the facility without obtaining
further regulatory approval as long as the cap was not exceeded.
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Action Items:
a. EPA, in partnership with states and tribes, should implement pollution prevention
program and outreach efforts that target environmental justice communities. EPA
should provide incentives to communities to participate in collaborative pollution
prevention activities by offering resources for capacity building, disseminating
literature and written information concerning pollution prevention and
considering input from and environmental risks to communities when issuing
permits and setting standards. Literature should include plain English and multi-
lingual descriptions of pollution prevention resources. Permitting processes
should include discussions among communities, business and government of
opportunities to implement pollution prevention. EPA should designate within its
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance a knowledgeable technical
assistance staff to coordinate EPA outreach efforts and facilitate dialogue among
the community, business and government, help identify specific pollution
prevention projects suitable for the community, and educate companies and
communities about the existence of proven, cost-effective technologies and
innovation opportunities.
b. EPA should identify "priority pollution prevention communities" based upon the
risk posed to communities from the aggregation of polluting sources. This
initiative should focus on communities of color and low-income communities,
thereby reflecting the stated commitment of EPA to environmental justice. EPA
should provide compliance assistance and pollution reduction and elimination
incentives targeted at activities within these communities.
c. EPA should develop and implement programs, initiatives and incentives to
encourage businesses to engage in collaborative partnerships to implement
pollution prevention, use green technologies and non-toxic materials and design
innovative processes in minority and low-income communities. These incentives
may include special recognition of the business for its pollution prevention
activities; low interest loans or grants for research into pollution prevention
solutions to community risks; expedited permitting; consolidated multi-media
reporting; flexible, multi-media, facility-wide permits with a single agent point of
contact, "smart permits" that authorize a range of operating scenarios
contemplated by the company obtaining the permit; compliance options in permits
based on pollution prevention technologies or innovation; and increased
emissions reduction credits or higher trading ratios where pollution prevention is
used in the context of an emissions trading program to reduce pollution in an
environmental justice community. EPA should also communicate pollution
prevention ideas to industry sectors through trade associations, an integrated
website, or other means and enhance the existing pollution prevention
Roundtable. EPA should encourage groups supporting corporate environmental
reporting (GEMI, the Conference Board, UNEP, ISO) to include separate line
item reporting on pollution prevention in environmental justice communities.
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d. EPA should initiate, and encourage states and tribes to initiate, programs to assist
small businesses in developing and implementing pollution prevention activities
including source reduction, waste minimization and recycling.
e. EPA should facilitate the formation of government-private sector partnerships to
encourage businesses that cannot eliminate wastes to recycle them. EPA should
develop programs to increase the volume of recyclable and reusable materials
collected from public and private sources (e.g. electronics and paper from
businesses and consumers). EPA should provide incentives to increase use of
products made from recyclable materials. Without product use, collection of
recyclables is unsustainable.
III. SUSTAINABLE PROCESSES AND PRODUCTS
ffl-1. Encourage "Green Buildings," "Green Businesses," and "Green Industries"
through EPA's Brownfields and Smart Growth programs.
Background: Businesses, communities, and tribes share a common interest in returning
properties with actual or potential environmental contamination to productive use.
Brownfield projects, which by their nature often reduce pollution by remediating and
reusing formerly impacted properties, routinely incorporate dialogue with neighboring
community members to identify their goals for site response and reuse, whether these
projects are coordinated by EPA, states or performed independently under the ASTM
standard for brownfields. The new brownfields legislation, the Small Business Liability
Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act, encourages environmentally friendly
redevelopment through brownfields grant selection criteria, e.g. "The Administrator shall
establish a system for ranking grant applications received under this paragraph that
includes... [t]he extent to which a grant would facilitate the use or reuse of existing
infrastructures." EPA has also been active in facilitating recreational community
enrichment projects, such as converting brownfields into community parks and recreation
fields, where is has been demonstrated that contamination no longer exists. EPA
currently is developing guidance for implementation of the Brownfields Revitalization
Act to clarify that cleanups undertaken under these programs will incorporate robust
public participation measures, such as those included in the ASTM Standard Guide for
Process of Sustainable Brownfields Redevelopment. (November 1, 1998).49
Projects should address equity issues and promote green industries development as well
as the use of existing infrastructure. One such "green building" brownfields development
is a project by Bethel New Life project in Chicago. Similarly, EPA worked with
community group members, local government, the school district and the site owner to
transform the closed, remediated H.O.D. landfill and its buffer property into a multi-use
recreational facility. Efforts were made to ensure that no further contamination from the
49 ASTM Standard Guide for Process of Sustainable Brownfields Redevelopment.. Novemberl, 1998.
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landfill would impact the new walking and tunning trails, ball fields and a planned
ecological education laboratory. To assure long-term environmental protection and
provide "green energy," landfill gas collected at the closed facility will be collected and
used to heat school buildings and homes. In additional examples, New York state
remediation projects, which benefit the environment and have potential for public or
recreational use of cleaned up property, are eligible for grants.
Actions items:
a. EPA, in cooperation with other federal agencies, should provide clear, readily
accessible information to encourage new development, construction or
redevelopment. These eiforts should include green building materials, sustainable
energy options and sustainable transportation options.
b. Brownfields projects should use the opportunity to reuse land to support more
sustainable use of the land that does not leave contamination for future
generations. One way to do this would be to encourage and promote a green
business development component in projects receiving the support of government.
c. EPA should give full weight to criteria that encourages environmentally friendly
development in the new Brownfields Law.
d. EPA's assistance to tribes on brownfields cleanup and redevelopment should
encourage "green buildings," "green businesses," and "green industries."
ni-2. Promote Product Substitution and Process Substitution in Areas which
Impact Low-income, Minority and Tribal Communities.
Background: Society depends upon chemicals to provide it with a wide range of
consumer products, from life-saving pharmaceuticals to plastic food containers, which
make up the fabric of our everyday lives. Yet the manufacture of chemicals has created
some unintended environmental consequences. The use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
in air conditioners, refrigerators, and aerosol cans has catalyzed the destruction of
stratospheric ozone. Combustion of fossil fuels has been linked to global climate change.
Industrial releases of pollutants have damaged both human health and the environment.
There have been a variety of initiatives to promote product and process substitution in
low-income communities and communities of color. In order to maintain standard of
living while protecting human health and the environment, fundamental changes are
required in the area of product and process substitution, focusing on the design of
chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of
hazardous substances. Human health and environmental benefits can be realized by
designing toxicity and hazard out of the chemical manufacturing process. This is a
classic example of how pollution prevention can be used in environmental justice
communities to bring about positive change.
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The "Healthy Home and Healthy School" projects, through product substitution of lead
based paints with non-toxic paints have made strides in reducing lead levels in the homes
and schools of environmental justice communities. The Janitorial Products Pollution
Prevention Project found that use of hazardous products could be reduced by 13% per
year if janitors used fewer chemicals, substituted less toxic chemicals, installed mats,
vacuumed and avoided aerosol products. Another area of concern is in pest control
Dow AgroSciences developed a targeted approach to termite control using a highly
selective insect growth regulator that disrupts the molting process in termites. This
breakthrough replaces typical termite treatments that use large quantities of insecticide to
form a barrier around a structure. By switching to a targeted bait system, worker
exposure to large volumes of insecticide is reduced and potential contamination of wells
and ponds is avoided. Similarly, Cleary Chemical Corporation designed a Nutritional
Metabolism Disrupter to block the formation of uric acid, a vital component in cockroach
metabolism and reproduction. This technology eliminates the need for conventional
chemical insecticides, providing a safer option for controlling cockroaches, which pose a
significant health problem in low-income communities.
Actions items:
a. Develop "Cleaning for Health" or "Healthy Home and Healthy School" projects,
including schools within Indian reservations.
b. Replicate and expand innovative pollution prevention technical assistance projects
(such as the current dry cleaner, auto body repair, printer pollution prevention,
and integrated pest management projects).
c. Target facilities and activities for which pollution prevention through product
substitution is needed.
d. Document the success of these projects and widely disseminate material on
product alternatives, reductions and substitutions.
e. Analyze obstacles to the replication of innovative pollution prevention technical
assistance in tribal communities and devise strategies to overcome such obstacles.
ni-3. Promote Just and Sustainable Transportation Projects and Initiatives.
Background: Just and sustainable transportation strategies focus on ways to assure that
all people have access to high quality and affordable transportation systems. These will
maximize the use of the cleanest, least polluting, and least resource-intensive vehicle
technologies and fuels. These will provide expanding choices for people and businesses
50 Maiy Kiichhoff, The Green Chemistry Institute
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to move themselves and freight in an environmentally sound way. Similarly, they would
enable communities and economies in a planned manner so as to function with less need
to move people and goods. These strategies are critical for improving the quality of life
of minority, low income and tribal communities and other transportation disadvantaged
and sensitive populations such as those with respiratory illnesses, the elderly, the
disabled, and children, which historically receive the least benefits of adequate
transportation systems while often bearing the greatest burdens.
While only 8% percent of American households do not own motor vehicles on average,
that number jumps to approximately 22% for black families. Also approximately 80% of
all vehicle-less households earn less than $25,000 annually. This makes access to clean,
affordable mass transportation an area of concern from an environmental justice
perspective. Programs that promote building of transit oriented communities (land use),
reducing the cost of mass transit use (commuter choice) and retrofitting of the existing
transit fleet with cleaner engines (retrofit) help assure that all people have access to high
quality and affordable transportation systems.
Important pollution prevention challenges in the area of transportation from an
environmental justice perspective include meaningful community involvement in the
transportation planning process and proper consideration of land use issues.
Additionally, greater utilization of environmental friendly and non-polluting vehicle
technologies and tools would help address potentially adverse and disproportionate air
quality and other environmental and health impacts from transportation related pollution.
Due to Clean Air Act requirements for cleaner vehicles, engines, and fuels today the
average new car is forty percent cleaner than in 1990. Everyday, across nation, clean air
programs prevent 600 premature deaths; 2,000 cases of chronic illness such as asthma
and bronchitis; 300,00 cases of minor respiratory illness such as aggravated asthma; and
75,000 people from missing work. However air pollutants still present a significant
health risk. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently found that
airborne pollutants generated by diesel-powered vehicles caused reduced lung function,
lung damage, increased asthma attacks and premature mortality. According to a report
by The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, acute asthma attacks have
increased 100% among children in the last fifteen years from 2.3 to 5.5 million.
Action Items:
a. Work in partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation to ensure that
impacted communities have meaningful and early participation in and are
involved throughout the transportation planning process.
b. Promote the best possible transportation projects and related infrastructure
development that enhance community viability and accessibility, both
environmentally and economically.
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c. Ensure that transportation planning and environmental impact studies consider the
impacts of transportation policies and projects and promote use of clean
transportation technologies as part of pollution prevention and mitigation
measures where impacts are or may be adverse and disproportionate.
d. Provide education and training to air quality and transportation agencies and the
public on ways to promote and incorporate use of non-polluting vehicle
technologies and clean fuels.
e. Promote greater access to mass transit systems and provide for increased
investments in transportation systems that provide better accessibility, particularly
for urban low-income and minority communities.
f. Develop public-private partnerships to increase use of non-polluting vehicle
technologies and clean fuels.
g. Identify incentives, both monetary and non-monetary, to promote acquisition and
use of clean transportation technologies.
h. Increase purchase and use of clean technology and alternative fuel vehicles in
government owned vehicular fleets
i. Work in partnership with BIA and tribal governments to address these issues for
tribal communities.
m-4. Improve Opportunities for Pollution Prevention at Federal Facilities
Background: Federal facilities are under an obligation to comply with federal laws,
regulations and Presidential Orders that relate to pollution prevention. "Greening"
executive orders, including green purchasing, offer the potential to move beyond
compliance by reduction of materials use and impacts on natural resources.
RCRA § 6002 and Executive Order 13101 require federal facilities to establish programs
to purchase environmentally preferable and biobased materials. Federal Acquisition
Regulations were amended in the year 2000 to require agencies to demonstrate
compliance within their contracts by requiring procurement and use of recycled products
designated by EPA and consideration of environmentally preferable products. Federal
facilities are required to improve their energy use by Executive Order 13123. This
executive order, Greening the Government through Efficient Energy Management,
requires more efficient energy use and Energy Star performance rating for buildings in
general facility audits.
Pollution prevention is an environmental justice issue for federal facilities as it is for
other sectors that generate, store or treat waste and use natural resources. The Federal
Facilities Enforcement Office ("FFEO") oversees pollution prevention measures at
federal facilities. Important components of FFEO's work that prevent pollution include
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interagency agreement negotiation support, compliance monitoring, targeting support and
technical assistance and capacity building.
FFEO provides pollution prevention training, policy and guidance, funds pilot projects
and advocates the use of Environmental Management System Reviews as a way of
identifying areas at federal facilities where environmental quality improvements are
possible. FFEO also coordinates environmental justice initiatives related to federal
facilities with the Regions.
Federal facilities offer a wide range of opportunities to improve environmental
performance that can benefit low-income communities, communities of color and tribes,
particularly when those facilities are near or in impacted communities. Public information
and input on compliance and performance improvements at 800,000 regulated facilities,
including federal facilities, has recently been made available through an on-line database,
Enforcement and Compliance History Online ("ECHO"), that provides users with
detailed facility reports as well as a demographic profile of the surrounding area. This
service allows communities to identify facilities in compliance and ascertain where
improvements beyond compliance are possible. Examples of pollution prevention
successes are detailed in FFEO's FEDFACTS, published by EPA.
Action items:
a. EPA should expand initiatives to improve compliance at federal facilities on
Indian lands. Demonstration pollution prevention partnerships should develop
with DOI and other agencies whose activities impact upon Indian lands.
Workshops that include all stakeholders should be held to improve capacity
building and compliance assistance. These workshops should be targeted towards
tribal, Bureau of Indian Affairs ("BIA"), Indian Health Service and other federal
facilities located on tribal lands interested in improving their environmental
performance. Accessible training materials should be developed for impacted
communities that identify agency responsibilities and opportunities to address or
improve compliance at these facilities. Tribal led Environmental Management
Systems Reviews should be held and lead to the development of Memoranda of
Understanding that call for compliance assistance site visits at tribal run BIA and
other federal facilities on Indian lands. Measurable goals should be articulated in
these memoranda and these facilities should be monitored for improvements.
b. EPA, along with FFEO, should examine toxics use and federal facilities in a
uniform way in order to identify opportunities for toxics use reduction and should
make toxics use reduction a priority. In one recent project, a Sustainability
Program, Washington's Fort Lewis reduced energy usage by 39,000 MBTUs at an
annual savings of $425,000 per year and significantly reduced greenhouse gases.
Another project, undertaken by the Army Center for Health Promotion and
Preventative Medicine, looked at mercury use at federal facilities and identified
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areas where mercury use reductions were possible. Successful projects that
reduce toxics use should be showcased and replicated whenever possible.
c. Recycling of formerly used defense sites ("FUDs") should be accelerated in
impacted communities in order to reduce risk to those communities from
nonsustainable disposal practices and develop economic opportunities there.
Accelerated reuse of FUDS increases the return of formerly used contaminated
lands into productive sites for the community effectively recycling those sites.
One such site, Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, was recently issued
the first "Ready for Reuse" certificate for a federal facility nationally. Other
communities that can benefit from successful reuse of FUDS should be prioritized
based upon the impact upon the community and community characteristics so that
reuse can be targeted to the most impacted communities that will receive the
greatest benefits.
d. Facility compliance records should be reviewed on line. Facilities in compliance
should be targeted for pollution prevention improvements, including use of less
toxic materials, more efficient energy use, green purchasing, and recycling of
formerly used facilities.
e. Facilities that are not in compliance can benefit from environmental management
system reviews to identify areas where improvements are possible. Where such
reviews indicate areas for improvements, interagency MOUs should be
implemented as these agreements can build trust within communities that the
facilities are sincerely committed to compliance and improvements beyond
compliance.
f. EPA and FFEO should assist facilities to come into and improve compliance
through increased interagency agreement negotiation support, compliance
monitoring, targeting support, technical assistance and capacity building.
Facilities that come into compliance should be encouraged to take measures that
improve pollution prevention by going beyond compliance.
HI-5. Identify Opportunities to Promote Cleaner Technologies, Cleaner Energy,
and Cleaner Production in Industrial and Commercial Enterprises in
Environmental Justice Communities.
Background: Cleaner production is a holistic way of designing and consuming products
with minimal impacts on health and ecosystems. Cleaner energy involves a transition
from non-renewable fuels that increase pollution to renewable energy sources that
generate little pollution. Cleaner technologies, cleaner energy and cleaner production
extends the concept of pollution prevention to mean:
Processes and products that conserve raw materials, water and energy;
Elimination of toxic raw materials;
Prioritization of renewable ("green") energy sources,
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Reduction of toxic and hazardous emissions;
Protection of human health and the environment along the entire life cycle of a
product (material extraction to ultimate disposal); and,
Utilization of concepts such as industrial ecology and eco-efficiency that promote
careful attention to material flows, the reuse of waste products, and continuous
efforts to improve the efficiency of energy and resource use.
Cleaner production is rooted within the concept of a circular, life-cycle vision of the
economy, meaning that a product's impacts are considered from raw material extraction
through final production and disposal and ways are identified to reduce the negative
impacts throughout the whole process. This concept of cleaner production was adopted
into "Agenda 21" of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environmental and
Development and is used internationally to characterize production practices geared
towards sustainable forms of development.
Cleaner production and cleaner energy can play an important role for pollution
prevention proponents in environmental justice and tribal communities in at least six
areas.
First, promoting cleaner production and cleaner energy at existing industrial
facilities offers environmental justice communities positive ways of encouraging
business/community partnerships that can jointly seek safer, less energy and
resource intensive, and more environmentally friendly businesses that stay in
communities and continue to offer local jobs. Confronting polluting facilities
with confident expectations that there are alternative technologies and processes
that can be adopted within the production operations that would reduce or
eliminate the worst hazards offers environmental justice advocates a valuable
"solution-oriented" perspective on how to work directly with local businesses
Second, using cleaner production concepts as decision specifications provides a
means of promoting employment opportunities and economic returns on
Brownfields development sites without reinvesting in the kind of production
facilities that originally created those contaminated sites. Where environmental
justice advocates have the opportunity to participate in decision-making about the
future uses of Brownfield sites or other abandoned industrial facilities, they
should urge that only firms guaranteeing the highest state-of-the-art clean
technologies and practices should be considered for those future developments.
Third, cleaner energy production means relying on decentralized forms of energy
generation that derive energy directly from renewable sources (wind, solar or
biomass) rather than non-renewable sources (fossil fuels) that must be mined from
the earth's crust. Distributed energy generation sources means that lower income
neighborhoods can generate energy off the grid and away from centralized fuel-
fired power plants. Wind and solar energy generation means reduced levels of
pollution from coal and oil fired energy generation facilities that are often sited in
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environmental justice communities. Reduced reliance on oil, natural gas, coal,
and nuclear energy reduces the need to explore, mine and pump in rural areas and
on Tribal lands.
Fourth, energy conservation and cleaner fuels can encourage the diffusion of the
next generation of transportation systems that prioritizes mass transit and
decreases reliance on single passenger motor vehicles that congest highways and
increase the pollution that harms the public health and diminishes the
environmental quality of inner city and low-income communities.
Fifth, cleaner production offers a means of reducing the hazards of products and
services commonly consumed in native and cultural minority communities.
These include products and services like pesticides in foods, allergens in paints
and adhesives, diesel exposure from trucks and buses, solvents in cleaning
chemicals, and toxins in cosmetics and hair care products. Local community
leaders should carefully assess the multiple sources of environmental hazards in
their neighborhoods and press local businesses, government agencies and service
institutions to change their purchasing and consumption practices so as to buy and
use only the least hazardous, most environmentally compatible products and
services.
Sixth, cleaner production provides an international vehicle for reducing the
likelihood that dangerous products and processes, such as waste management and
product recycling, are not simply shipped off-shore to low wage communities in
industrializing countries. By building positive, "solution-oriented" programs that
cross national boundaries and reach people working in or living near facilities that
are linked along a product's life cycle, domestic environmental justice programs
can assure that only solutions that benefit all people are acceptable.
Action Items:
a. Develop community/business partnerships with local businesses in environmental
justice communities to jointly plan and implement cleaner production programs
for adopting cleaner technologies, cleaner forms of energy and cleaner products.
b. Establish the principles of cleaner technologies, cleaner energy, and cleaner
production as decision criteria for selecting businesses and production processes
that would be encouraged as new investments in Brownfield redevelopment
programs. Encourage community involvement in the identification of appropriate
locations to site clean, renewable energy technologies.
c. Inventory common products sold b environmental justice communities, assess
their environmental attributes, and, where possible, work with local retailers to
supply less hazardous and more environmentally friendly products.
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d. Promote the use of recycled products and secondary materials in local businesses
and institutions in order to reduce the need for mining virgin materials or
producing new synthetic materials.
e. Encourage the participation of low-income, minority and Tribal communities in
the purchase of cleaner energy through blended or block products or green energy
certificates that promote market transitions towards renewable energy sources.
f. Promote energy conservation programs such as federal, state and local low-
income weatherization programs, the Commuter Choice Leadership Program, the
Green Vehicle Guide, and the Clean Air Transportation Communities Grants to
reduce the negative health impacts on inner city neighborhoods of oil derived fuel
consumption in motor vehicles.
g. Provide assistance to tribal government in using their sovereign powers to
promote renewable energy and energy conservation in tribal communities,
including support for the development of model tribal laws and educational
programs for tribal attorneys.
h. Assure that environmental programs that improve public health and safety in
environmental justice communities do not simply transfer hazardous operations to
communities elsewhere, particularly to low wage communities in industrializing
countries.
i. Promote continued progress in the establishment and implementation of federal
efficiency standards for appliances, buildings and vehicles. Encourage financial
institutions to work with community interests to develop innovative financial
mechanism designed to give low-income communities greater access to clean and
efficient energy technologies.
ffl-6. Optimize and Expand Waste Minimization Activities in Partnership with
Communities
Background: The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 lists, as a matter of national policy,
several methods of pollution prevention, including source reduction, recycling, treatment,
or environmentally safe disposal or release.51 When the generation of waste is
unavoidable, waste minimization becomes the favored policy. It includes such activities
as waste reduction, reuse and recycling (r3). Because pollution may be
disproportionately located in environmental justice communities, members of those
communities have a strong interest in minimizing waste.
Waste disposal can create many problems for environmental justice communities. More
waste means more land acreage is consumed by landfills. More waste means there is a
51 42 U.S.C. § 13101(b).
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greater risk of release of harmful substances to the environment. Household waste often
contains some toxic substances that can reach dangerous levels when high volumes of
waste are concentrated in landfills. More waste means more trucks may need to enter a
community to transport that waste, leading to increased emissions, safety concerns in
neighborhoods, and risks of waste spills.
A gap in the in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) has made
municipal waste regulation on tribal reservations an area of special concern. RCRA does
not authorize EPA to directly regulate waste but assigns the primary role to the states.
Currently, RCRA has not been amended to authorize the treatment of tribes as states.52
This effectively leaves municipal waste on reservations unregulated.
In the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, Congress recognized the opportunity for
substantial savings to industry in the form of reduced raw materials, pollution control and
liability costs, as well as increased environmental protection and decreased worker health
and safety risks. Waste minimization can help obtain these savings, especially if
incentives are provided to create market demand for waste products or to reduce waste.
Many of the options for waste minimization are readily available today and could be
encouraged by providing incentives, creating partnerships to share ideas and information,
or by educating businesses and communities.
For instance, some states have mandatory municipal recycling programs for aluminum,
glass, plastics, paper, and other common materials. Regulatory agencies provide
technical assistance, grants, loans and awards to small businesses or communities active
hi waste minimization. Community composting programs for yard waste are being
formed. Companies pay schools and organizations for used printer cartridges and cell
phones. The National Waste Minimization Partnership Program encourages the EPA,
state and local governments, manufacturers and other commercial companies, and/or non-
governmental organizations to form voluntary partnerships that reduce the generation of
certain hazardous wastes. These programs are a good start to waste minimization.
Action Items:
a. EPA should encourage the optimization of current recycling programs and
promote the development of comprehensive community recycling plans that may
include such programs as composting centers for yard and plant waste, household
hazardous waste collection centers, electronic equipment recycling, and the reuse
of demolition materials in construction projects.
b. EPA should encourage technology transfer between governments and industries
for recycling technologies or strategies, promote the creation and use of waste
52 Sarah Krakoff, Tribal Sovereignty and Environmental Justice, in JUSTICE AND NATURAL RESOURCES:
CONCEPTS, STRATEGIES, AND APPLICATIONS, at 161 (Kathryn Mutz, et al. eds., Island Press 2002)
(discussing the problem of trash disposal in Indian country and the lack of attention to this problem in the
environmental justice literature).
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minimization plans, and encourage the sharing of this information (allowing for
confidential processes to remain confidential).
c. EPA should encourage collaborative partnerships between governments,
communities, and businesses to create and implement solutions to waste
generation.
d. EPA should encourage businesses to design products that are recyclable or have
extended useful lives and promote the reduction of packaging in consumer goods.
EPA should encourage businesses to develop product-recycling programs that
accept and recycle old products in a safe and responsible manner.
e. EPA should facilitate the creation of incentives for the purchase of recycled
materials and work with other agencies within the federal government to offer
recycled products as viable alternatives.
f. EPA should identify and eliminate economic barriers to waste minimization, as
well as provide incentives and eliminate existing regulatory disincentives to
market development for recycled products
g. EPA should provide technical assistance, grants, and loans to small businesses
and communities and educate them in the potential benefits of waste
minimization.
h EPA should provide technical assistance to tribal governments for the regulation
of municipal waste.
i. EPA should develop award programs for businesses or communities that achieve
excellence or show innovation in waste minimization
j. EPA should investigate impediments in the recycling process that prevent wastes
from actually being recycled and develop procedures to overcome these
impediments.
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PART II: STAKEHOLDER
PERSPECTIVES
CHAPTER 3: COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES
CHAPTER 4: TRIBAL PERSPECTIVES
CHAPTER 5: BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY
PERSPECTIVES
CHAPTER 6: GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVES
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CHAPTER 3: COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES
This chapter was authored by members of the Community Stakeholder group to elaborate
on the views of the members of that group, not necessarily reflect the views of members of
other stakeholder groups or of the NEJAC Executive Council.
INTRODUCTION
Communities of color, low-income and tribal communities are committed to reducing,
eliminating and preventing pollution and its adverse impacts, thereby improving
environmental quality where people live, work and play. Impacted communities have
viewed pollution prevention (P2) strategies with suspicion because they appear only to
manage pollution emissions rather than significantly reducing or eliminating them.
Pollution prevention offers tremendous potential to help reduce and eliminate pollution
and improve the quality of life in communities. There exists opportunities under existing
statutes to advance the goals of pollution prevention and environmental justice. For
communities to turn to pollution prevention as a way of addressing environmental
inequities, they need to have an established role in the planning and implementation of
pollution prevention projects. Recognizing the importance of that role, communities
define pollution prevention as it applies to environmental justice as "activities that
include community participation and involvement in decision making to reduce,
minimize and eliminate pollution through sustainable practices that demonstrate
sustainable development and activities." This chapter describes the community
perspective on pollution impacts, the potential value of pollution prevention to
communities and measures to more fully integrate pollution prevention to advance
environmental justice.
Communities understand that existing environmental standards allow some pollution that,
at permitted levels, is believed to be safe, but recognize that errors are possible.
Scientific uncertainty in many areas is undeniable. In the face of scientific uncertainty
measures and policies to reduce pollution should not be narrowly defined and should
include use of the precautionary principle. This principle, according to the 1992 Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development, states that '[wj hen there are threats of
serious or irreversible damage, lack of scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for
postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation." The
precautionary principle advises that if there are errors, we should err on the side of
caution. This means that decisions respecting pollution prevention should be informed by
the precautionary principle. Pollution prevention policy-making should include the
precautionary principle because both concepts seek to protect the environment, stress
proactive and anticipatory action and the assessment of alternatives. Pollution prevention
is consistent with the precautionary principle since its aim is to reduce pollution even at
levels considered by government to be safe. Innovation in pollution prevention measures
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or technologies should also employ the precautionary principle for guiding decision-
making under conditions of uncertainty.
Pollution prevention lacks the enormous impediments to implementation that are shared
by the other approaches requiring legislative action, enforcement or success in litigation.
As a concept it has the support of communities. However pollution prevention has many
definitions, several definitions vary depending on which stakeholder group is defining
pollution prevention, and is used to describe many activities including those that do not
involve communities. Pollution prevention could be more accessible to communities if
they could see themselves more directly involved and invested in it. For communities to
turn to pollution prevention as a way of addressing environmental inequities, they need to
have an established role in pollution prevention planning, projects and activities.
Recognizing the importance of that role, communities define pollution prevention as it
applies to environmental justice as "activities that include community involvement and
participation to reduce, minimize and eliminate pollution through sustainable practices
that demonstrate sustainable development and activities that go beyond compliance."
Communities also need to feel that their role will have an impact on the process rather
than being used to play a public relations role. This chapter describes the community
perspective on pollution impacts, the value of pollution prevention to communities and
measures to more fully integrate pollution prevention to advance environmental justice.
UNDERSTANDING POLLUTION IMPACTS
Communities of color, low-income and tribal communities suffer from numerous adverse
pollution impacts from non-sustainable environmental practices that could be reduced or
eliminated through pollution prevention measures. These impacts include unfavorable
health effects and adverse impacts which are environmental, societal, economic, and
international. Reducing all of these adverse impacts from pollution is a key concern of
communities that is also shared by the Environmental Protection Agency. The chief
goals of the major environmental protection statutes administered by EPA are "protection
of public health and the environment". EPA's Framework for Pollution Prevention
acknowledges the relationship between preventing adverse health impacts and preventing
pollution by stating that partnership with the public health community is a key objective
in order to demonstrate that "pollution prevention is disease prevention".'
Health and Environmental Impacts
Pollution prevention measures can reduce poor air quality that is believed to contribute to
illness and premature death in communities. Outdoor air pollution is responsible for
1 EPA Pollution Prevention Policy Framework, Guiding Social Principles,
www.epa.gov/p2/p2ppolicy/fiamework.htm.
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increased morbidity and mortality locally2 and throughout the world3. Research supports
the community's view that asthma and other respiratory diseases, cancer, birth defects,
liver and kidney damage and premature death, are all attributable, at least in part, to air
pollution exposures.4 Air pollution exposures due to residence in exposure zones of
hazardous and other waste sites have also been associated with statistically increased
risks of birth defects, breast cancer, and leukemia and bladder cancer.5
2 Daniel M. Steigman, Is it "urban" or "asthma?" The Lancet, July 1996, at 143-144 (documenting much
higher asthma hospital admission rates in poor and minority communities than in other areas of Boston); R.
Charon Gwynn and George D. Thurston, The Burden of Air Pollution: Impacts among Racial Minorities.
Environmental Health Perspectives. Volume 109, Supplement 4, August 2001 (exploring disparities in
hospital admissions and mortality by race in New York City); Susan M. Bernard, Johnathan M. Samet,
Anne Grambsch, Kristie L. Ebi, and Isabelle Romieu, The Potential Impacts of Climate Variability and
Change on Air Pollution-Related Health Effects in the United States. Environmental Health Perspectives,
Volume 109, Supplement 2, May 2001 (stating that air pollution can cause, respiratory diseases,
cardiovascular diseases, alter host defenses, damage lung tissue, lead to premature death and contribute to
cancer).
3 Tom Bellander, Public Health and Air Pollution, The Lancet, January 2001, at 69-70 (estimating the
increase of mortality as a result of long term studies of air pollution in Austria, France and Switzerland).
Kunzli, N; Kaiser, R; Medina, S; Studnika, M; Chanel, O; Filliger, P; Herry, M; Horak, Jr. F; Puybonnieux-
Texier,V; Quenel, P; Schneieder, J; Seethaler, R; Vergnaud, J-C; Sommer, H., Public Health Impact of
Outdoor and Traffic Related Air Pollution: A European Assessment The Lancet, September 2000, at 795-
801 (finding that air pollution caused 6% more total mortality, 25,000 new cases of chronic bronchitis in
adults, 290,000 additional cases of bronchitis in children, 500,000 more asthma attacks and 16 million
person days of restricted activities); Jun Kagawa, Atmospheric Air Pollution Due to Mobile Sources and
Effects on Human Health in Japan. Environmental Health Perspectives 102, Supplement 4, October 1994
(finding that unfavorable human health effects result from automobile caused air pollution in large cities
and along transportation routes); Tony Sheldon, Reducing Greenhouse Gases Will Have Good Short Tern
Effect British Medical Journal, Volume 321, page 1367, December 2002 (finding that bronchitis in
children fell ten percent in relation to reduced concentrations of paniculate matter).
Tracey J. Woodruff, Daniel Axelrad, Jane Caldwell, Rachel Morello-Frosch, and Arlene Rosenbaum,
Public Health Implications of 1990 Air Toxics Concentrations across the United States. Environmental
Health Perspectives, Volume 106, May 1998; Rachel A. Morello-Frosch, Tracey J. Woodruff, Daniel A.
Axelrad, Jane C. Caldwell, Air Toxics and Health Risks in California: The Public Health Implications of
Outdoor Concentrations. Risk Analysis, Volume 20 Issue 2, February 2000 (predicting 8600 excess cancer
cases and for non-cancer health effects a median total hazard index of 17). A national study of air toxics
data found that 10% of all census tracts had one or more carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants present in
excess of the defined health benchmark concentrations for cancer and non-cancer health effects and over
90% of census tracts had estimated concentrations of benzene, formaldehyde and 1-3 butadiene greater than
the cancer health benchmark.
Sandra Geschwind, Jan Stolwijk, Micheal Bracken, Edward Fitzgerald, Alice Stark, Carolyn Olsen, and
James Melius, Risk of Congenital Malformations Associated with Proximity to Hayardpus Waste Sites.
American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 136, No. 11, 1992 (finding an additional risk of bearing
children with birth defects associated with residence near hazardous waste sites); Samuel S. Epstein,
EnviromnMrtai and nrrupational Pollutants are Avoidable Causes of Breast Cancer. 24 Int'. J. Health
Servs., 145,147,1994; Elizabeth L. Lewis-Michl, Ph.D., R. Kallenbach, Ph.D., Nannette S. Geary, James
M. Melius, M.D., Dr. P.H., Carole L. Ju, M.S.,Maureen F. Orr, M.S., Steven P. Forand, Investigation of
Cancer Incidence and Residence Near 38 Landfills with Soil Migration Conditions: New York State 1980-
1989 (showing statistically significantly elevated risks for female bladder cancer and female leukemia
among women residing in the landfill exposure buffers).
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Pollution prevention can also reduce the devastating effects of pollution on the
environment for plants, animals, marine life and other living things including people who
rely on the environment for subsistence food gathering. Some pollutants are persistent
(degrade slowly) and bioaccumulate in the environment, often becoming part of the food
chain ultimately consumed by people. These types of pollutants, persistent
bioaccumulative toxics, are commonly referred to as PBT's. Health effects from
subsistence food consumption can translate into extraordinarily high risks for cancer and
non-cancer health effects.6
Native American and Alaskan Native Nations can benefit from pollution prevention
because they are exposed to many of the same environment threats as other communities
of color. They suffer from adverse effects of pesticides and other hazardous substances.7
These exposures result into a variety of adverse health effects including asthma,
hypertension, thyroid disorders, cancer and leukemia. Pollution has also impacted upon
their ability to engage in traditional cultural practices.8 However risks to Native Nations
are increased because they have not had adequate resources on a government-to-
government basis to address those risks.9
Societal and Developmental Impacts
Societal and developmental impacts that communities believe that are pollution related
can be reduced through pollution prevention. Disparities in socioeconomic status result in
health disparities that are exacerbated by environmental exposures.10 Health care
6 According to the NEJAC Fish Consumption Report, low-income communities, communities of color and
tribes have subsistence fish consumption rates ranging from the 90* to the 99th percentile rates for the
general population. These fish consumption rates translate into extraordinarily high risks for cancer and
non-cancer health effects;Industhal Technology Associates, EPA Cumulative Exposure Assessment for
Grecnpoint-Williamshiirpi, 2000 (concluding that total cancer risks from fish consumption range from 1 in
10 to 1 in 1000); Jason Coiburn, Combining Community-Based Research and Local Knowledge to
Confront Asthma and Subsistence Fishing Hazards in Grecnpoint-Williamsburg. Brooklyn. New York.
Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, Volume 110, Number 2, April 2002.
7 Lorraine Halinka Malcoe, Robert A. Lynch, Michelle Cozier Kegler and Valrie A. Skaees. Lead Sources.
Behaviors and Socioeconomic Factors in Relation to Blood Lead of Native American and White Children,
Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, Volume 110, Number 2, April 2002; Somini Sengupta, A
Sick Tribe and a Dump as a Neighbor. The New York Times, April 7, 2001.
8 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Environmental Quality, Pesticides and Wildlife, Pesticides
and Wildlife. July 2001, http://contaminants.fws.gov/lssues/Pesticides.cfin.; Lisa Mastny, Coining to
Terms with the Artie. WorldWatch Institute, Worldwatch, Volume 13, p. 24, January 2000.
9 Mary Arquette, Maxine Cole, Katsi Cook, Brenda LaFrance, Margaret Peters, James Ransom, Elvera
Sargent, Vivian Smoke and Arlene Stairs, Holistic Risk-Based Environmental Decision Making: A Native
Perspective. Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements, Volume 110, Number 2, April 2002
10 Nancy E. Alder, and {Catherine Newman, Socioeconomic Disparities in Health: Pathways and Policies:
in Education. Income and Occupation Exacerbates the Gas Between the "Haves" and the
62
"Have-nots". Health Affairs, April 2002
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opportunities, health status, educational opportunities, intergenerational transfers of
wealth, poverty and lack of health insurance are all measures of socioeconomic status that
increase the risk of health disparities and are effected by both race and pollution
exposures.11
The reduction or elimination of pollution, especially PBTs, would be an effective way to
address developmental damage and delay that is more likely to occur when children are
exposed to multiple and cumulative risks in their environment.12 Certain pollutants also
have adverse impacts on the reproductive system, and a special concern is endocrine
disrupters since they are extremely persistent, bioaccumulate, and therefore have a multi-
generational affect. Numerous pollutants targeted for toxic pollution reduction activities,
including lead; mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls are neurodevelopment toxicants
and cause learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, developmental
delays and emotional and behavioral problems.13
Economic Impacts
Communities believe that pollution prevention would be a proactive way to address the
adverse economic impacts of pollution that exacerbate poverty and reduce earning ability.
Pollution exposure has adverse economic impact on the cost of access to health care in
environmental justice communities. Pollution exposures place a huge economic burden
on society and just four diseases associated with environmental causation cost the United
States and Canada as much as 397 billion dollars a year.14 There is emerging evidence
that there are economic impacts associated with reduced intelligence from pollution
exposures. Pollution also jeopardizes property values in impacted communities.
Decreased property values translate into loss of equity for use in getting bank loans, and
makes it more difficult to sell the property and relocate. Economic data indicates that
residence near the fence line of industrial facilities has an adverse economic effect on
property values whether or not the property is actually contaminated.15 Property that is
actually contaminated by a nearby source or with contaminated drinking water may be
essentially worthless.
"Id.
12 Francine Clark Jones, Community Violence, Children and Youth: Considerations For Program, Policy
and Nursing Roles, Pediatric Nursing, Volume 23, p. 131, March 1997.
13 Ted Schettler, Toxic Threats to Neurological Development of Children. Environmental Health
Perspectives, Volume 109, Supplement 6, December 2001
14 Tom Muir and Mike Zegarac, Societal Costs of Exposure to Toxic Substances. Environmental Health
Perspectives, Volume 109, Supplement 6, December 2001.
15 Paul S. Kibel, FAB Quarterly Viewpoint, Full Cleanup Preserves Full Value.
www.fablae.com/cleanup.htm.; Mundy Associates, LLC, Contaminated Property: Issues and Answers. June
2002, www.mundyassoc.com/contaminated.han.
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There are also adverse economic affects and viability impacts on the communities
inundated with brownfields, superfund, and other abandoned lands, especially when those
sites are contaminated. In addition, these sites provide continued exposure to
contamination. Though some funding opportunities exist via new initiatives for the
communities with brownfields, the funding is limited and few receive these benefits. In
addition, there is the cost of cleaning up these sites, which often become contaminated
due to failed regulation and enforcement. The economic brunt for the cleanup of
superfimd sites is falling more on the taxpayers and less on the polluters.
In communities and indigenous lands throughout the country there exists subsistence
farmers and fisherman who depend on the land to support their families food needs.
Pollutants, especially PBTs that get into the food chain and heavy metals, can have
devastating impacts on this way of life. In addition, those small community businesses
such as fish farms that depend on the environmental health of the water and land are also
negatively economically impacted.
In urban centers, abandoned lines or sites create blight furthering the economic decline of
the surrounding area. Similarly, rural communities are impacted with reduced property
value for large tracts of land, which may contribute to land loss, becomingly increasingly
more impacted by the operation of large manufacturing facilities.
International Impacts
Pollution prevention has the potential to reduce pollution impacts on an international
level. Globalization has resulted in the shifting of industrial production to developing
countries along with accompanying pollution and adverse health-related effects.16 Global
wanning due to fossil fuel use, increased use of pesticides, and exploitation of natural
resources in Third World countries by multinational corporations causing loss of
biodiversity, erosion and deforestation are all the results of unsustainable policies and
practices that threaten the entire planet but could be reduced through pollution prevention
measures.17 Most developing countries also do not have environmental regulation.
History shows that lack of environmental regulation enables industries that produce toxic
waste to be less responsible in pollution prevention.
16 Khabir Ahmed, World Bank Predicts Development for the Next Century. The Lancet, September IS,
1999; Indoor Air Pollution Exposure Well Over WHO Guidelines. Health & Medicine Week, October 2-
October 9,2000; Kenny Pronezuk, James Akre, Gerald Moy, Constanza Vallenas, Global Perspectives in
Breast M«Hc CVmtaininaiinn: Infectious and Toxic Hazards. Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume
110, Number 6, June 2002.
17 Joy Chen, Rachel Rivera, A Pocket Guide to the Environmental Millennium. The Amicus Journal
Volume 21, p. 22, January 2000; Richard Fenske, Incorporating Health and Ecological Costs into
Agricultural Production. Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 110, Number 5, May 2002.
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ENFORCEMENT ISSUES
An essential component of a pollution prevention approach is compliance with existing
environmental laws and regulations. From the perspective of communities, much of the
adverse impacts that they experience would not occur if the regulatory agencies charged
with environmental and public health protection were more effective in carrying out their
statutory duties. Enforcement is often delegated by the US EPA to state regulatory
agencies and some communities are concerned that their states have dysfunctional
enforcement and compliance programs and that EPA does not exert their oversight
responsibilities. It is believed that this dysfunction is both cultural and financial in
nature. Pollution prevention strategies need to address both the cultural and financial.
Government actions to exempt farmwater PBT runoff from regulation as pollution,18 to
exempt burning of fields, to "grandfather" old and polluting facilities19 such as coal
burning power plants, proposals to reduce or abolish reporting requirements20, declines in
state inspections and enforcement,21 and elimination or suspension of environmental
rules22 form the basis for the belief of some communities that governmental protection
has not been as effective as is necessary to improve environmental quality.
Many communities consider the most egregious failure of environmental protection to be
the acceptance and toleration of compliance challenged or "flagrant violators". These
include industrial facilities that report or fail to report hundreds of tons of accidental
releases, companies that operate without permits, and / or repeated permit violators,
whose actions allow toxic releases to impact upon adjoining communities. Failure to
clean up or restore contaminated areas, imposition of fines that have no deterrence effect
and poor oversight of delegated programs by the Environmental Protection Agency are
examples of enforcement failures by governments that should be providing oversight.
These and other activities support legitimate complaints about the violator's negative
environmental impact on environmental justice communities and to the quality of the
environmental protection provided by regulatory agencies.
Equity in enforcement efforts is a matter of concern for low income communities and
communities of color. Disproportionately impacted communities regularly report that
areas with significant environmental problems rarely see a resolution of those problems
18 Paul Rogers, California Environmentalists Want Fanners to Adhere to Clean Water Laws, San Jose
Mercury News, February 22,2002.
59 Darren Samuelsohn, National Park Visibility Hinges on EPA Regs. Land Letter, June 27,2002.
20 Solid Waste Reporter, Activitists Say Public Health Threatened Under EPA Plan to Slash RCRA Regs.
2002; Sierra Club Environmental Quality Strategy Team, July 2002.
21 Id.
22 Arianna Huffington, What Are They Thinking In Washington?. Sierra Magazine, September-October
2002.
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despite the efforts of government. The phenomenon of unequal environmental protection
in communities of color and low-income communities has been documented in a growing
body of research, including the National Law Journal's 1992 study on EPA's superfund
program titled "Separate but Unequal' and Robert Bullard's book Unequal Protection
Just one example of this failure of enforcement is found in the 1984 General Motors
Superfund site adjoining the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation. A thirty-five foot high
sludge pile of toxic waste has impacted contaminated fish, water and members of the
tribe in the area for decades causing the Office of the New York Attorney General to
threaten a lawsuit. According to the Attorney General's Office, "[t]hey have basically
flouted the law for twenty five years".24 Hopes that the EPA would step in and pressure
the company to clean up the site never materialized.25
ADDRESSING COMMUNITY IMPACTS THROUGH POLLUTION
PREVENTION
Implementing pollution prevention measures to achieve environmental justice is based
upon accepting several underlying related philosophical premises. The first premise is
the protection of human health and the environment, which are the chief goals of the
environmental justice movement that can be achieved through pollution prevention.
Another key goal is sustainable development, since this leads to societal and economic
justice for environmental justice communities and the population at large. While other
stakeholders may have additional goals, this is a goal of the Pollution Prevention Act and
the federal and state environmental statutes and should be acknowledged as a key
objective for the workgroup.
A second premise is that pollution prevention activities that result in improving
environmental quality for communities can be achieved without sacrificing jobs,
economic stability or environmental quality.26 No one should have to choose between a
clean, healthy environment and jobs. Resistance to new pollution prevention activities on
the grounds that it threatens jobs must be exposed as an environmental myth and
economic blackmail. By contrast evidence suggests that pollution prevention activities
have the potential to create new employment opportunities in the manufacturing,
transportation and utility industries. Research by the Institute for Southern Studies
23 Marianne Lavell & Marcia Coyle, A Special Report; Unequal Protection: The Racial Divide in
Environmental Law. Nat'l L.J., Sept. 21,1992; Robert D. Bullard, Unequal Protection: Environmental
Justice & Communities of Color. 1994
24 Somini Sengupta, A Sick Tribe and a Dump as a Neighbor. The New York Times, April 7, 2001.
25 Id
26 Alex Barnum. Environmental Study Disputes the Belief That Rules Cost Jobs and Stifle the Economy,
The San Francisco Chronicle, March 19,1996.
27 Id.
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ranking state economic performance with environmental measures has consistently found
that the states that work to promote a healthy environment have sound economies.28
A third premise supporting the concept of pollution prevention as a way of improving
advancing environmental justice and environmental quality is acknowledging the
importance of enforcement. Enforcement is not a substitute for pollution prevention nor
is pollution prevention a substitute for enforcement. Enforcement is necessary in the
absence of compliance and often involves the imposition of fines or penalties intended to
have a deterrent effect Inadequate fines fail to achieve deterrence and lead to the
conclusion that fines and penalties are a cost of doing business that can be absorbed.
Anecdotal evidence from the U.S. Department of Justice indicates that certain
environmental programs which lack strong criminal sanctions (such as the mobile source
requirements under the Clean Air Act) often have high rates of violation, suggesting that
criminal sanctions create a deterrent effect.30
Pollution prevention must start from a baseline of compliance with existing local, state,
Tribal and Federal environmental laws and better enforcement when needed. Increasing
fines and penalties in the case of flagrant violations of environmental law is a mechanism
available to reduce pollution and should be used when warranted. Pollution prevention
should also include fully implementing the Pollution Prevention Act by identifying the
opportunities in existing federal environmental laws for more fully incorporating
pollution prevention.
A forth premise for implementing pollution prevention to achieve environmental justice
affirms the relationship between pollution prevention and sustainable community
development. A multifaceted approach to building grassroots capacity for pollution
prevention strategizing and project implementation begins with a vision for a strong,
healthy and sustainable community. Community development organizations must
include pollution prevention as a requirement for community planning and project
development. Planning for a thriving, productive, healthy community is a proactive
approach to restoring communities and safeguarding them from future damage.
A fifth premise for incorporating pollution prevention as an environmental justice
strategy is the recognition that pollution prevention measures must address the needs of
special populations. Children, the elderly, individuals with compromised immune
systems, women of child-bearing ages and other susceptible populations must be
considered when developing measures to reduce pollution. Cumulative impacts must
also be addressed.
28 Mark Douglas Whitaker, Green and Gold 2000. Institute for Southern Studies, November 2000,
www.southernstudies.org
29 Sharon Begley and Bob Conn, One Deal That Was Too Good for Exxon. Newsweek, May 6, 1991.
30 Suellen Reiner, Esq., Forum on Deterence of Environmental Violations and Environmental Crime
Environmental Law Institute, July 1999
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In order to make a significant difference in environmental quality a final premise is that
opportunities and areas for incorporating pollution prevention to advance environmental
justice currently exist. These are areas where pollution prevention can make a huge
difference now in the lives of low-income communities and communities of color.
AREAS WHERE POLLUTION PREVENTION CAN IMPROVE
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Pollution prevention technologies can reduce the impacts of fugitive emissions from
stationary sources. Integrated pest management can reduce health and other pollution
impacts to farmworkers from pesticides and agricultural chemicals using source
reduction, process changes and product substitution. Dry cleaners, printers and metal
shops have all been involved in pollution prevention measures that involved source
reduction, product substitution and production or process changes. Auto repair facilities
have been successfully involved in a number of pollution prevention initiatives to reduce
exposures through best management practices.
In the beauty care field, beauticians and customers in a Boston community concerned
about toxic exposure to chemicals in hairdressing solons focusing on hair straighteners
and artificial nails products came up with an idea for healthy hair shows using
environmentally sound hair using nontoxic hair care products. A Massachusetts beauty
school developed a curriculum for teachers and students to identify chemical hazards,
choose less toxic alternatives and incorporate pollution prevention including source
reduction into their daily practices.31 In the service field janitors and other service
workers can benefit from pollution prevention by reducing exposure and toxicity in the
cleaning products they use.32 The California Basket Weavers Association is working to
preserve traditional California Indian basketweaving culture by pressuring the Forest
Service to reduce pesticide use on forestlands.33 Transportation impacts from emissions
of diesel fuel by trucks, buses and other vehicles affect most urban communities in the
United States. Transportation impacts can be reduced through the use of alternative fuels
and cleaner technologies.34
For larger industrial manufacturing facilities toxic pollutants raise concerns because
sources of emissions and people are concentrated in the same geographic area, leading to
large numbers of people exposed to the emissions of many hazardous air pollutants.
31 Massachusetts Toxic Use Reduction Institute, Community Toxic Use Reduction Program, Community
Education Program, Health and Beauty Go Hand in Hand: TUR in the Putnam Vocational Cosmetology
Department and Healthy Hair Campaign to Reduce the Use of Toxics in Neighborhood Hari Salons.(2001)
available at http://208.56.92.121/communitv/smaHbusincss/health hair.shtml. Interview with Ken Gieser.
32 Inform, Cleaning for Health: Products and Practices for a Safer Indoor Environment (2002)
33 California Basket Weavers Association, P.O. Box 2397, Nevada City, California 95959 (2000).
34 National Alternative Fuels Day and Environmental Summit, Summary of Outcomes and
Recommendations, Hostos Community College, Bronx, New York (April 2002).
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Emissions from older facilities, especially coal-burning power plants, are especially
troublesome as they contribute tons of pollutants annually and are either not bound by
regulations, or those regulations are not being enforced. In order to maintain standard of
living while protecting human health and the environment, fundamental changes are
required in the area of product and process substitution, focusing on the design of
chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of
hazardous substances. Human health and environmental benefits can be realized by
designing toxicity and hazard out of the chemical manufacturing process. Pollution
prevention should target local sources with effective solutions. The potential through
these efforts is enormous. More than 113 million Ibs/yr (56,500 tons/yr) of hazardous
chemicals and more than 152 million Ibs (76,000 tons to date) of solvents have been
eliminated through Green Chemistry initiatives. This includes elimination of CFC and
VOC solvents as well as persistent, toxic, and bioaccumulative (PBT) chemicals. These
programs have also saved 55 million gallons/yr of water, saved 88.9 trillion BTU/yr of
energy, and eliminated 57 million Ibs/yr of carbon dioxide emissions.35 Recycling and
reuse initiatives should also not be downplayed. Though not defined as pollution
prevention in EPA's definition, nevertheless these activities have reduced amount of
waste in landfills and promoted programs where the entire community participated.
There have been a variety of initiatives to promote product and process substitution in
low-income communities and communities of color. Programs involving waste
minimization, recycling, reuse and sustainable development are all classic examples of
how pollution prevention can be used in environmental justice communities to bring
about positive change. These are just a few of the areas where pollution prevention can
advance environmental justice but many other opportunities to implement pollution
prevention exist and the ways that pollution prevention can be helpful are only limited by
the imagination.
CAPACITY-BUILDING FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN
POLLUTION PREVENTION
Building community capacity to improve incorporation of pollution prevention activities,
tools and activities into community advocacy strategies requires a concerted effort.
Communities must be included at the outset in government and local facilities pollution
prevention planning activities in order to help identify priorities and measure progress. In
order for communities to participate affectively and on a level playing field, resource and
training needs must be addressed. Communities must have adequate information with
respect to permit limitations and permit noncompliance, emissions, discharges, accidental
releases, on site treatment, storage and disposal, to name a few. Government and
industry in order to facilitate cooperation and build trust should freely share this
information. Despite recent trends to reduce environmental information available on
35 Mary Kirchhoff, The Green Chemistry Institute.
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EPA's website and from regulatory agencies, security concerns must be balanced with
the need for communities to know what toxins are present in their environment in order
for communities to assist in the development of effective strategies to reduce exposures.
In order for communities to participate in pollution prevention activities, there must be
adequate and sustained funding from public and private sources to support their efforts.
There should also be funding, tax incentives or subsidies to develop clean production
technologies and to directly support community-driven environmental justice, pollution
prevention and sustainable development projects. Educational materials suitable for the
layman must be developed and comprehensive educational training initiatives should be
undertaken. Community participation must be valued and that value should be
demonstrated with support and respect for their involvement. Governmental technical
assistance and resources to enable communities to hire independent technical assistance
is also necessary to build the capacity of communities to effectively participate in
advancing pollution prevention as an environmental justice tool.
COMMUNITY RECOMMENDATIONS
There are many opportunities in existing environmental laws to incorporate pollution
prevention. The Pollution Prevention Act mandates the development and implementation
of strategies to promote source reduction. Other federal environmental statutes also
require pollution prevention activities, offer opportunities to incorporate pollution
prevention into permits or include resource conservation directives. The current EPA
Administrator has committed to integrating environmental justice into existing
environmental statutes. This provides a statutory opportunity to employ pollution
prevention approaches in environmental justice communities. In addition to these
opportunities, the community stakeholder representatives has the following
recommendations:
1. Community involvement is the bedrock to any pollution prevention strategy in
impacted communities. Models for engaging the public in order to maximize
their involvement are crucial in ensuring that the community will be engaged.
2. A collection of case studies with viable examples featuring community
participation and community driven pollution prevention collaborations would be
useful as an example of successful pollution prevention partnerships. A
clearinghouse with the case studies could be placed on a website and a toolkit
could be developed and provided to local governments and community
organizations detailing the steps to an effective community involvement process
in pollution prevention projects.
3. The Environmental Justice and Pollution Prevention Grants should be made
available again. Successful projects developed through that program should
receive sustained funding and expanded to other environmental justice
communities, thereby building on the success.
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4. Pollution prevention resources and funds should be directed primarily at impacted
communities and their selected representatives which are addressing
environmental justice and pollution prevention issues, not other external bodies
such as organizations set up by polluters.
5. Increase community awareness. Diesel education project were effective in terms
of level of awareness. Dry cleaner project raised awareness.
6. A national disease registry, beyond cancer, of diseases associated with chemical
releases should be established. This registry should monitor disease associated
with chemicals being released should exposure occur and develop innovative
responses to reduce it. Most states have cancer registries or lead poisoning
registries and several states have legislation calling for epidemiological research
into the prevention of environmentally related diseases. Disease registries and
especially lead poisoning registries have resulted in reductions of lead exposures
to children as areas of disproportionate lead exposure are identified.
7. The environmental justice community strongly recommends that the
precautionary principle be incorporated in environmental decision-making and the
development of environmental regulations, policy and programs particularly in
over-burdened communities (exposure to cumulative and synergistic affects).
8. Incentives should be developed that encourage businesses to employ a
precautionary approach in their production processes.
9. A variety of improved enforcement mechanisms can serve as effective pollution
prevention tools in appropriate cases including increased use of Supplemental
Environmental Projects that focus on pollution prevention.
10. Fines and penalties imposed for noncompliance should be set aside to fund
environmental initiatives for the burdened community. There is precedent for this
and it serves as a way to assure that local benefits result from the imposition of
fines
11. Better oversight by EPA and review of delegated programs should be employed to
improve enforcement measures in cases of environmental protection failures. At
the same time, governmental efficiency can be improved by streamlining
bureaucracy unless public health or the environment is imperiled.
12. Brownfield projects should focus on green building, green business and green
industry incubation models.
13. Restoration of on and off-site areas impacted by pollution should be accomplished
using sustainable remediation practices such as photo-remediation.
14. Where cumulative impacts are apparent, a pollution reduction plan should be
developed with the help of the federal government and should be memorialized in
an enforceable agreement even if the surrounding facilities operate within the
legal limits. The federal agency should also provide resources to the local
government to assist in the plan.
15. Small businesses and entrepreneurial enterprises should receive technical
assistance and support if they are willing to incorporate pollution prevention in
their business philosophy and practices. Communities that are heavily
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industrialized are in a position to gain tremendous environmental benefits by
receiving this type of stimulation for small businesses.
16. Pollution prevention activities should support and promote renewable energy
options for small businesses and communities.
17. Additional support for alternative fuel projects should be focused in impacted
communities.
18. In areas where Clear Skies projections indicate that non-attainment for ozone will
exist for the foreseeable future, aggressive pollution prevention conditions should
be imposed in new and renewal air permits.
19. There is an effort to bring back old power plants in communities of color. Convert
dirty power plants to new clean/green ones and use clean air alternatives. If
plants cannot be converted, they should be shut down.
20. Pollution prevention should be used as a proactive opportunity to advance
environmental stewardship values in impacted communities.
21. Pollution prevention should focus on reducing the number of chemicals and
minimization of persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic (PBT) chemicals.
22. Reduce amounts of pesticides used and increase research on and support models
for sustainable agriculture (organic).
23. Funds should actually get to grass roots organizations and not organizations set up
by polluters Organizations with exemplary records should get the funds.
24. Performance track award criteria should include environmental justice measures.
25. Build a pollution prevention assessment model that is holistic. This model will
educate communities and provide assessment capabilities by making linkages
between the environmental issue and the social / developmental issue. For
example, air quality and the associated respiratory problem for seniors in the
community was helpful. Linking lead poisoning to birth defects helped get
expected mothers involved. Ties to religion and a responsibility to environmental
justice also helped get the church involved.
26. Move from diesel and get buses converted to natural gases and three-minute
idling law.
CONCLUSION
Pollution prevention, as defined by the act, incorporates protection of public health and
the environment, including protecting environmental resources for subsequent
generations, as key values. These are also key values of the environmental justice
movement. Pollution prevention provides a unique opportunity for communities,
business and government to work together in a non-confrontational way to achieve some
joint aims. Communities' are in support of providing resources for the development and
implementation of clean technologies to business. Businesses support the concept of
reducing the impact of their activities on surrounding communities. Government
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supports the reduction of pollution impacts on public health and the environment. These
shared values offer the potential for the stakeholders to work collaboratively in a way that
may not have been available to them previously, to develop innovative strategies that
meet their interests that do not require enforcement, to build trust and improve
communications in their relationships, and to work together towards the goal of achieving
environmental justice.
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Mail code 3404T
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460
202-566-0556
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CHAPTER 4: TRIBAL PERSPECTIVES
This chapter was authored by members of the Tribal Stakeholder group to elaborate on
the views of the members of that group, not necessarily reflect the views of members of
other stakeholder groups or of the NEJAC Executive Council.
THE LEGAL STATUS AND RIGHTS OF TRIBES
For tribes pollution prevention concerns and possible approaches for implementing
pollution prevention must be considered in the complex context of the unique position of
tribes in American society. American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes are sovereign
governments recognized as self-governing under federal law. As such they are entitled to
make and enforce laws on their lands and to create governmental entities such as courts.
In addition, the federal government has a trust responsibility to tribes whereby the federal
government has charged itself with moral obligations to tribes of a fiduciary nature
requiring it to ensure the protection of tribal interests.1 This trust responsibility is
predicated, in part, upon more than 400 treaties through which tribes ceded vast portions
of their aboriginal lands in exchange for the federal government's solemn promise to
protect the rights of tribes to exist as self-governing nations.2 The trust responsibility is
also based on acts of Congress, Executive Orders and federal court decisions. The trust
doctrine reflects the fact that the federal government holds legal title to most Indian land
in trust for the tribes (or for individual Indian landowners) and, consequently, has the
duties of a trustee to manage natural resources for the benefit of tribes. The trust doctrine
also includes the responsibility to protect and support tribal sovereignty.4 The
relationship between the United States and tribes is often described as "govemment-to-
government," which reflects the fact that tribes are sovereigns. This relationship is
different from the relationship between the federal government and the states, in part
because of the federal trust responsibility to the tribes.
The status of Alaska Native tribes is different from those in the "lower forty-eight"
because, with one exception, Alaska Native tribes do not have "reservations" and the
federal government does not hold their lands in trust.5 The federal government
nevertheless has a trust responsibility to these tribes as well, and they are recognized as
possessing some aspects of sovereignty.
1 National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, Indigenous Peoples Subcommittee, Guide on
Consultation and Collaboration with Indian Tribal Governments and The Public Participation of Indigenous
Groups and Tribal Members in Environmental Decision Making. November 2000
2 Id. at p. 9.
3 See generally FELix.S. COHEN, HANDBOOK OF FEDERAL INDIAN LAW 220-228 (1982 ed.)
4 25 U.S.C. §3601 (recognizing that "the United States has a trust responsibility to each tribal government
that includes the protection of the sovereignty of each tribal government").
5 See generally Cohen, supra note 3, at 739-70.
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The federal government has not always lived up to its obligations to Indian tribes. In
contemporary America, many Indian tribes live with the legacy of the "allotment" era of
1887 to 1934, when federal laws sought to force Indian people to give up their tribal
ways of life and become assimilated into the mainstream of American society. During
the allotment era, the federal government forcibly took commonly owned lands from
many tribes, allotted these lands to individual tribal members (generally to encourage
fanning), and invited non-Indians to settle on the so-called "surplus" lands.6 Congress
repudiated the policies of the allotment era in 1934, but the legacy is that many
reservations have substantial populations of non-Indians, many of whom are landowners.
In the last quarter century, although Congress and the Executive Branch have consistently
supported tribal self-government, the Supreme Court has imposed new limits on the
sovereign powers of tribal governments, in effect resurrecting the repudiated policies of
the allotment era.7
Some indigenous communities are not currently recognized as sovereigns by the federal
government, but such communities may nonetheless have environmental or public health
concerns that are different from other groups or the general public due to a subsistence
lifestyle or unique cultural practices.8 As citizens of the United States, indigenous
groups or organizations and individual members of recognized tribes also have the rights
to environmental and public health protection from federal agencies available to other
citizens.9
Federal agencies must interact with tribes in a manner consistent with then- sovereign
status and rights under federal law. To accomplish this aim, the Environmental
Protection Agency has adopted a formal policy statement governing its relationship with
tribes and the implementation of its programs on Indian reservations.lo EPA's policy
states that EPA will incorporate Indian Policy goals into its planning and management
activities including, among other things, its budget, legislative initiatives and
management accountability system.11 Beginning in 1986, several of the major federal
environmental statutes have been amended to authorize EPA to treat tribes like states for
various purposes, and EPA has issued numerous sets of regulations to carry out these
6 See generally Id at 127-39.
See generally David H. Celebes, Conquering the Cultural Frontier: The New Subjectivism of the
Supreme Court in Indian Law, 84 CAL. L. REV. 1573 (1996); Philip P. Frickey, A Common Law for Our
Age of Colonialism: The Judicial Divestiture of Indian Tribal Authority Over Nonmembeis, 109 YALE L.
J. 1 (1999).
8 National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, Indigenous Peoples Subcommittee, Guide on
Consultation and Collaboration with Indian Tribal Governments and The Public Participation of Indigenous
, November 2000 at p. 10.
Groups and Tribal Members in En
9 Id.
10 Environmental Protection Agency, American Indian Environmental Office, EPA Policy for the
Administration of Environmental Programs on Indian Reservations, 1984, www.epa.gov/indian/1984.htm.
"Id
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statutory amendments. Many tribes have made substantial progress in developing
environmental regulatory programs pursuant to federal law, but many obstacles have
proven difficult to overcome. Some obstacles are matters of funding and other kinds of
assistance; other obstacles have to do with challenges to the exercise of tribal sovereign
powers. The result is that in much of Indian the environmental regulatory infrastructure
is simply not comparable to that in most of America.
TRIBAL POLLUTION CONCERNS THAT CAN BE ADDRESSED BY
POLLUTION PREVENTION
Tribal pollution prevention concerns can be categorized by a variety of owner-operator
interests. Pollution may be generated by nongovernmental entities, by tribal members, by
nonmember Indians, by non-Indians, by corporate and business entities and by small
businesses that may be tribal operating on tribal trust lands, on individually-owned Indian
trust lands, or on private lands within reservation boundaries.
The tribal entities with the authority to address these pollution prevention concerns
include the legislative and executive branches of tribal governments, tribal government
agencies and departments and tribal business enterprises. Federal agencies, acting in a
manner consistent with their trust responsibilities, also have the authority to implement
pollution prevention measures in the context of their land management or financial
assistance roles. These agencies include^ the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park
Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Indian Health Service, Department
Housing Development, and the Administration for Native Americans. Some agencies
manage lands outside reservation boundaries (and in some cases within reservation
boundaries) where pollution prevention measures could benefit reservation environments
or off-reservation resources in which tribes have treaty or statutory rights or other
interests. Such agencies include the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park
Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and the Department of Defense. Each
agency responsible for generating pollution on Indian lands, or affecting off-reservation
resources of importance to tribes, should have a fully funded viable pollution prevention
program in place that was developed in consultation with tribes.
State and local agencies including municipalities also have the ability to address pollution
concerns through pollution prevention measures in consultation with tribes. Nonfederal
projects on tribal lands that are permitted or funded cause additional pollution impacts.
Pollution concerns of some tribes, particularly those with reservations near international
boundaries, may also be addressed by entities that have transboundary authority such as
the International Joint Commission which oversees water quantity and quality in the
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rivers and lakes that lie along or flow across the United States-Canada Border,12 the
Commission for Environmental Cooperation which studies and makes recommendations
on the long range transport of air pollution, the International Air Quality Advisory
Board,13 the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe,14 Environment Canada
or Partners in Flight which oversees populations of migratory birds and others.
There are wide ranges of pollution generating activities that take place on tribal lands and
each activity creates different adverse environmental impacts. These activities include
mineral extraction, agriculture, forestry, waste disposal, and storage and processing
activities, industrial plants, schools, federal and tribal governmental facilities and
infrastructure and Department of Defense facilities.
These activities result in numerous adverse environmental impacts. For example mineral
extraction is extremely damaging and causes air, water and soil pollution. Agriculture
and forestry causes soil and water pollution and results in habitat loss and loss of
biodiversity, wildlife and marine life. Waste storage, disposal and processing may cause
air, soil and water pollution. Operation of industrial plants, schools, and federal and
tribal governmental facilities may result in air, water and soil pollution as well as impacts
upon cultural resources, cultural practices and sacred sites. Finally Department of
Defense facilities have had devastating pollution impacts on tribal lands including
impacts on air, water and soil. All of these polluting activities can have adverse impacts
on historical resources. All of these activities have adverse impacts on human
environmental and ecological health.
In many ways, environmental health impacts on tribal lands are similar to health impacts
for other low-income communities and communities of color. These health impacts
include asthma, diabetes, hypertension, thyroid disorders, cancer and leukemia. Some
impacts may be different, for example because of higher levels offish consumption or
because of other kinds of cultural practices that are rooted in the environment. Impacts
may also be different because impacts on culturally important environmental resources
may be manifested in psychological suffering in people.
Issues of geography affect pollution concerns of tribes. These are impacts on the
reservations from sources on tribal lands, impacts on tribal lands or cross boundary
impacts from sources off the reservations and pollution that occurs outside of the
reservations that have impacts on off reservation resources.
12 Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, The Environment Has No Borders,
Water Quality/Quantity, www.can-anLgc.ca/menu-e.asp?mid+l&cat=l 1.
13 International Air Quality Advisory Board, Special Report on Transboundary Air Quality Issues,
November 1998, vtivw.ijc.org/boaids/iaqab/spectrans/chap7.html.
14 Id.
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There are also pollution prevention issues that are peculiar to tribes. One of these issues
is structural inequity in the enforcement of environmental laws.
Environmental law is carried out through "cooperative federalism" between the federal
government and the states, and Indian reservations were left out of this cooperation
during the first two decades that state programs were being developed. Inadequate
funding for tribal programs is considered by many to be an environmental justice issue
and an impediment to effective consultation with tribes due to the limited capacity of
many tribal environmental programs.15 Inequity in technical assistance and federal grant
support for tribal environmental and pollution prevention development and
implementation in comparison to states is an important environmental and pollution
prevention issue for tribes.
Pollution exposures and the need for pollution prevention may be greater for some
reservation communities due to the nature of polluting activities that occur on tribal
lands. On some reservations, there is a higher level of natural resource development that
occurs within tribal lands. These activities include mining, and oil and gas extraction and
refining. Many tribes, including many Alaska Native tribes, are also adversely affected
by polluting activities beyond the reach of their territorial jurisdiction.
In the case of facilities owned or managed by tribal governments that are not in
compliance with federal environmental statutes, EPA will not take direct action through
judicial or administrative process unless EPA determines that there is a significant threat
to human health or the environment, EPA action could be expected to achieve effective
results in a timely manner, and the federal government cannot utilize other alternatives to
correct the problem in a timely fashion.l6 In cases where facilities are owned or managed
by private parties with no substantial tribal interest or control, the agency will endeavor
to work in cooperation with the affected tribal government but will otherwise respond to
noncompliance by private parties on Indian reservations as the agency would to
noncompliance by the private sector elsewhere in the country.17 Another issue that
effects pollution prevention for tribes is limits on tribal sovereignty imposed by the
United States Supreme Court.18 According to holdings of the Supreme Court, tribal
sovereignty is not absolute; rather, aspects of the original sovereignty of the tribes may
have been given up in a treaty, taken away by Congress or divested by implication as a
result of their dependent status.19 As a result, the authority to undertake pollution
prevention measures may be subject to limits that are not imposed on other governments.
15 EPA Policy for the Administration of Environmental Programs on Indian Reservations, supra note 10.
16 Id.
17 Guide, supra note 1 at p. 7.
18 Id.
19
See generally.Getches and Frickey, supra note 7.
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From the perspective of tribes, the limitations of conventional risk assessment methods
are another issue unique to tribes. Tribal cultural and spiritual values are not adequately
considered in traditional risk assessment processes. Accordingly, many tribes, and the
environmental professionals who work for them regard risk assessment as a tool that has
little value.
POSSIBLE APPROACHES FOR IMPLEMENTING POLLUTION PREVENTION
IN AND NEAR TRIBAL LANDS
Governmental action is a key component necessary for implementing effective pollution
prevention activities for tribes.
In keeping with its Indian policy and the trust responsibility, EPA should take steps, in
consultation with tribes, to fill the enforcement gaps in Indian country and Native Alaska.
The expanded use of Direct Implementation of Tribal Cooperative Agreements
("DITCAs") is one approach. In addition, EPA, possibly in cooperation with other
federal agencies, could provide assistance to tribes for the development of Tribal
Environmental Policy Acts ("TEPAs") that include pollution prevention requirements.
Land use planning under tribal law to promote pollution prevention is another approach
to advance pollution prevention activities on tribal lands. This could include promoting
walkable neighborhoods, incorporating smart growth principles, using geographic
information system technologies to assist in land use analysis and planning and including
tribal departments involved in planning activities such as tribal housing authorities.
Supreme Court case law, however, renders it difficult for tribes to implement
comprehensive land use planning on lands that are not held in federal trust status.
The precautionary principle is an important pollution prevention measure, and many
people have noted that this principle is generally consistent with tribal cultural values.
Tribal laws that stress the precautionary principle could advance pollution prevention on
tribal lands as issues of uncertainty are resolved in favor of protection of public health,
the environment and concern for the seventh generation.
Pollution prevention education programs are also needed to advance pollution prevention
in and near tribal lands. This includes education programs for tribal officials and staff
and for the general public on the reservations, for small businesses, for farmers, and for
youth. Development and implementation of environmental programs requires increases
in federal support for technical assistance, funding for development and implementation
of tribal pollution prevention programs and tribal environmental program infrastructure.
For pollution prevention to be effective it must be supported at the highest levels of
government. This means that for tribes there must also be pollution prevention leadership
development and training provided to tribal leaders, and included in tribal programs such
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as to the tribal natural resources, environment, housing, education, economic
development and planning departments and to members of the tribal public
Tribal governments may be able to show leadership in developing and supporting
initiatives in pollution prevention for small businesses and industries operating within
reservation boundaries. Similarly, when facilities are operating outside of reservation
boundaries but causing cross-boundary impacts, or causing impact of off-reservation
resources of importance to tribes, tribal governments could pursue the development of
memorandum of understandings ("MOU") with adjoining governmental entities such as
states or municipalities. Such MOUs might also be generally helpful in addressing
pollution prevention issues and implementing pollution prevention programs.
Actions by the federal government would also be extremely useful in advancing pollution
prevention in and near tribal lands. The federal government should undertake outreach to
tribes to assure that they are included in technical assistance to nonfederal governments.
EPA and other federal agencies should also devote more attention and resources to their
consultations with tribes in the context of proposed actions that are subject to the
National Environmental Policy Act or National Historic Preservation Act, for actions that
would result in affects within reservation boundaries, on no-reservation tribal
communities, and on off-reservation resources of importance to tribes.
In order to advance pollution prevention on tribal lands, federal agencies should provide
increased and sustained support for technical assistance and funding for pollution
prevention and tribal environmental program development and implementation. The
federal government should provide support for pollution prevention leadership
development and training to elected tribal leaders and to tribal programs. Support from
the federal government should be available to incorporate pollution prevention into the
operations of tribal natural resource, environment, housing, education, economic
development and planning departments. There should also be federal support provided
for pollution prevention training provided to members of the tribal public and non-Indian
residents of tribal lands. Federal agencies should assist in supporting tribal government
initiatives in pollution prevention for small businesses and industries operating on tribal
lands. Resources in the form of grants should be made available to schools, community-
based tribal organizations and non-governmental entities for pollution prevention
initiatives and activities.
State and local governments should be encouraged to work collaboratively with tribal
governments and entities to implement pollution prevention activities within or near
reservations and other tribal communities. State and local governments should identify
potentially concerned tribal governments in the initial stages of any state or local
initiatives involving pollution prevention and seek to engage such tribes in consultation
and collaboration. When such efforts result in genuine collaboration, states and local
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governments should enter into cooperative agreements with tribes such as MOUs, MOA
and other contractual agreements, in order to seal such agreements.
In recognition of the cultural values of tribes, states and local governments should
endeavor to incorporate the precautionary principle into any initiatives that affect
resources that are important to tribes. Similarly, educational programs involving
pollution prevention developed and implemented by states and local governments should
include outreach to and participation from tribal governments, departments, and schools,
as well as community-based organizations and other nongovernmental entities.
Finally, nongovernmental entities operating on or near tribal lands should engage in best
practices designed to reduce, to the greatest extent possible, adverse environmental and
public health impacts on those lands. The same should apply to resources. Such entities
should consider voluntarily agree to comply with tribal laws respecting pollution and
memorialize those agreements in writing.
Respect for the sovereignty, values, history and cultural practices of American Indian and
Alaska Native Tribes and the laws, treaties, policies and Executive Orders governing
relationships with the tribes is instrumental for reducing pollution on or near tribal
resources.
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CHAPTER 5: BUSINESS & INDUSTRY
PERSPECTIVES
This chapter was authored by members of the Business and Industry Stakeholder group
to elaborate on the views of the members of that group, not necessarily reflect the views
of members of other stakeholder groups or of the NEJAC Executive Council.
INTRODUCTION
Business and industry's perspectives on pollution prevention have several premises in
common with other stakeholders. First, business agrees that the term is broad and can
usefully encompass a variety of practices that may result in improved environmental
performance. Second, the term represents environmental protection that at least meets or
may exceed the baseline represented by traditional command and control environmental
regulatory requirements. Pollution prevention activities encompass means to achieve
numerical performance goals more reliably and efficiently; reductions in emissions
beyond regulatory targets; holistic approaches to environmental quality (e.g., reducing
pollutants that may not have current regulatory standards), and methods to promote
sustainable use of resources. Pollution prevention frequently involves all levels of the
business organization in designing approaches to minimize the impact of operations on
human health and the environment. Finally, the term "pollution prevention" assumes
communication and collaborative engagement with the members of the public.
In other respects, business and industry's positions on pollution prevention may differ
from those of other stakeholders, or even individual members of other stakeholder
groups. Operating under the premise that "the perfect is often the enemy of the good,"
the business community in general does not hold successful pollution prevention efforts
to the criteria that they eliminate pollution, only that they reduce environmental and
health impacts below the baseline of applicable regulatory standards. Although some
companies have committed publicly to a zero emissions goal, for even those companies
that goal is targeted for some tune in the future. Moreover, it is fair to say that the
majority of the business community does not consider a zero-emissions goal practical, or
even feasible. The majority of companies believe that it is the express obligation of
government-based environmental and health programs to assure that the levels of
pollution allowable under regulatory programs protect, consistent with sound science and
with an adequate margin of safety, all members of the community and the environment as
a whole. For the majority of companies, some level of risk is perceived to be inherent in
all human activities; the issue is whether this risk is reasonable and consistent with good
health and environmental quality.
Despite their divergent perspectives, stakeholder groups may be able to forge sufficient
agreement on areas of implementation of pollution prevention to improve meaningfully
environmental conditions within communities. Depending on the regulatory, public
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relations, economic and other incentives, businesses may devote resources toward
invention, innovation or adoption of new technologies that can reduce or eliminate
pollution and save costs, or alternatively utilize well-established but less innovative
techniques to satisfy rigid regulatory prescriptions. If communities can be assured that
affording increased flexibility to businesses will yield enhanced environmental
performance, particularly in the aspects of most concern to community members,
pollution prevention may produce tangible benefits for both businesses and communities.
Business statements on pollution prevention make clear that, for the most part, such
efforts, if they are to be sustainable and effective, must be voluntary rather than
prescribed by regulation. In 1998, The Business Roundtable published a benchmarking
study of pollution prevention planning among the Fortune 250 companies the association
represents, and three conclusions were drawn:
Pollution prevention planning will be important for years to come.
Pollution prevention planning should be tailored to an organization's unique
needs and circumstances - wherever possible, integrated into core business
activities.
Pollution prevention planning practices do not lend themselves to a "one size fits
all" approach. Mandates can be beneficial in some circumstances but are
detrimental in others
"A Benchmarking Study of Pollution Prevention Planning: Best Practices, Issues, and
Implications for Public Policy" (August 1998).
The third bullet is worth explaining. In the study, the Roundtable found that state-level
pollution planning requirements were useful in giving a planning framework for
companies unfamiliar with pollution prevention. For companies already participating in
pollution reduction planning, however, these state-mandated paperwork requirements
were duplicative of company practices and in some cases actually discouraged
innovation, development of substantial new initiatives, and integration of pollution
prevention planning into core business strategy. In effect, pollution prevention required
by regulation became a paperwork exercise relegated to environmental, health and safety
managers rather than an element of senior management's strategic design and operating
plans. A well-designed government program would provide planning, education and
assistance to less sophisticated companies while affording all companies the flexibility to
implement pollution prevention strategies in innovative ways best suited to their
organizations and cultures.
Business and industry's pollution prevention efforts routinely include public participation
elements intended to communicate to the general public and to communities in which
they operate company initiatives to improve environmental quality. For example,
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pollution prevention efforts undertaken under EPA's Common Sense Initiative and
Project XL include substantial dialogue and collaboration among facilities, regulators and
community members on how changes to operations can reduce pollution while avoiding
particular regulatory impediments. Precise and extensive public reporting of pollution
prevention initiatives are part of the corporate environmental reports advocated by such
groups as the Conference Board, the Global Environmental Management Initiative
(GEMI), and the United Nations Environmental Program's (UNEP) Sustainability
projects, as well as industry pollution prevention initiatives such as the chemical
industry's 33/50 program. Brownfield projects, which by their nature voluntarily reduce
pollution by remediating and reusing formerly impacted properties, routinely incorporate
dialogue with neighboring community members to identify their goals for site response
and reuse, whether these projects are coordinated by EPA, states or performed
independently under the ASTM standard for brownfields.
The business literature on pollution prevention thus far has not focused on the
opportunity to address environmental concerns in environmental justice communities in
particular, but this focus could be a natural one. The broad-based organization called the
Business Network for Environmental Justice, for example, was formed to engage
constructively on means by which business and industry can successfully respond to
environmental justice community concerns. Many existing environmental projects,
although not developed with environmental justice in mind, actually provide benefits to
communities of color and low-income populations What has been lacking - and this
report can begin to provide - is education on the ways in which targeted pollution
prevention efforts can address the environmental quality concerns of environmental
justice communities. To accompany this educational effort and to the extent resources
and opportunities are available, it would be particularly important to create tangible
incentives for business and industry to direct their pollution prevention efforts to such
communities.
Many groups can participate in this education and response effort. For example, EPA
and state-level pollution prevention programs and outreach efforts could target
environmental justice communities in their literature, as part of their discussions with
facilities in permitting and other proceedings, in their standard-setting activities and as
part of their technical support in compliance assistance efforts. Groups supporting
corporate environmental reporting (GEMI, the Conference Board, UNEP, ISO) could
encourage separate line-item reporting on pollution prevention in environmental justice
communities. Industry sectors with extensive community outreach programs like the
chemical industry's Responsible Care and other "good neighbor" policies could focus on
pollution prevention initiatives for environmental justice communities. They also could
make consideration of the affected populations an element of audits and other
environmental management techniques. Brownfields redevelopments could be tracked to
identify where these efforts have lead to pollution reduction in environmental justice
communities and brownfields grants targeted to these communities. Pollution prevention
techniques could be considered in lieu of potentially less reliable end-of-pipe controls as
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means of satisfying performance standards. Most effectively, regulatory and economic
incentives and public recognition opportunities could be created to incentivize pollution
prevention initiatives in environmental justice communities. EPA appropriations, or
regulatory reform and streamlining efforts, could specifically reward business and
industry voluntarily reducing pollution, conserving energy or using cleaner renewable
energy sources, or using cleaner technology in environmental justice communities.
The following chapter attempts to lay the groundwork for the education and response
outlined in the previous paragraph by describing an array of current business and industry
efforts to prevent pollution. The chapter then suggests the resources, incentives and
capacity building that should be undertaken to foster greater pollution prevention in
environmental justice communities. Note that although this chapter focuses on efforts by
business and industry, the projects, opportunities and expectations should be the same for
comparable facilities operated by federal, state or local governments. Fueling stations
owned by the Department of Defense or Interior, municipal waste trucks or disposal sites
owned by municipalities, publicly owned treatment works and all other public sector
facilities and activities owned or operated by the government organizations have equal
incentives and obligations to seek out opportunities to prevent pollution, particularly in
environmental justice communities. Likewise, non-profits such as educational
institutions, hospitals and other organizations should be encompassed within the
suggested pollution prevention approach.
This discussion focuses primarily on experiences by large and medium sized businesses,
in some part because the literature of pollution prevention is written primarily about
larger sources. Increasingly, focus is being placed on the continuing viability of small
and mid-sized manufacturers (SMMs). The 307,000 U.S. SMMs produce more than half
of the nation's manufacturing output and account for more than two-thirds of
employment in the manufacturing sector. SMMs have specific challenges with regard to
pollution prevention. The central issue should be how to induce SMMSs to invest in
pollution prevention approaches that ultimately result in higher levels of quality and
environmental performance and, in turn, lead to greater productivity and profit gain.
SMMs are often less integrated into large trade associations that are capable of
performing the research to develop pollution prevention techniques, and the competitive
atmosphere in which SMMs operate makes the cost of pollution prevention a significant
impediment. In many cases, the infrastructure for pollution prevention is particularly
challenged if the sources are not subject to environmental permitting requirements that
define a "safe" level of operations and create a baseline from which to identify pollution
prevention opportunities. Moreover, without being actively engaged with EPA, an SSM
is less likely to be informed of or adopt pollution prevention techniques or reach out to
community members in a dialogue on environmental controls that a permitting process
naturally affords. This lack of infrastructure can be particularly significant in urban
environmental justice communities perceiving adverse cumulative impacts from
numerous small sources.
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CURRENT BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY EFFORTS
This section will briefly summarize the array of voluntary activities currently being taken
by business and industry to prevent pollution. It is important to outline these activities in
the NEJAC report on pollution prevention and environmental justice because it will help
inform both community members and the broader business community about
opportunities to improve environmental quality in environmental justice communities
Knowledge of existing success stories can inform future projects.
Regulatory opportunities for pollution prevention: The flexibility inherent in current
regulatory programs has provided the opportunity to explore means to reduce pollution to
a greater extent, and often more efficiently, than the usual command-and-control
requirements prescribe.
Multi-Media Approach
Members of the business community have participated in EPA pilot programs designed to
encourage pollution prevention activities. One such program, Project XL, promotes use
of techniques to attain environmental results superior to those mandated by current
regulations and policies at lower cost. The government offers the company flexibility in
meeting existing legal requirements in exchange for enhanced environmental
performance.1 The program mandates community and other stakeholder involvement
though various techniques which may include, among others, information dissemination,
public meetings and hearings, community advisory groups, public comment periods, and
consultation in conjunction with development of the final project agreement.
EPA and industry have implemented Project XL programs in a wide range of
circumstances. For example, Merck & Co. reduced air emission levels in Elkton,
Virginia by converting its coal-burning powerhouse to natural gas. Use of a cleaner
burning fuel enhanced visibility and reduced acid deposition in the local community and
a national park. In exchange, Merck received a site-wide emissions cap that allowed it to
make changes at the facility without obtaining further regulatory approval as long as the
cap was not exceeded.
Likewise, after holding eight stakeholder meetings, Georgia-Pacific Corporation
instituted an equipment change under Project XL by replacing aging smelters at its
1 The inefficiencies of regulating on a medium specific basis, especially utilizing command and control
techniques, are well known. For example, a study by EPA and Amoco at a petroleum refinery in
Yorktown, Virginia concluded that the existing cost to Amoco of $2400 per ton to reduce emissions could
have been lowered to $500 per ton if Amoco had been afforded some flexibility. See National Academy of
Public Administration, Setting Priorities, Getting Results: A New Direction for the Environmental
Protection Agency (1995). See also, a criticism of EPA's command and control approaches in Jonathan
Lash and David T. Buzzelli, Beyond Old-Style Regulation, J. Commerce & Commercial, Feb. 28, 1995.
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containerboard mill at Big Island, Virginia with a black liquor gasification system.
Gasification converts by-products from the wood pulping process into a clean burning
hydrogen fuel. The technology will be the first full scale gasification system used in the
pulp and paper industry. The new technology is designed to reduce air emissions by 90
percent, save energy and increase safety. In exchange, in the event the new technology
does not function as anticipated, Georgia-Pacific will be allowed to operate its smelters
without otherwise needed control modifications for a limited period of time to allow for
installation of a conventional recovery boiler.
Other XL projects are identified on EPA's website, www.epa.gov/project xl. Although
these projects have been largely successful in reducing pollution, the considerable
transactional costs to both industry and EPA of utilizing pilot programs to craft special
permits on a facility by facility basis weighs in favor of transferring the lessons learned
from the pilot project to standardized regulatory programs wherever possible.2 The need
also exists to provide greater capacity to small businesses to enable them to identify,
design and implement pollution prevention options.
Area Wide Approaches
Certain federal, state or local programs encourage planning to take place on an area-wide
basis. Businesses have cooperated with governmental authorities in engaging in area
wide planning, particularly in circumstances where multistakeholder cooperation can
facilitate environmental improvement.
Protecting stream quality and flows requires participation of various water users and
dischargers. For example, in stream segments where effluent limitations on point source
dischargers are not stringent enough to implement water quality standards, the state must
list those waters and establish a total maximum daily load. See 33 U.S.C. § 1313(d). The
load is allocated among point source and non-point source dischargers. Businesses
actively engage in negotiations to allocate the permissible load. Even absent the listing
of waters as impaired, businesses may engage in multistakeholders efforts to protect
resources within a watershed.
Similarly, under the Clean Air Act each State must adopt an implementation plan for the
implementation, maintenance and enforcement of national ambient air quality standards
in each air quality control region within the State. See 42 U.S.C. § 7410(a). This plan
necessarily contains trade-offs among groups with an area.3 Transit plans are frequently
challenged as not in compliance with the state's SIP.
2 The Common Sense Initiative (a performance -based system focused on industry sections), the Sustained
Industry Project, and the Environmental Liability Program (testing the value of innovation in
environmental management systems) are other examples of efforts to explore alternatives to command and
control regulations.
3 Businesses are active participants in the multistakeholder planning process.
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EPA's Draft Title VI Guidance for EPA Assistance Recipients Administering
Environmental Permitting Programs (Recipient Guidance) suggests that a government
agency can identify geographic areas where adverse disparate impacts may exist and
work with stakeholders to reduce these impacts, for example, by placing a ceiling on
pollutant releases. Voluntary stakeholder techniques developed in the context of water
and air planning may be translatable into methods to improve conditions within
environmental justice communities.
Removal of Regulatory Impediments to Pollution Prevention: In some cases, current
end-of-the-pipe regulatory requirements impede the kind of thinking that can reduce a
much greater volume of pollution. The plight of dry cleaners provides an example of the
challenges faced by small businesses both in implementing pollution prevention and in
complying with the existing legal requirements. Dry cleaners use organic solvents that
become spent over time. Proper disposals of these spent solvents, and control of air
emissions during their use, are important concerns to the communities in which the
cleaning facilities are located.
Many dry cleaners are unable or unwilling to invest in costly and time-consuming source
reduction. In response, federal and state governments have developed programs designed
to make source reduction more palpable for dry cleaners. While some of these programs
offer only waste reduction advice to dry cleaners, others give financial assistance and
grants.4
Recycling and Reuse: Use of recycled or reused products has enormous pollution
prevention potential since such reuse not only reduces consumption of virgin raw
materials, but it also can save energy and water consumption in the manufacturing
process. Local and state governments, working with the private sector, have focused on
means to increase the volume of recyclable and reusable materials collected, and to
increase use of products made from such materials. Without product use, collection of
recyclables is unsustainable. Innovations in collection include single-stream collection,
which is more user friendly for householders and reduces vehicle traffic and thus
4 One financial program is offered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The Commonwealth makes "2% [interest] loans available to cleaners and others for pollution prevention
equipment as well as the free site analysis program." DEP Programs,
http://www.pddean.org/DEPJtograms-htm (Last visited August 9, 2002). The EPA has offered financial
assistance to dry cleaners to achieve source reduction. This assistance included a grant of $100,000 to a
Korean Youth and Community Center in California aimed at Korean dry cleaners. "This outreach and
education program presents an innovative public-private partnership joining a private entrepreneur, a major
university, and a community-based organization in a collaborative effort to advance to state-of-the-art
environmental technology in the garment care industry." EJP2 Guide,
http://www.epa.gov/oppt/ejp2/guide.pdf (Last visited August 9,2002). Utilizing these programs achieves
two ends: first, source reduction, which all stakeholders want to achieve and second, cost reduction, which
the dry cleaners and business owners desire.
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emissions in neighborhoods. Single-stream collection has been possible because of
technology advances in optical sorting, a development pioneered by Recycle America.
States and local governments also have begun to explore the potential to reduce the
presence of particularly toxic chemicals in the environment through chemical- and
product-specific recycling initiatives. For example, a voluntary mercury collection
project initiated by the state of New Hampshire and Wheelabrator Technologies has
resulted in the collection for recycling of 70 pounds of elemental mercury, resulting in a
37% reduction in mercury emissions.6 Similarly, in Houston, Texas, the city initiated a
residential electronics recycling pilot program to collect for recycling personal
computers, cellular phones, televisions and other small consumer electronics.7 Many
communities sponsor household hazardous waste collection days that have facilitated the
recycling of wastes that would otherwise have been disposed in municipal landfills
Pollution Prevention Initiatives in Permits: The overarching obligation in environmental
permits to assure protection of human health and the environment provides flexibility to
employ creative pollution prevention approaches. For example, the City of New York,
responding to community members' concerns about the number and potential impacts of
waste transfer stations in several boroughs, used its discretion in issuing permits to site
and continue to operate transfer stations to reduce the number of such facilities in
communities of concern. When one company, Waste Management, sought permit
renewal at one of its' several transfer stations throughout the city, part of the permit
approval included closure of other company-owned facilities, thus reducing the volume
of waste handled and accompanying truck traffic in the borough. Such a policy, if
implemented with regard to all parties competing to handle the same business, has the
potential to improve environmental quality by consolidating activities at the facilities
most appropriately sited and with the best environmental controls. Its goal is similar to
the area-wide approach, but it could be implemented with an individual company or a
municipality operating several permitted facilities.
States have piloted additional mechanisms to include pollution prevention in permitting.
In California, Texas and Massachusetts, for example, technology certification is used to
speed approval of new, pollution reducing technologies in permits.8
Environmental Management Systems: Many business, governmental and other
organizations utilize environmental management systems as a voluntary means of
identifying and surpassing applicable environmental requirements. An EMS is a
management tool that ordinarily includes a policy statement, a process to identify
5 See www.wm.com/recvcle/ra home.asp
6 New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Environmental News (May/June 2001).
7 City of Houston, Residential Electronic Scrap Recycling Pilot Program Begins (October 8, 2001),
http:/Avww.ci.houston.tx-us/swd/press-electonicscrap.htm.
8 Kurt Strasser, "Cleaner Technology, Pollution Prevention and Environmental Regulation," Fordham
Environmental Law Journal (Fall 1997), p. 28.
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applicable requirements, measurable targets, monitoring, measurement and correction,
and senior management review. Voluntary standards promulgated by the International
Standards Organization and the European Union Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
specify characteristics of the voluntary programs and stress the need for continual
improvement.
By including environmental considerations in an organization's decision-making process,
an EMS encourages decisions such as selection of raw materials, process design and
choice of energy supplies to be made with an eye toward minimizing environmental
impacts. EPA policies already provide some incentives for implementation of EMSs, for
example by reducing enforcement penalties when violations are identified, promptly
reported to EPA and promptly corrected.9
EPA should be encouraged to design incentives for companies to establish EMSs on a
voluntary basis using techniques best adapted to the company's business sector and
individual culture. EPA should also encourage legislation allowing multi-media,
performance based approaches. An EMS can provide some assurance to the local
community that voluntary compliance measures are accomplishing their objectives while
simultaneously providing a mechanism to exceed requirements. In effect, an EMS is part
of a method by which businesses self-regulate in alliance with the community. An EMS
can readily incorporate measurement, reporting and improvement in areas identified by
the community.
Emissions Reduction in Trading Programs: In order to implement continuous
improvement in air quality while allowing economic development, the clean air program
allows new development in areas not meeting air quality standards by conditioning the
development on reductions in air pollution elsewhere. This trading program has
enormous potential to allow development in relatively undeveloped areas while
improving air quality in urban areas. In one example, the State of California approved a
trading proposal whereby Pacific Gas and Electric obtained the emissions credits needed
to construct a power plant by funding the conversion of 120 diesel garbage trucks to
natural gas vehicles in El Cajon. As a result of this transaction, truck emissions in El
Cajon were reduced by more than 50 %, with paniculate emissions reduced by 80 % and
nitrogen oxide emissions 50% below regulatory standards. Without the utility's purchase
of emissions credits, the alternative fuel vehicles' added costs would have been
prohibitive. That project was awarded a U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Cities
9 See U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Incentives for Self-Policing: Discovery, Disclosure,
Correction and Prevention of Violations, Effective: May 11, 2000; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Environmental Auditing Policy Statement, July, 9, 1986. See also, U.S. Department of Justice, Factors in
Decisions on Criminal Prosecution for Environmental Violations in the Context of Significant Voluntary
Compliance or Disclosure Efforts by the Violator (July 1,1991).
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National Partner Award in 2001, which emphasizes the need to build coalitions and
engage all interested stakeholders.10
Pollution Prevention Components in Enforcement Actions: Pollution prevention and
enforcement are not incompatible. Where pollution prevention is undertaken as a
mechanism to achieve or surpass compliance, room exists to enforce laws against non-
compliant parties. Nevertheless, a wise enforcement policy encourages business
organizations to develop systems, strategies and cultures that voluntarily promote
compliance and improvement so that enforcement resources can be focused on the
comparatively few companies for whom compliance education and incentives are
inadequate. Pollution prevention can help ensure compliance, reduce the need for
enforcement by promoting product and process innovation, use of management systems
and community involvement, and allow enforcement resources to be directed in a manner
ensuring full and fair application of the laws.
Pollution prevention interacts with enforcement in several ways. First, enforcement
discretion should be exercised to allow companies exploring innovative alternatives to
rigid technological requirements to experience a "soft landing". Second, consistent with
EPA's current audit policy, the pollution prevention programs that companies are
implementing should be considered when penalties are calculated consistent with EPA's
current audit policy. Finally, companies can be encouraged to design and implement
pollution prevention techniques in the context of resolving enforcement actions through
supplemental environmental projects or other provisions in settlement agreements,
decrees or orders.11
COMMUNICATIONS INITIATIVES TO PROVIDE INCENTIVES FOR
POLLUTION PREVENTION
Corporate Environmental Reporting
Many corporations have developed voluntary, freestanding reports that describe a
corporation's environmental, health and safety activities. In the past few years,
corporations have expanded their reports to include social issues and the corporation's
impact on the national and global economy. These reports are based on the reporting
standard format of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economics (CERES)
(www.ceres.org). This organization attempts to enhance corporate responsibility, through
shareholders, by requesting data on environmental topics termed the "CERES
10 Waste Management, Environmental Review (September 2002), www.wm.com. See also U.S.
Department of Energy, Alternative Fuel Track Evaluation Project, Waste Management's LNG Truck Fleet
Final Results (January 2001), www,ccities.doe.gov/success/waste_managenient.sbtrnl
11 U.S. EPA, Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training, SEER Compliance-Focused
Environmental Management System - Enforcement Agreement Guidance, August 1997 (Revised January,
2000). A SEP is an environmentally beneficial project that a party agrees to undertake as part of a
settlement of an enforcement action and that the party was under no legal obligation to undertake.
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Principles." CERES principles have since been expanded by the partnerships of the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Reporting Initiative
(GRI). These joint approaches help corporations set global standards on environmental
reporting and the responsible use of resources. These groups have gained credibility
among all stakeholders to the extent that many reports are deemed failures if they do not
include the major components identified by UNEP and GRI. Another important
component of corporate environmental reporting is the business-to-business information
sharing activities. There are several trade associations that provide this service; however,
groups such as the Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI)
(www.gemi.org) do these activities exclusively for member-companies. GEMI is a
leader in providing strategies for businesses to achieve environmental health and safety
excellence, economic success, and corporate citizenship.
33/50 Program
EPA asked chemical companies to participate voluntarily in a national reporting effort
intended to reduce the release and transfer of 17 toxic chemicals. Using the Toxic
Release Inventory reporting system and baseline, the 33/50 programs sought to reduce by
1992 33% of the 17 chemicals, and reduce these chemicals by 50% by 1995. Indicating
the effectiveness of voluntary efforts broadly publicized, industry surpassed its goal and
reduced these chemicals by 55% by 1995. Moreover, reductions continued beyond the
target program, with a 60% reduction by 1996.12
Information on Product Content
Consumer and public interest have led manufacturers to examine the content of their
products. Many well meaning initiatives try to force, shame or regulate companies to
make products containing either recycled content or use safer materials in their
production process. The theory behind these initiatives is that fewer resources and safer
material input will result in an environmentally friendly product. The reality is that
market forces lead manufacturers to produce products that are not only environmentally
friendly, but also satisfy consumer demands. Historically, command-and-control
regulations have forced manufacturers to examine their operations and the effect that they
have on the environment. Today, manufacturers are leading the way through innovation
and research to produce safer products with minimal impact to the environment. For
example, the Ford Motor Company has voluntarily reduced its toxic emissions by using
water-based paint instead of solvent-based paint in vehicle assembly lines. Ford's switch
preserves and improves the environment, saves energy and money and delivers a higher
quality product.
12 www.epa.gov/tri/proprams/other federal.htm.
13 See Ford Motor Company - Water Based Paints, www.ford.com.
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COLLABORATIVE ENGAGEMENT TO PREVENT POLLUTION
Brownfields Revitalization
Businesses and communities share a common interest in returning properties with actual
or potential environmental contamination to productive use. The Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq.,
imposes liability on, among others, current owners and operators of facilities. The
specter of liability inhibited prospective purchasers and resulted in abandonment of
environmentally impaired properties. Many of these properties are in environmental
justice communities.
In the past several years, states have responded to the need to rehabilitate such sites by
establishing voluntary cleanup programs. The programs generally set risk-based cleanup
goals that depend on the property's intended use, and afford protection from state liability
when the cleanup goals have been attained. Requirements for public notice and comment
often exist and community participation in reuse decisions is encouraged. Grants, loans
and tax incentives are sometimes also provided. The federal Small Business Liability
Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act enacted in January 2002, provides incentives
to redevelop Brownfield sites by conferring federal liability protection in various
circumstances, including when state voluntary program requirements are met. The Act
also authorizes EPA to offer grants to facilitate Brownfield cleanups. One of the criteria
for ranking grant applications is whether the local community will be involved in the
decision making process relating to cleanup and future use of the Brownfield site.
Encouraged by Brownfield legislation, businesses have revitalized impaired properties.
Brownfield cleanups have ranged from small gasoline station sites to larger industrial
facilities. For example, an abandoned railyard in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was
remediated and converted to an office building complex under Pennsylvania's Land
Recycling Program. Similar cleanups of industrial facilities for use as industrial,
commercial or residential developments are increasingly common. Brownfields
revitalization offers an opportunity for the business and residential communities to work
together to their mutual benefit.
The focus in EPA's brownfields program on collaboration among regulators, community
members and site owners and developers is particularly important when it comes to sites
where the optimal reuse is recreational or "green space." Brownfields reuse projects that
add to the municipal tax base can develop their own momentum, but non-economic reuse
plans that function primarily as resources to community members need encouragement
from regulatory agencies. The new brownfields legislation expressly includes green
projects, and EPA has been active in facilitating recreational community enrichment
projects. For example, EPA worked with community group members, local government,
the school district and the site owner to transform the closed, remediated H.O.D. landfill
and its buffer property into a multi-use recreational facility including walking and
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running trails, ball fields and a planned ecological education laboratory. To assure long-
term environmental protection and provide "green energy," landfill gas collected at the
closed facility will be collected and used to heat school buildings and homes. Similar
brownfields reuse projects involving work group member Waste Management include
development of equestrian trails, constructed wetlands, wildlife preserves, golf courses
and a youth golf academy, and reef regeneration.14
Some of these projects have been certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC),
which has developed standards for quality in development of new and restored wildlife
habitats.15
Responsible Care
The American Chemistry Council's Responsible Care program obligates each member
company to "achieve ongoing reductions in the amount of all contaminants and pollutants
released to the air, water, and land." Each company practices responsible care by
establishing a continuing dialogue at the face-to-face level with local citizens on any
areas of their concern, as well as regular evaluation of the effectiveness of these
communications. Moreover, each member company must establish an ongoing program
to promote waste and release reduction by its customers and suppliers; assist in
establishing regional air monitoring networks; participate in consensus approaches to
evaluating environmental, health and safety impacts of releases; and assist local
governments and others in waste reduction programs. The Council commits to
continuous reduction of releases below health-based standards because "[t]he public does
not endorse the concept of'permitted' generation of wastes or releases to the
environment The public desires an increased margin of safety and environmental
protection as a goal. If the [responsible care] policy is to address the concerns of the
public, it must require sustained reductions."
Dow Chemical Company's annual report on economic, environmental and social
accountability illustrates the impact of the Responsible Care program. The company is
on course to implement its practices globally by 1997. The company reports annually on
its progress toward the goal of 50% reduction in chemical emissions, 90% reduction in
process safety incidents, and 90% reduction in leads and spills from 1990 to 2005. In
addition to employing the Responsible Care community advisory panels, Dow conducts
community surveys to validate the effectiveness of these discussions. The company sets
for itself the goal that surveys taken in the communities where Dow has a significant
presence show at least 80% support by residents and leaders for the proposition that Dow
is a good neighbor and a valuable member of the community.17
14 Waste Management, WM Monday (July 22,2002).
See www.wildlifehc.org.
www.arocricancheniistrv.coni/cniawebsite.psf
17 See Dow Chemical Company, Public Report 1999 and Public Report Update 2000;
www.dow.com/about/pbreports/00results/index.htm.
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VOLUNTARY EFFORTS
Product substitution/clean production
A principal method of reducing pollution involves designing products, selecting raw
materials and choosing energy sources with the goal of minimizing waste production.
Companies generally best understand their businesses and technologies, and can develop
innovative responses to pollution if given the latitude to do so. When companies make
innovative changes in products, processes or equipment, significant reductions in waste
quantity can be achieved. For example, manufacturing changes in the chemical industry
have achieved dramatic pollution reduction dividends. 8
EPA required by 1999 that printing companies capture 92% of toluene emissions.
Toluene is a chemical used in ink formulations during gravure printing. R.R. Donnelley
in Chicago not only met the initial standard by 1990 (nine years before the regulatory
target), but it continued on the path of continuous improvement beyond regulatory
obligations. By the first quarter of 2002, R.R. Donnelley had achieved an overall 97%
emissions reduction.
Sustainable production/renewable resources
Business commitment to production that minimizes impact to human health and the
environment and utilizes renewable raw materials is growing. Often this commitment is
embodied in a corporate sustainability vision. For example, General Motors has stated a
commitment to integrating economic, environmental and social objectives into business
planning and has adopted the CERES Principles. GM has stated its intent to achieve its
vision through technology, innovation and partnerships with stakeholders including the
community. As part of its focus on life cycle management, GM promotes recycling of
vehicle materials. In addition, GM had reduced its non-recycled, non-product output by
42% by the end of 2000. Similarly, Georgia-Pacific demonstrated a commitment to
sustainable forestry by implementing a program of third-party verification to ensure the
health of the timberland managed by its suppliers. GP's audits include a focus on
training, outreach, forestry best management practices, support for water quality, wildlife
habitat and protected species, and guidelines related to daily operations.
18 A study of waste reduction activity at twenty-nine chemical industry plants revealed that a high
percentage of wastes could be eliminated through chemical substitutions and product reformulations and
that lesser but nonetheless substantial percentage reduction could be achieved by process and equipment
changes. See Mark H. Dorfman et al,, Environmental Dividends: Cutting More Chemical Wastes (Inform,
1992) discussed in Kurt A. Strasser, Cleaner Technology, Pollution Prevention and Environmental
Regulation, 9 Fordnam Envtl. L.J. 1, 14.
%
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Energy Efficiency
U.S. industry continues to become more energy efficient largely due to efforts toward
sustainable development. U.S. industry's share of energy use has declined steadily since
1949, while its share of real Gross Domestic Product has stayed the same. (Energy
Information Administration. Annual Energy Review.) Investments in new technologies
are helping manufacturers realize performance benefits and greater efficiency. A few of
these technologies include Combined Heat and Power Systems, which achieve high
levels of thermal efficiency, energy efficient motors, and improvements in steam system
performance. More effective use of energy by industry has the benefits of improving the
environment through reduced emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SOx)
and nitrogen dioxide (NOx), and creating a safer working atmosphere with better
productivity. Greater energy efficiency has additional long-term benefits such as system
reliability, and increased value to shareholders. (Alliance to Save Energy. Energy
Efficient Technologies for Industry.) Voluntary efforts such as the Energy Star, AgStar
and Natural Gas Star programs help corporations and consumers achieve greater
efficiency and reduced emissions, while improving the bottom line.19
Conservation and Green Space Initiatives
An important element of pollution prevention is preservation of existing green spaces and
creation of new areas that are not only non-polluting but also serve to remediate existing
pollution. A number of non-profit/business coalitions have formed to sustain these
preservation initiatives. The Nature Conservancy, for example, partners with businesses
to reforest developed areas, preserves pristine habitats and restores coral reefs.20 Many
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States have dedicated funds to provide green space. The New York State Department of
Environmental Justice Advisory Committee has recommended that these funds give due
consideration for urban green space in order to respond to the needs of environmental
justice communities.21 Combining these green space-funding opportunities with
community-based brownfields reuse projects provide substantial resources for
community improvement.
19 See EPA. "Methane and Sequestration" section.
20 See www.nature.org
21 Environmental Justice Advisory Group, Recommendations for the New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation Environmental Justice Program (Jan. 2,2002), p. 20. See also Environmental
Law Institute, Smart Links: Turning Conservation Dollars into Smart Growth Opportunities (2002), p. 19
(www.eli.org publications), which indicates that among the many state smart growth and conservation
funds, Illinois' Open Space Land Trust Program reduces its matching fund requirements for grants in
"disadvantaged" areas.
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Sector Identification of "Best Management Practices"
The Northeast Waste Management Officials Association, working with the lending
industry, developed a pollution prevention guide for loan officials, educating them on
how pollution prevention investments provide short and long-term returns. For example,
the loan officer for Hubbardton Forge understood the potential liabilities extinguished by
investing in a new electrostatic powder coating system and approved the loan. After two
years, the payback was elimination of toxic emissions and 98% reduction in use of toxic
chemicals. The forestry industry through the American Forest and Paper Association
implemented the Sustainable Forest Initiative, "a comprehensive system of principles,
objectives and performance measures developed by professional foresters,
conservationists and scientists to combine the perpetual growing and harvesting of trees
with the long-term protection of wildlife, plants, soil and water quality."
www.aboutsfi.org. Over one million acres are reforested each year under the SFI
program.
RESOURCES, INCENTIVES AND CAPACITY BUILDING
This section describes current regulatory and financial incentives to encourage businesses
to employ pollution prevention activities. Enhancement of these existing programs has
great potential to expand pollution prevention in environmental justice communities.
Green Subsidies
Renewable Fuel Vehicles and Other Green Energy Incentives: Prices in the marketplace
convey signals for conservation. They provide constant information feedback loops about
the relative scarcities of different resources. The result of this information feedback
system is that resource users have an incentive to "do more with less." It is these price
signals that have prompted the creation of renewable fuel vehicles. For example, the
Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) is a general term for automobiles whose power train
combines two sources of power: one electric and the other an internal combustion.23
This technology can be found in the popular Toyota Prius. Another environmentally
friendly fuel source gaining mass-production is the fuel cell, which is used as the primary
power source in electric vehicles. Fuel cells work by chemically combining hydrogen
and oxygen, a process that produces electricity and water.24 Pilot programs using
hydrogen fueling stations are already operational in Europe.23 Another renewable fuel
source is natural gas, which is stored beneath the earth's surface.26 Other sources are
ethanol and grain alcohol, which are made from corn, an abundant crop in the U.S.
22 See www.efa.gov/p2/proprams/primer.txt.
23 See Office of Transportation Technologies, U.S. Department of Energy, www.ott.doe.gov/hev.
24 See Fuel Cells 2000. www.fiielceUs.org.
25 See Could hydrogen be the fuel of the future? Marsha Walton.
26 See Natural Gas Information and Educational Resources, www.naturalpag.org.
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The new CLEAR Act includes important provisions supporting the development and use
of alternative fuel trucks and needed fueling stations. Because these renewable fuels
dramatically reduce the level of pollutants from trucks and other service vehicles, these
tax incentives are vital to improving urban air quality in the considerable interim period
until fuel cells are operational,27
Other legislative proposals support the development of projects collecting and
transferring for beneficial use landfill gas otherwise controlled by flaring or emitted into
the ambient air. Uncontrolled landfill gas has the potential to create a fire hazard, is
odorous and contributes to local air pollution and increased ambient greenhouses gases.
Incentives to go beyond regulatory gas control requirements and install gas-to-energy
systems improve local air quality and provide clean-burning renewable fuel.
Brownfields Redevelopment Incentives: Federal and state remedial statutes require that
contaminated properties be addressed to assure protection of health and the environment.
To go beyond these statutory mandates and implement land reuse options that reduce
current and future pollution often requires financial incentives. The Small Business
Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2001 have created a such an
incentive. Total moneys available from EPA have expanded, and non-profit organizations
as well as local government units are eligible for funding. The legislation confirms the
importance of community dialogue about redevelopment options and assures that
recreational and green space initiatives, as well as commercial and industrial options, will
be considered. There are a number of other federal programs from which brownfields
revitalization funding is available as well, ranging from the Department of Housing and
Urban Development to the Department of the Interior.
State programs are equally important in providing incentives beneficial for reuse projects.
For example, Illinois' Renewable Energy Resources Program funds brownfields projects
employing renewable energy. The Wisconsin Department of Commerce awards
brownfields grants to projects assuring a positive effect on the environment.28 New York
state remediation projects, which benefit the environment and have potential for public or
recreational use of cleaned up property are eligible for grants.29 Municipal governments
also have taken the lead to inform property owners and community members about grants
and other financial resources available to community groups and the public and private
sector to move remediated sites into beneficial reuse.30
Subsidies for Installation of Green Technology: There are a myriad of mechanisms to
incentivize and reward use of green technology, ranging from disbursement of funds
27 See www.energv.gov/tiaiisportation/sub/altfael.html
28 See htto://commerce.state.vyi.us/CD/CD-bfi-grant5.hbnl
29 See www.dec.state.ny.us/website/der/bfield/index.html
30 See Cuyahoga County Planning Commission and Neighborhood Progress, Inc., Brownfields Information
and Resource Guidebook (October 1998).
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from taxes or special charges to issuance of bonds or outright grants. EPA advisors have
comprehensively outlined these mechanisms.31
States also provide economic incentives for use of greener technology by, for example,
requiring state departments to purchase at least 5 percent of all electricity from renewable
sources In other states, business associations have advocated that impediments to
installation of green technology be eliminated. Business representatives testifying before
the National Environmental Policy Commission, convened at the request of the
Congressional Black Caucus, recommended a number of mechanisms to fund clean
business and technology, including repealing the tax on equipment installed to reduce
pollution below regulatory levels and governmental purchasing preferences for
companies employing green technology and pollution prevention.33
Green Procurement and Recycled Content Mandates and Subsidies
Green procurement and recycled content mandates have been found to be counter-
productive, costly and burdensome to achieving environmentally friendly products and
purchasing. Not all environmental gains have come through political action. Better
progress has come from allowing marketplace competition and private stewardship. For
example, Extended Product Responsibility (EPR) (The Road to Sustainable
Development: A Snapshot of Activities in the United States, March 1997) stresses the
idea of shared responsibility among suppliers, manufacturers, and consumers for reducing
the environmental impacts of products throughout their lifecycles. EPR encompasses any
or all steps in the process from the use and distribution of raw materials, to the design and
manufacture of products, to the use and disposal of these products. The President's
Council on Sustainable Development has stated that "The greatest responsibility for the
EPR rests with those throughout the chain of commerce.. .that are in the best position to
practice resource conservation and pollution prevention at lower cost." (President's
Council on Sustainable Development: A New Consensus for Prosperity, Opportunity and
a Healthy Environment, February 1996) Many companies have already taken the
initiative by making recycling a high priority and integrating it as a routine business
practice. Many companies, such as Alliance Energy, are using recycling in the
construction of their facilities. Other organizations such as Enviroexchange,
Wastechange, and Sonepa, connect producers of waste with those who use it in their
manufacturing processes.
31 See Environmental Financial Advisory Board, Paying for Sustainable Environmental Systems (April
1999), www.epa.gov/owmitnet/cwfinanfWcwsrfyenhaDce/docfiles/other doc.
32 BNA, Daily Environment Report (April 24,2002), p. A-9.
33 See National Environmental Policy Commission, Report to the Congressional Black Caucus and
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Environmental Justice Braintrust (September 28,2001), p. 100.
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Research and Development Assistance
Federal agencies are uniquely positioned to conduct and disseminate the results of
research on new and cost-effective pollution prevention technologies and techniques.
The Department of Energy has been a leader in conducting and funding research into
pollution prevention for radioactive, hazardous and solid wastes and generation and use
of green energy.34
Grants from DOE can often make the difference in inaugurating private sector pollution
prevention research, and the federal agency web pages are excellent mechanisms to
publicize new technologies. Modest funding and technical expertise from the
Department of Energy has been key to its research on the capabilities, cost and
performance of alternative fuel fleets.35 DOE's cooperative agreements to fund
development of fuel cells, estimated at $80 million, are key to development of this low-
polluting technology.36
Regulatory flexibility
Government regulations can promote or inhibit innovation and environmental
improvement, depending on how they are designed and applied. Although traditional
command and control requirements have reduced environmental impacts, they have also
discouraged or prevented businesses from developing smarter, more economical solutions
suitable to their own operations or responding promptly to changes in technology.
Various alternatives have been explored to introduce greater flexibility into the regulatory
process and provide incentives for environmental improvement. For example, New
Jersey's Gold Star and Silver Star initiatives afford companies with good environmental
track records benefits to encourage further progress. These benefits include special
recognition of the company, a single point of contact within the environmental agency,
expedited permit processing, consolidated reporting, project flexibility, "smart permits"
that authorize a range of operating scenarios contemplated by the company, and technical
assistance with agency program requirements. Other available techniques for providing
flexibility include innovation waivers of regulatory deadlines, special permits for testing
and evaluation, and soft landing.37 EPA programs such as project XL discussed above
have provided similar flexibility, at times by allowing consolidated or multimedia
permits. In many of these special projects industry has responded by adjusting processes
or techniques to achieve pollution reduction.
34 See www.em.doe.gov/wastemin: www.ornl. eov/ornlD2/p24.fatm; www.pnl.gov/energvscience/06-
0 I/inside.htm.
35 www.ccities.doe.gov/succe5s.shtml
36 See www.ccities.doe.gov/whatsnewOO.shtml. See also www.ccities.doe.gov/whatsnew01.shtml.
37 See Strasser, supra at 60.
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Single media bubble approach: When government has chosen to regulate by establishing
caps on total emissions, allocating emission allowances to companies and allowing
trading of those allowances, greater emission reductions have been achieved at lower cost
compared with traditional command and control approaches. For example, the acid rain
program under the Clean Air Act, which established a cap-and-trade program for sulfur
dioxide, reduced annual sulfur dioxide emissions in the first phase by 50 percent below
allowed levels. A cap and trade program for chlorofluorocarbons in accordance with the
Montreal Protocol was also successful. The Administration has proposed a cap-and-trade
alternative to new source review under the Clean Air Act and is considering a trading
approach to discharges under the Clean Water Act. The success of market-based
programs to date demonstrates that where businesses are given the flexibility to achieve
environmental targets in a way best suited to them, both the business and the environment
benefit.
The cap-and-trade approach holds particular promise for environmental justice
communities. The government's usual practice is to provide less than a unit of emission
credit for each unit that a company trades. The difference between units sold and units
bought benefits the environment. Government could provide a greater credit for
reductions achieved within an environmental justice community, thereby using the
trading system to cause businesses to "trade pollution out" of environmental justice
communities.
Regulatory Focus
The regulatory flexibility described above offers clear potential to focus pollution
prevention efforts in environmental justice communities. Much like its approach to
critical watersheds needing restoration, EPA could identify "priority pollution prevention
communities" where the aggregation of polluting sources leads the agency to prioritize
efforts to reduce overall pollution. This initiative should have particular focus on
communities of color and low-income communities, reflecting the priority the current and
past EPA administrations have placed on addressing environmental justice. Working
with community representatives, the agency could identify its priority communities and
focus available resources to incentivize pollution prevention. This could take the form of
facilitating access to pollution prevention grants and subsidies, using regulatory
flexibility to encourage pollution reduction, and encouraging comprehensive business and
local government participation in pollution prevention initiatives.
Information
EPA already has established a network of information on pollution prevention projects,
practices and opportunities that could be better communicated to both communities and
businesses. The agency's web site compiles a list of pollution prevention projects and
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resources.38 Individual offices have their own programs.39 The agency's "Partners for
the Environment" program in the year 2000 included 11,294 partners who reduced
37.3MMTCE of green house gas emissions, recycled 17,788 tons of municipal solid
waste, saved 768.8 trillion BTUs, and reduced nitrogen oxide by 158,172 tons and sulfur
dioxide by 288,627 tons.40
The agency provides practical advice on how office workers and fanners can prevent
pollution,41 and provides extensive information on pollution prevention equipment,
products and services.42 All of this information could be made more user friendly by
communications efforts that might include compilation of all information on an
integrated web site, plain English description of pollution prevention resources and
information for broad public dissemination, and staff training on the available
information.
EPA can also provide important environmental protection by using its discretionary
authority to issue "best practice" guidance. Previous work by the NEJAC Waste and
Facility Siting Subcommittee provides examples of the ways agency guidance can shape
local and state government and voluntary private approaches. These examples reflect
ways that facilities with potential pollution can go beyond regulatory compliance to
further reduce emissions and to assure robust community collaboration. For example, the
NEJAC Subcommittee report on brownfields revitalization included recommendations
about soliciting "green" redevelopment and conducting business/community
collaborative dialogue that have shaped EPA and other governmental policies on
brownfields redevelopment.43
Similarly, the Waste and Facility Siting Subcommittee's report recommending ways to
reduce the environmental and health impacts of waste transfer stations44 provided the
basis for EPA guidance advising how state and local governments and public and private
sector facility owners could go beyond current regulatory compliance to reduce pollution
at waste transfer stations. These kinds of projects, combining the efforts of regulators,
community-based experts and business, can generate best practice guidance that is
practical, readily implemented, and directly beneficial to environmental justice
communities.
38 See www.epa.gov/opptintr/D2home/resources/epahv.htm
39 See EPA, Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program; www.epa.gov/oppbppdl/PESP
40 www.epa. gov/partpers/partnerships. html
41 www.epa.pov/epahome/woikplac.fatm
42 http://es.epa.gov/vendors
43 NEJAC, Environmental Justice, Urban Revitalization and Brownfields: The Search for Authentic Signs
of Hope" (EPA 500-R-96-002 Dec. 1996),
www.epa.gov/compUance/resouices/publications/ei/publicdialoguebrownfields 1296.pdf
44 NEJAC, A Regulatory Strategy for Siting and Operating Waste Transfer Stations (EPA 500-R-00-001
March 2000), www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/publications/ej/wa5te/waste trans reg strtgy.pdf
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EPA Headquarters Library
lvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460
202-566-0556
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PUBLIC RECOGNITION
Government awards/communication of good practices
As evidenced in the number of corporate environmental reports listing awards received
from EPA and state environmental agencies, issuance of public recognition is one of the
simplest mechanisms by which pollution prevention efforts can be encouraged. Express
recognition of pollution prevention initiatives that reduce and eliminate pollution hi the
"priority pollution prevention communities" described above would provide tangible
reward for new business efforts to advance environmental justice.
Stakeholder Group Recognition
Many business and other associations designated sector-based awards for outstanding
achievement in sustainable environmental practice. By incorporating links to these
recognition systems in EPA's descriptions of its own award systems, the agency could
acknowledge and enhance stakeholder efforts to prevent pollution.45
Multi-Stakeholder Group Recognition
EPA could facilitate a system whereby environmental justice group members could
provide positive recognition for facilities and activities that have resulted in meaningful
pollution prevention in their communities. In a time of limited governmental resources,
creation of an award system recognizing activities praised by environmental justice and
grassroots groups could be an effective means of encouraging businesses and publicly
owned permitted facilities to strive for significant pollution prevention. Much like the
Phoenix award for brownfields revitalization sponsored by the environmental
departments from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, this award program could solicit
applications from the public and private sector for sites or technological developments
reducing pollution below environmental standards in environmental justice communities.
Like the Phoenix awards, criteria could include the provision of environmental
improvement and long-term community economic benefit, use of innovative techniques,
and cooperative efforts by multiple parties.46 The award's meaningfulness would be
enhanced if its reviewers were primarily environmental justice and community group
members. The awards would truly reflect community views and experience.
45 See. e.g.. the awards listed at www.amcricanchemistrv.com
46 See www.dep.state.pa.us/hosting/phoenixawards/Application/Intro.htm
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FACILITATION OF COLLABORATIVE ENGAGEMENT
Interagency Working Group Template
The Interagency Working Group (IWG) was created by Executive Order 12898, "Federal
Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income
Populations." Under Executive Order 12898, federal agencies are directed to make
achieving environmental justice an integral part of their missions. The IWG is a
collaborative demonstration project-based approach, with the federal government as the
facilitator that allows for the full exhaustion and dissemination of information by all
stakeholders. It tackles a manageable set of issues and parties, and allows for trial and
error. Where good models emerge from the demonstration projects, they can be
replicated and expanded in future efforts. Bad ideas can be discarded. Business is
approached as a potential partner, is part of the dialogue, and is expected to contribute
fairly based on its contribution to the problem presented.
Expansion of IWG Pilots with Funded Pollution Prevention Projects: The EPA is
conducting the next round of demonstration projects, which will build upon the creative
and comprehensive solutions that the last projects accomplished. These projects could be
a good opportunity to encourage pollution prevention projects in environmental justice
communities. To accomplish this, however, funds should be allocated, through EPA to
businesses for research and innovative solutions to pollution prevention.
Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs)
EPA will frequently allow a company alleged to have violated an environmental law to
perform a supplemental environmental project ("SEP") as part of an enforcement
settlement. To be accepted by EPA, the proposed SEP must be related to the alleged
violation and go beyond actions that the company was legally obligated to undertake
While SEPs may benefit the entity in violation, SEPs do not completely offset monetary
penalties, nor will EPA, typically, accept a dollar for dollar reduction in penalty for
agreement to undertake a SEP. With the exception of SEPs that implement pollution
prevention projects of outstanding quality, which are eligible for dollar for dollar
mitigation, a SEP will mitigate penalties by up to 80% of the cost of the SEP. In
addition to the benefits available under the SEP Policy, EPA will reduce penalties further
for entities voluntarily disclosing violations under the Audit Policy.
SEPs must meet certain requirements for EPA to enter into a settlement agreement that
includes a SEP. By far the most limiting of these requirements is the need for "nexus"
between the violation and the proposed project. The nexus requirement revolves around
three axis: the type of media impacted; geographic area impacted; and nature of the
violation. The further away a SEP is from these axis the more difficult it is to show a
nexus.
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Eight categories of projects are acceptable as SEPs. These include: Pollution Prevention,
Pollution Reduction; Pubic Health; Environmental Restoration and Protection;
Assessments and Audits; Environmental Compliance Promotion; Emergency Planning
and Preparedness; and other. The SEP Policy strongly supports the implementation of
SEPs resulting in pollution prevention, providing that "SEPs involving pollution
prevention techniques are preferred over other types of reduction or control strategies...".
The SEP Policy provides for mitigation of penalties for Pollution Prevention SEPs.
Pollution Prevention SEPs that implement source reductions are especially favored.
Indeed, while as mentioned above mitigation percentages typically do not exceed 80
percent of the SEP cost, if "the SEP implements pollution prevention, the mitigation
percentage of the SEP cost may be set as high as 100 percent if the defendant/respondent
can demonstrate that the project is of outstanding quality." 48
While the SEP Policy singles out Pollution Prevention SEPs for special treatment, other
categories of SEPs related to pollution prevention are also included. An example of one
of these categories is "Pollution Reduction" SEPs. Pollution Reduction SEPs address
pollutant or waste streams already generated or released. These SEPs typically employ
recycling, treatment, containment or disposal techniques. A pollution reduction project is
one which results in a decrease in the amount and/or toxicity of any hazardous substance,
pollutant or contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise being released into the
environment by an operating business or facility by a means which does not qualify as
"pollution prevention." This may include the installation of more effective end-of-process
control or treatment technology, or improved containment, or safer disposal of an existing
pollutant source. Pollution reduction also includes "out-of-process recycling," wherein
industrial waste collected after the manufacturing process and/or consumer waste
materials are used as raw materials for production off-site
To promote the use of SEPs that address environmental justice issues, the SEP Policy
provides that EPA should consider mitigating penalties when the proposed SEP benefits a
community with environmental justice issues. The SEP Policy provides:
After the SEP cost has been calculated, EPA should determine what percent of
that cost may be applied as mitigation against the amount EPA would settle for
but for the SEP. The quality of the SEP should be examined as to whether and
how effectively it achieves each of the following six factors listed below. . ..
Environmental Justice. SEPs which perform well on this factor will mitigate
damage or reduce risk to minority or low income populations which may have
been disproportionately exposed to pollution or are at environmental risk. . . ."49
47
48
See. www.epa.gov/compliance/civU/ programs/SEP/sepinfo.html.
See SEP Policy § E. Step 4.a.2 (May 1,1998).
49 See SEP Policy § E. Step 4.a (May 1, 1998).
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SEPs must be undertaken by the entity entering into the agreement with EPA. While the
entity may contract, or make other arrangements, with an outside party, the entity cannot
discharge its SEP responsibility by, for example, agreeing to donate funds to a
community-based organization or stating that a third party has assumed responsibility for
the SEPs implementation. This is not to say that a community-based or other
organization cannot have a role in either recommending a particular SEP or helping an
entity to implement a SEP. Community-based organizations can participate in the
development of a SEP by, for example, recommending to EPA that particular projects be
undertaken as a SEP. This recommendation can be made either in advance of an
enforcement action (e.g., community contributions to a Region's "SEP Library," a
listings of proposed and model SEPs), or the advising organization can make a
recommendation to EPA or the entity during the enforcement proceeding. Because the
advising organization is not a party to the settlement and SEPs are entirely voluntary on
the part of the entity, the advising organization does not have "veto power" or the
authority to direct any action, in particular. Moreover, issues of confidentiality during the
enforcement process (or other sensitivities) may limit the advising organization's role at
the time of settlement.50
SEPs represent a concrete way for industry and EPA to translate the pollution prevention
goal into action that benefits minority and/or low-income communities. While there has
been no systematic review, case study examples show that Pollution Prevention SEPs
have resulted in benefits to communities with environmental justice issues. As with
other pollution prevention SEPs, these benefits can include, among others51:
(1) Environmental and health benefits directly attributable to the SEP;
(2) Indirect benefits from pollution prevention implementation "beyond" the SEP either
through technology transfer within/outside of the firm, or through organizational changes
within the firm. These benefits can yield both positive economic results for the effected
entity and decreased pollution loading for the effected community; and
(3) An opportunity to turn a negative situation into a better or positive situation for all
involved, including creating better relationships among the entity, EPA, and the impacted
community.
The settlement of an enforcement action, or resolution following self-disclosure, creates a
"window of opportunity," for the entity, EPA and the impacted community to address a
variety of matters simultaneously. Especially for entities operating older facilities, in
communities with environmental justice issues, pollution prevention SEPs can represent a
significant opportunity. Benefits may include low opportunity-cost investment in
50 See draft "EPA Guidance for Community Involvement in Supplemental Environmental Projects," 65
Fed. Reg. 4063940644 (June 30,2000).
51 See OECA, "Final Report, Recent Experience In Encouraging the Use of Pollution Prevention in
Enforcement Settlements" (May 1995)("Final Report")(Note language from this report has been
incorporated without citation).
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production processes, resulting in deceased operating and compliance costs, and
increased effective life of the facility.
[Pollution Prevention SEPs can incentivize firms, first,] to innovate, i.e., to
overcome the barriers to pollution prevention innovation that often exist in firms,
through penalty reduction, improved relations with the agency, and improved
public relations... Second, since the firm has committed to implement the
innovative project in its consent agreement with the agency..., there is a strong
incentive to stick with the project event when technical difficulties arise.
For the surrounding community, these benefits may translate into reduced emissions
loading, continued economic benefit from local industry, and positive business climate.
And, for the EPA benefits include, efficient realization of its statutory mission.
52
EPA should encourage collaboration between the company proposing a SEP and the
affected community to design and implement SEPs that best meet the community's
needs. EPA could designate within its Office of Enforcement and Compliance a
knowledgeable technical assistance staff to facilitate the dialogue with the community,
help identify potential pollution prevention projects and educate the company and
community about the existence of proven, cost-effective technologies and innovation
opportunities. Small and medium manufacturers with limited resources and expertise and
the communities in which they are located would particularly benefit from this assistance.
EPA should consider initiating these collaborative discussions proactively rather than
waiting for a SEP proposal to be made.
BUSINESS RECOMMENDATIONS TO ENHANCE POLLUTION PREVENTION
IN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITIES
EPA reorganization
To enhance the prominence of its pollution prevention division, it should be combined
with the Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation (OPEI), and regularized
communications to promote pollution prevention activities in the various program offices
should be assured. To better inform the public about EPA's pollution prevention
activities, the agency should report yearly on FTE's working on pollution prevention
projects in every agency office (including employees paid from the Superftmd account).
Pollution prevention funding
EPA should request annual appropriations that re-establish its pollution prevention small
grants. The agency should also make support for state pollution prevention programs a
criterion for delegation of programs to the states.
52
Id.
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Enforcement policy
Where appropriate, compliance penalties in environmental justice communities should be
directed to pollution prevention projects that benefit the health, environment and quality
of life of community members, rather than directing these funds to the U.S. Treasury.
Community members should oversee these projects jointly and facility employees in
order to assure that community needs are met and improved collaboration between the
penalized facility and its neighbors facilitated.
EPA information initiative
EPA needs to inform its staff and other stakeholders about the array of pollution
prevention projects and ideas developed throughout its media-specific programs. To that
end, its annual pollution prevention roundtable should receive the kind of financial
support and publicity that its annual brownfields conference enjoys. During that
conference, best practices should be publicized and rewarded.
Sector initiatives
EPA should approach the major sector trade associations to develop pollution prevention
best practice guides and a list of contacts for further information. Pilot projects should be
initiated with companies willing to try bold new approaches to pollution prevention. To
encourage participation, the Agency should assure a "soft landing" in the event a new
approach is unsuccessful, i.e., if new technology or practices not only fails to reduce
pollution beyond applicable regulatory standards but is less effective that the standard
requires, the company should be required to meet the regulatory standard by other means
but shall not be penalized for the earlier failure.
State source reduction plan certification
State source reduction plans currently require a certification on progress made in
reducing the volume and toxicity of wastes in the state. Facilities providing such
certifications should be sent relevant, sector specific pollution prevention pamphlets and
should be required to sign a certification that they have read and evaluated the
opportunities described therein.
Small business pollution prevention coordination
Like community members, small businesses often have little familiarity with pollution
prevention best practices and the regulatory and other experts who can facilitate pollution
prevention planning. EPA should establish an SMM technical assistance department
within the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance specifically geared toward
helping SMMs with compliance assistance and pollution prevention. This staff can work
in conjunction with the advocacy and education efforts of the EPA Small Business
Ombudsman.
Larger business initiatives
Larger businesses, usually members of national trade associations, are better informed
than small businesses on pollution prevention opportunities, and the larger businesses
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have the staff to underwrite participation in pollution prevention projects. Rather than the
information and compliance assistance needed for small business, larger businesses need
incentives for significant and creative pollution prevention projects. There are several
means to incentivize pollution prevention projects in environmental justice communities:
EPA should evaluate its XL and other pollution prevention projects to identify
how to encourage the most cost-effective projects, including projects where
technology or materials substitution could supplant more expensive end-of-pipe
controls. It also should reconsider the level of pollution reduction expected in
order to participate in such programs. If the bar is set too high, few companies
will undertake the additional paperwork and process expected to participate in
XL.
Permits with pollution prevention projects could receive priority administrative
processing so long as the community supports the projects.
EPA could designate a single point of contact to assist in the processing of
permits across media and authorize a range of operating scenarios in the permits.
Special permits for testing and evaluation of innovative technologies could be
issued.
Pollution prevention projects could be favorable publicized by federal and state
agencies, with appropriate awards and descriptions on agency web sites and
pamphlets.
* EPA could organize an award system whereby a representative number of
community group members from across the country would evaluate and recognize
the best pollution prevention projects in environmental justice communities.
Recycling
EPA should investigate how its purchasing and permitting authorities could be used to
further support the market for products made from recycled materials.
Household hazardous waste
EPA should further support creation of household hazardous waste programs, including
disseminating information about the need for such programs. The EPA Small Business
Ombudsman should promote the proper storage and disposal of small quantity generator
hazardous waste to SMMs.
Performance and market based approaches
EPA should avoid rigid command and control regulations and instead employ
performance-based requirements and market based approaches that provide incentives
and flexibility to businesses to meet environmental standards.
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CHAPTER 6: GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVES
This chapter was authored by members of the Government Stakeholder group to
elaborate on the views of the members of that group, not necessarily reflect the views of
members of other stakeholder groups or of the NEJAC Executive Council.
HISTORICAL AND REGULATORY FOOTPRINTS
With the publication of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring in 1962, the modern
environmental movement quietly began. The environmental movement had transformed
from the conservationism era to a new form of environmentalism that now considered the
impacts on human populations as well as the natural environment. Carson's book, one of
many important antecedents to the new environmentalism, detailed a potential correlation
between the overuse of pesticide and diminishing songbird populations. Many readers
became understandably concerned over this perceived environmental threat. However,
many more feared the parallel implications that environmental exploitation could
possibly have on human populations. The correlation of environmental misuse and its
effect on living species reinforced the concept that we should appropriately manage our
environment to minimize the effects of pollutants on our resources.
Over the years our population grew and industrialization expanded. The steadily
increasing concern about the air and water quality resulted in significant government
intervention in 1970 when the National Environmental Policy Act was adopted on New
Year's Day. The tasks detailed within this new law would measure, assess, and evaluate
the status of air and water quality existing at that time. Later that year, on April 22, the
first Earth Day was celebrated. The final, and perhaps most significant, actions that
occurred in the "Year of the Environment" were the formation of an independent
government agency tasked with the management of our environment, the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and the adoption of the Clean Air Act of
1970 (CAA),
Adoption of the CAA instituted the control activities of the newly formed EPA and began
a history of regulatory limitation, or permitting programs, designed to regulate the
amount(s) of pollution businesses, companies, government agencies and industries could
release to the environment. This system proved immediately successful in reducing
environmental impacts. Other regulatory adoptions soon followed:59 These include the
Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972; the Water Pollution Control Act
amendments of 1972; the Ocean Dumping Act of 1972; the Safe Drinking Water Act of
1974; the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976; the Resource Recovery and
Conservation Act of 1976; and, the Clean Water Act in 1977.
53 See: Phipps, Erica, Pollution Prevention Concepts and Principles. University of Michigan, National
Pollution Prevention Center for Higher Education. September 1995.
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Further regulations were adopted to address the growing concerns over past actions of
environmental polluters. These regulations would prioritize and tackle the cleanup or
remediation of areas previously contaminated by spills, releases or dumping activities. Of
particular importance was the authorization of the Comprehensive Environmental
Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in 1980 with the formation of a
Superfund to finance the potentially huge environmental clean-up costs.
Many of the adopted control programs were very successful. Other programs were
modified and improved, or perhaps eliminated because of a duplication of efforts.
Numerous federal programs were delegated to the states and managed under appointed
authority accordingly. However, as time passed, it became obvious that the regulatory
control activities could be fully supported, or even expanded, to include activities that
address pollution before its release into the environment. This realization led to the
formation and adoption of the Pollution Prevention Act (PPA) of 1990. Tragic chemical
release occurring such as Bhopal, India in 1984, where 2500 deaths occurred and in the
town of Institute, Virginia in 1985, where no fatalities occurred contributed to this
realization. This policy directed that pollution should be prevented or reduced at the
source whenever feasible. It also expanded the base of the individual's right to know of
the risks posed to the community. Instead of reiterating the "end of pipe" treatment of
environmental pollutants, "pollution prevention" moved upstream to prevent the
pollutants from being generated in the first place. Government at all levels has been
encouraged to implement the conditions contained in the PPA of 1990. This realization
coupled with decades of great concerns related to minorities and low income populations
bearing disproportionate health and environmental effects led to the issuance of the
executive order. This executive order encouraged federal agencies to address the issue of
environmental justice.
This expanded reporting of emissions also proved beneficial to industry. For the first
time many facilities actually quantified the pollutants released (and material wasted), and
based on this information improved efficiencies and focused resources. Additionally, the
public availability of this information can enhance both corporate image and profitability.
POLLUTION PREVENTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Pollution prevention (P2) is the reduction or elimination of wastes and pollutants at the
source. By reducing the use and production of hazardous substances, and by operating
more efficiently we protect human health, strengthen our economic well being, and
preserve the environment. Pollution prevention encompasses a wide variety of activities
including:
More efficient use of materials, water energy and other resources
Substituting less harmful substances for hazardous ones
Eliminating toxic substances from the production process
Developing new uses for existing chemicals and processes
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Recycling and reuse
Conserving natural resources
Reducing pollution at its source (source reduction) allows for the greatest and quickest
improvements in environmental protection by avoiding the generation of waste and
harmful emissions. Source reduction helps to make the regulatory system more efficient
by reducing the need for end-of-ptpe [after generation] environmental control by
government
The process of pollution prevention involves identification, resolution, and action. First,
government, business, consumers society, in general must identify the root causes
of waste and pollutants. After identifying the sources, a decision must be made as to how
best to minimize the generation of these wastes and pollutants. Assessing the efficiency,
appropriateness, and feasibility of the method(s) to be applied can do this. Finally, action
must be taken, resolving to implement the plan that best reduces the production of wastes
and pollutants. Throughout this three-step process, the government can act definitively
and reliably as an enabling partner in fostering pollution prevention.
Additionally, pollution prevention involves multi-media approaches that work to solve
environmental problems holistically and do not only focus on pollution in a single
medium (air, land, or water). Rules, regulations, and solutions that are not multi-media
sometimes make existing problems worse. Such approaches can result in the transfer of
pollution from one medium to another. For example, in some cases, by requiring
hazardous air emission controls for industrial facilities, other problems might result, such
as pollutants being transferred to underground drinking water.
QUESTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS CONCERNING POLLUTION
PREVENTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The thread throughout the Principles of Environmental Justice, drafted at the First
National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, is a call for
pollution prevention. The Principles demand the "cessation of the production of all
toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials ..." (Principle 6.) They underscore a
right to "ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the
interest of a sustainable planet. ." (Principle 4.) Nevertheless, without clear statutory
mandates or funding imperatives, both Pollution Prevention (P2) and Environmental
Justice (EJ) has been embraced slowly as core initiatives within government. Typically,
environmental justice and pollution prevention are among the first programs to lose
funding in a budget crisis. Both programs often garner marginal status in comparison to
programs with regulatory foundation, such as air, drinking water, and solid waste. As a
result, a marriage between the two programs is at times tenuous and even unattainable,
but nonetheless important. Attainment could otherwise be realized by attaching the
principles of environmental justice and pollution prevention to programs with statutory
mandates and/or funding. Furthermore, the slow embrace has started to quicken:
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Government and other stakeholders are implementing several key initiatives that are
aimed at supporting pollution prevention and environmental justice.
Yet another question arises when we consider how environmental justice programs and
pollution prevention programs are implemented. Environmental justice programs often
call for additional scrutiny where environmental-decision-making, permitting decisions,
environmental impact reports or other environmental review mechanisms relate to
disenfranchised communities. Most pollution prevention programs focus on broad public
benefits without respect to any particular community, race, or income. The goal of
pollution prevention is to prevent pollution for everyone, not a particular sector. Yet, it
can be argued that communities of color, low-income and disenfranchised communities
host facilities using the oldest technologies. Where these communities also carry a
disproportionate share of industrial facilities there should be a natural draw for pollution
prevention initiatives.
It is obvious that both environmental justice and pollution prevention appear to have
similar goals, however, their implementation can sometimes have divergent effects. For
example, pollution prevention strategies may be costly to small industries in communities
with perceived environmental justice concerns. The cost could force some business to
think about closure. Nevertheless, the benefits that can be derived from these pollution
prevention strategies far outweigh the perceived negative effects.
For instance, pollution prevention programs have resulted in improved health, social and
economic conditions, along with aesthetic improvements in the community. Currently,
some states are moving to support small business pollution prevention activities through
innovative projects such as Environmental Results Program (ERP) in Maryland. In this
context, the Maryland Department of Environment (MDE) encourages pollution
prevention as a tool to achieve compliance. This approach has proven to be very popular
among business interest and community members in the piloted Maryland community.
The use of pollution prevention as a tool to compliance and to promote environmental
justice is an example of how local, federal, and state governments, and industry, and
organizations can collaborate their efforts to attain desirable outcomes for all
stakeholders.
Additionally, pollution prevention, like environmental justice, is often difficult to
measure in terms those regulatory agencies and legislatures use to interpret the success or
efficacy of programs. Enforcement programs can tally dollars collected or actions filed.
Media-specific programs such as air, water, or waste can point to actual pounds of
pollution emitted or discharged, thereby gauging pounds of pollution reduced or
eliminated. It is difficult, on the other hand, to calculate totals for pottution prevented
from entering the environment. In essence, this pollution never existed and therefore
cannot be measured. Similarly, it would be difficult to assign a numerical figure to the
number of facilities that are not sited in communities of color or low-income
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communities. To fully quantify the positive impacts of pollution prevention and
environmental justice may require a significant shift in environmental regulation.
One approach for elevating environmental justice and pollution prevention on the EPA's
priority list may be to engage the Environmental Council of States (ECOS). ECOS is the
national non-profit, non-partisan association of state and territorial environmental
commissioners. ECOS touts the membership of the environmental commissioners of 51
of the 55 U.S. states and territories. Its mission is to champion the role of states in
environmental management through, among other methods, promoting state positions on
environmental issues to Congress, federal agencies, and the public. ECOS works with
EPA through EPA's Assistant Administrator for Congressional and Intergovernmental
Relations.
GOVERNMENTAL INTEGRATION OF POLLUTION PREVENTION AND
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has tried to encourage the
use of pollution prevention within environmental justice communities. Pollution
prevention was promoted as another available tool for use as these communities
addressed environmental concerns. The EJP2 Grant Program was established to promote
pollution prevention in environmental justice communities. EJP2 provided funding to
qualified applicants for pollution prevention projects in environmental justice
communities. Any non-profit, local, or tribal organization could submit an application
for funding. Applicants were required to demonstrate that they worked with affected
communities on pollution prevention initiatives and that they could garner substantial
community involvement. Organizations could also foster partnerships between local
industries and the environmental justice community. The EJP2 Grant Program was a
starting point for poUution prevention in several minority and low-income communities.
The program funding was eliminated in FY 2002. It is uncertain whether the program
will regain funding in the future.
This disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards in environmental justice
communities may be a result not only of industrial discharges but also of occupational
exposure.54 Pollution prevention is an effective tool in addressing both sources of
exposure. Sometimes a facility may claim that implementing pollution prevention
strategies may be costly and use this as an excuse for draconian actions (such as shutting
down). However, this may really result from the confusion between pollution prevention
and pollution control. This confusion can result in apparent tension between
environmental justice and pollution prevention, (note - good point but should be moved
for the flow)
54 Geiser, Ken Pollution Prevention and Environmental Justice: Some Cautions, July 2002
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Environmental justice and pollution prevention have complementary goals. However, the
implementation of pollution control technologies can have unintended impacts on small
business in environmental justice communities. For example, compliance with pollution
control legislation may be so costly to small business in an environmental justice
community that facilities choose to shut down. Thus, while the community may gain a
reduction in pollution, which consequently may result in an improvement in
environmental public health, they could also lose industry that may be vital for the
survival (employment and diversity) of the community- Nevertheless, pollution
prevention strategies, when implemented, can improve the efficiency and processes of
these facilities resulting in increased profitability. A successful pollution prevention
program can improve both environmental and economic performance. Pollution
prevention programs have proven to be effective tools to reduce the costs of
environmental management, occupational safety and health protection, environmental
compliance, insurance liability, raw materials, and energy. This array of benefits cannot
be achieved strictly by the use of control technologies.
The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (PPA) provides the federal statutory authority for
pollution prevention. Several states have enacted state legislation that mandates pollution
prevention planning and/or reductions in waste generation. Environmental justice has
federal statutory authority and remains largely voluntary on the state and local level.
Federal, state and local pollution prevention regulations act as regulatory tools to promote
the implementation of pollution prevention strategies and programs.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND POLLUTION PREVENTION
Section 6602 (b) of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 established a national policy
that:
1. Pollution should be prevented or reduced at the source whenever feasible
2. Pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled in an environmentally safe
manner whenever feasible
3. Pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled should be treated in an
environmentally safe manner whenever feasible
4. Disposal or other release into the environment should be employed only as a last
resort and should be conducted in an environmentally safe manner
This hierarchy of environmental management begins with reducing pollution at its
source. Source reduction perhaps allows for the greatest and quickest improvements in
environmental protection since it seeks to avoid the generation of waste and harmful
emissions. Additionally, the hierarchy includes recycling and other methods of dealing
with waste after its generation. These four steps are all a part of sound environmental
management recognizing that source reduction is not always feasible. The Pollution
Prevention Act requires industries to participate in pollution prevention. Section 13106
of the Pollution Prevention Act requires that every owner of a facility must annually file a
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toxic release form for each toxic chemical released and to optionally include information
on reduction and recycling activities for the reporting period. Furthermore, the PPA
makes provisions for USEPA to provide matching funds for state and local pollution
prevention programs through the Pollution Prevention Incentive for States (PPIS) grant
program to promote pollution prevention techniques by businesses. These funds are also
used to support state pollution prevention program activities that include outreaches to
communities and local governments in addition to business and industry.
The four-step national policy for pollution prevention named in the Pollution Prevention
Act does not stand alone in its efforts to prevent and control pollution. Congress has also
passed several other pollution control regulations including:
Emergency Planning and Community RighMo-Know Act (EPCRA)
Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA)
Clean Air Act (CAA)
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
Clean Water Act (CWA)
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)
Waste minimization has been a priority under the RCRA hazardous waste program for
the EPA. Waste minimization is defined by the EPA as, "the reduction, to the extent
feasible of hazardous waste that is generated or subsequently treated, sorted, or
disposed."35 The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) establishes the
national policy on waste minimization. To facilitate RCRA implementation EPA
classifies facilities that generate hazardous waste into three categories:
Large Quantity Generators
Small Quantity Generators
Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators
A business is considered a large quantity generator if it generates more than 1000
kilograms (2,200 pounds) of hazardous waste per month. By signing a hazardous waste
manifest a facility certifies that they are taking steps to reduce the generation of
hazardous waste where economically feasible and that they have a waste minimization
program in place. EPA provides additional guidance to verify the existence of this plan
for all three sizes of generators.
The Pollution Prevention Act was not just one more piece of legislation in the armament
available to EPA. Section 13103 (a) if the Act required EPA to establish a "[pollution
prevention] office independent of the Agency's single-media program offices" and
55 Mounteer, Thomas R., The Inherent Worthiness of the Struggle: The Emergence of Mandatory Pollution
Prevention Planning as an Environmental Regulatory Ethic. Columbia Journal of Environmental Law.
1994.
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§13103(b)(2) required EPA to develop and implement a strategy to promote source
reduction. Specifically, the Administrator was required to:
Ensure that the Agency considers the effect of its existing and proposed
programs on source reduction efforts and shall review regulations of the
Agency prior and subsequent to their proposal to determine their effects
on source reduction . . .
The Clean Water Act of 1977 (CWA) is one of the many federal statutes that can be used
to support prevention pollution. Specifically, CWA regulates the discharge of pollutants
into U.S. waters, making it unlawful for any person to discharge a pollutant into any U.S.
body of water without a permit. Under CWA, the EPA also has the authority to set
wastewater standards for industry, thus controlling the concentrations of pollutants
discharged- CWA touches on pollution prevention through management and oversight of
what and how much of a pollutant goes into our water.
Similar to the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act of 1970 also provides opportunities to
promote pollution prevention through air quality management. The EPA is given the
authority under CAA to regulation the emission standards of several potentially
hazardous pollutants (examples: lead, oxides of sulfur, oxides of nitrogen, ozone and
carbon monoxide). Although the EPA must establish the national limits under the Clean
Air Act for potentially hazardous pollutants, it is primarily the states' responsibility to
enforce these limits Some states enact laws with even stricter requirements for industry.
The Clean Air Act, thusly, ensures that nationally there is a minimal standard that all U.S.
industries meet. States with more stringent air pollution control statutes are free to
implement their programs as long as they at least satisfy the minimal standards set under
the Clean Air Act.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Clean Water Act, and Clean Air Act seem
to provide the best opportunities to support pollution prevention. However, the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodentitide Act (FIFRA) and Toxic Substances Control Act
(TSCA) also provide opportunities to encourage industrial pollution prevention. TSCA
governs the manufacture, processing, and release requirements for numerous chemicals
that could have potentially hazardous effects on human health and the environment.
FIFRA requires users of pesticides to take examinations to certify that they know how to
use pesticides in a safe, responsible, and non-hazardous manner
Regulated entities that fail to comply with these statutes may be subject to penalties due
to civil and/or criminal enforcement actions. As part of an enforcement settlement, a
violator may voluntarily agree to undertake a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP).
A SEP furthers the goal of protecting and enhancing the public health and the
environment, and does not include the activities a violator must take to return to
compliance with the law. Although the violator is not legally required to perform a SEP,
his cash penalty may be lower if he chooses to perform an acceptable SEP. The SEP
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must, "improve, protect, or reduce risks to public health or the environment."56 The
violator must actually implement and complete the SEP that is proposed as part of the
settlement action. In general, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires that
SEPs fall into of the following eight categories:
1 Public Health
2. Pollution Prevention
3. Pollution Reduction
4. Environmental Restoration and Protection
5. Emergency Planning and Preparedness
6. Assessments and Audits
7, Environmental Compliance Promotion
8 Other types of projects
A violator may also, as part of the SEP settlement, be encouraged to receive community
input into the nature of the project. Violators who voluntarily choose to participate in a
SEP must submit an itemized work plan for the implementation of the project. The
itemized work plan might include: project concept, net weight of pollutant to be reduced,
costs to implement plan, etc.
Federal statutes provide authority for pollution prevention activities. The statutes may be
combined with SEPs to further promote pollution prevention. The regulations and SEPs
are tools that can provide impetus to industry for responsible behavior that protects
human health and the environment These tools help set industry-wide standards, make
permit limitations, and take enforcement actions.
The Pollution Prevention Incentive for States (PPIS)57 grant program aids the
establishment of state pollution prevention programs. This grant program has never been
funded at the level ($8 Million) proposed in the statute. The funds available under this
program must be equally (50%) matched by state funds or in-kind contributions. This
match differs significantly from that provided to mandated regulatory programs that have
to provide a 10% match. States may implement stricter industry standards (as appropriate
to their local area) and make enforcement actions (because they can oversee their local
industries more easily than the federal government). Since the establishment of PPIS, 49
states now have pollution prevention programs and 32 have enacted state pollution
prevention legislation* with some requirements Several other states have legislation
with no explicit requirements.
The establishment of Pollution Prevention Incentive for States (PPIS) demonstrates the
federal government's reliance upon the states to aid in pollution prevention. Many of the
s" "Supplemental Enforcement Projects." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 5 Aug. 2002.
.
5' EPA Pollution Prevention Incentives for States. Environmental Protection Agency. 19 July 2002.
.
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national policies on pollution prevention, including RCRA, CWA, CAA, FIFRA, and
TSCA leave to the states a lot of the implementation, enforcement, and opportunity to
enact regulations that are more stringent The next section, will detail the states role in
pollution prevention.
SUMMARY OF STATE POLLUTION PREVENTION LEGISLATION*
Legislation ;
State Facility Planning Prevention j Other Pollution Requirements
1 Alaska j X
; Arizona X :
California X j X
Connecticut : X | X
Delaware X | X
Florida X X
Georgia X j
Illinois X j X
Indiana XX
Iowa | X ;
Kentucky \ X
Louisiana X
Maine ; X X
Massachusetts i X X
Michigan ; X
I Minnesota X X
i Mississippi X
Missouri X
New Jersey X \
New York X | X
f """**""*'" -"""-->* ------ ~ --" *'-"" "'""~~~_~~ -. ^,; - ~ - -- "'" ~~
' North Carolina X j
': Ohio ' X : ^__X
; -> p- - - j -
i Oregon X j
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Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
STATE GOVERNMENT AND POLLUTION PREVENTION
States have the opportunity to promote and encourage pollution prevention through
regulatory programs (permitting, compliance inspections, and enforcement actions) as
well as by acting as information clearinghouses-disseminating information about
pollution prevention, and establishing and supporting state pollution prevention
programs. Industries are required to meet federal, state, and local standards for pollution
control All state standards must meet at least the federal standard, hence, for the majority
of industries compliance with state requirements means compliance with a more stringent
standard than that set out by the federal government In most states, pollution prevention
remains a voluntary activity with no rules or regulations for enforcement.
The following are some examples of state pollution prevention legislation:
58
State
California
Massachusetts
Pollution
Prevention
Legislation
Hazardous Waste
Source Reduction
and Management
Review Act of 1989
Toxics Use
Reduction Act of
1989
Goal
* Source reduction by
large quantity
generators
* Reduction of
hazardous wastes
by 5% from 1993-
2000
Waste reduction by
regulation of toxic
waste generation
Operation
Source reduction
evaluation and plan
State provides
technical assistance
Establishment of
Toxic Use
Reduction Institute
""* Yurcich. Stcfamc. Nationatl'ollution PreventionRamdtahle. 1997 http://www.p2.org/nppr leg html
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State
New Jersey
Virginia
Pollution
Prevention
Legislation
Pollution
Prevention Act
(1991)
Pollution
Prevention Act
(1994)
Goal
* 1/2 reduction of
toxic waste
generation by 1997
To shift from
industry pollution
control to pollution
prevention
* Reduction of
hazardous waste
and discharge by
1/2 over 5 years.
Voluntary pollution
prevention through
incentives and
technical assistance
for industry
generators
Operation
tor technical
assistance to
industries
Report Toxic
Substance Report
and Toxic Reduction
Plan
Requires reporting
State offers technical
assistance
* Funding provided by
the Pollution
Prevention Fund
Information and
technical assistance
provided by the state
Incentive: waste
generator reduction
planners more easily
comply with
environ-mental laws.
Most states set their goals for pollution reduction and then set out a plan to achieve that
goal. Some states require industries to report that they comply with the regulations, as
well as reporting that they have a plan to reduce waste reduction Many states have added
technical assistance as one of the key components to helping industries reduce waste
This technical assistance is partially funded through PPIS and this service is often
provided to industry at no additional cost
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Adopting pollution prevention practices and techniques often benefits industry by
lowering a company's operational and environmental compliance costs. By preventing the
generation of waste, pollution prevention can also reduce or eliminate long-term
liabilities and clean-up costs. PPIS grants are usually awarded in support of the program
areas of technical assistance, technical training, education and outreach, regulatory
integration, demonstration projects, legislation and infrastructure, and awards and
recognition. 59 Three of the four states in the above chart provide technical assistance to
businesses
By preventing pollution, there is a greater likelihood that a company will comply with
local, state, and federal compliance statutes. Virginia's program provides financial and
regulatory incentive for businesses that implement pollution prevention strategies and
practices that promote sound environmental management. Virginia uses this voluntary
pollution prevention/incentive plan to encourage industry not to only comply with
existing rules and regulations but often to go beyond compliance in pursuit of
environmental excellence. An incentive program like Virginia's may provide a more
proactive approach to pollution prevention.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND POLLUTION PREVENTION
The federal government recognizes that states are often in a better position to oversee
their industries and can adopt more stringent pollution control legislation, as applicable
and pertinent to their industries. Local governments are also a key element in pollution
prevention and control as their scope is narrower than that of the states'
Local government may provide resources for pollution prevention to both industry and
the community Some examples:
Montgomery County in Maryland developed an EcoWise Program for Small
Quantity Generators of Hazardous Waste (less than 100 kilograms -220 pounds -
of hazardous waste in a calendar month). The program seeks to reduce the
hazardous waste output of small quantity generators and address issues of waste
management Federal regulation allow for facilities that fall into this category to
transport the hazardous waste to a permitted facility. EcoWise provides a monthly
onsite hazardous waste collection 6I
King County, Washington established the EnviroStars program. The goal of the
EnviroStars program is to give business incentive and recognition for reducing
hazardous waste, while giving consumers an objective way to identify
environmentally sound businesses. Envirostar uses a two to five star rating
system This program has received national recognition and has been adopted and
modified by local governments in Washington and other states.
s" El'A Pollution Prevention Incentives far States. Environmental Protection Agency.._.... 19 July 2002.
.
60 "Pollution Prevention Toolkit Brochure." Local Government Pollution Prevention Toolkit. May 1998.
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* In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, the local government has adopted and
modified the EnviroStars Program The program is recognizes industries that
implement pollution prevention practices and strategies The program
acknowledges three levels of excellence in pollution prevention To meet any of
the three recognition levels, an industry must go beyond the minimum regulatory
requirements
The Florida Hazardous Waste Management Program. This program provides
pollution prevention training for local governmental agencies The training assists
in the development of a local pollution prevention program and provides
necessary training tor local industries.61
* California's Consortium of Pollution Prevention Committees has joined in on the
pollution prevention effort This organization is comprised of chairpersons of
local voluntary pollution prevention groups The committees organized the first
National Pollution Prevention Week During this week local government,
environment, economic development programs, industry trade associations and
environmental groups sponsor numerous events The events focus on highlighting
pollution prevention as a "way of doing business." Local government agencies
"implement the activities such as pollution prevention workshops, 'model'
facilities tours, storm drain stenciling, award programs, special training sessions,
and resolutions and proclamations." 2
in addition to training, recognition, and waste management, local governments also aid in
the enforcement of local ordinances, promote recycling programs, and collaborate with
communities in reducing pollution. Other local governmental agencies disseminate
information to schools, newspapers, and households.
These examples demonstrate that local governments are an effective, and essential,
partner in reducing pollution Local governments can effectively collaborate with the
state and federal agencies as well as local industries to support and promote pollution
prevention.
TRIBAL GOVERNMENT AND POLLUTION PREVENTION
The concept of environmental justice can be difficult to apply to situations arising within
Indian reservations. In most environmental justice cases, there are several kinds of
entities involved, typically at least: a community comprised of minority and/or low-
income people; a business that either wants to do or is doing something that causes
environmental impacts that the community wants to prevent or stop, and a government
agency that has permitting or other regulatory authority. Often there is more than one
61 "Pollution Prevention." Florida Department of Environmental Protection. 19 July 2002.
62 "National P2 Week." California Department of Toxic Substance Control 19 July 2002.
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entity of one or another of these categories, for example, both a state and a federal
agency, or more than one minority community that is up in arms.
In Indian country, the tribe might fit into all three of these categories The people who
comprise the tribe might be seen as an environmental justice community, in that they are
generally considered an ethnic minority (and perhaps a racial minority) and most of the
families may also be low-income. The tribe is, of course, also a sovereign government,
and as such may exercise regulatory or permitting authority over the facility that would
cause (or is causing) the environmental impacts that the community wants to stop It is
likely that, in addition to the tribe, a federal government agency or two also has some
authority over the facility, but the tribe's status as a sovereign government is always an
important factor in dealing with polluting facilities within reservation boundaries.
So, the tribe is the environmental justice community and the tribe is also a government
with some measure of authority over the facility In addition, the tribe may also be the
business that operates, or seeks to operate, the polluting facility. The tribe might do this
through a tribal enterprise or through a joint venture with a private business. Sometimes
the tribe's role as owner/operator may be through a governmental institution, for example
a utilities department that operates facilities such as wastewater treatment plants and
landfills
In non-Indian America, governments may also be involved on both sides of the
regulatory regime, that is, as regulators and as operators of regulated facilities. There are
usually some pretty well established walls, though, between government agency as
regulator and government agency as proponent or operator or ftinder of regulated
facilities In Indian country, the distinctions between tribe as regulator and operator of
regulated facility are often less clearly drawn and may be hard to maintain. Tribes, after
all, are generally rather small communities, and community leaders often wear more than
one hat Moreover, people who perform roles in the tribe as government generally also
perform important roles in the tribe as a community.
Pollution prevention offers many potential benefits in Indian country, in part because of
the nature of the environmental protection regulatory system. The tribal right of self-
government is particularly relevant in the realm of environmental law. Federal
environmental statutes are administered primarily by states in cooperation with EPA, an
approach that is often called "cooperative federalism." In the 1970's, when Congress
enacted the first generation of federal environmental laws, little thought was given to how
these laws would be carried out within Indian reservations. States were charged with
leading roles, while tribes were left out of the process. In the mid-1980s, Congress began
to rectify this oversight by enacting amendments to some of the major environmental
laws authorizing tribes to develop environmental protection programs like those of the
states.
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Although the legal framework is largely in place for tribes to become partners in
cooperative environmental federalism, and quite a few tribes have taken on some of the
roles of states pursuant to the federal statutes, most tribes have not, for a variety of
reasons One important factor is that, unlike states, most tribes do not have revenue
sources and tax bases comparable to those of the states. Another key factor that renders
tribes different from states is the body of recent Supreme Court decisions regarding limits
on tribal sovereignty, especially in the context of regulating the conduct of non-Indians.
The Court's recent Indian law decisions have been criticized by many scholars for their
departures from long-standing principles of federal Indian In response to the
uncertainty brought about by the Court's recent case law, EPA has become increasingly
reluctant to approve tribal applications to be treated like states for the administration of
regulatory programs (except in the context of the Clean Air Act, which EPA has
interpreted as a delegation of federal authority to tribes).
Because of such factors - having been invited into cooperative federalism fifteen or
twenty years after the states, having inadequate resources to build programs that are
comparable to those of the states, and the specter of having aspects of their sovereignty
taken away by court decisions - the environmental regulatory infrastructure in much of
Indian country is just not comparable to what it is in most of America. This relative lack
of environmental protection infrastructure has been identified as a major environmental
justice issue.64 Pollution prevention can be part of the solution, by promoting economic
development activities that do not cause much in the way of environmental degradation
and, as such, do not either exploit the relative lack of regulatory programs or require the
creation of regulatory programs as a pre-condition for development.
For a more detailed treatment on tribal governments, please refer to Chapter 4, Tribal
Perspectives.
GOVERNMENTAL PARTNERSHIPS
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) exemplifies another governmental
effort/partnership. ECOS was formed as a non-profit organization "to improve the
environment of the United States." This goal would be accomplished through:
61 See gem-rally David H. Getches. Conquering the Cultural Frontier: The New Subjectivism of the
Supreme Court in Indian IMW. 84 CAL. L. RF,V. 1573 (19%): Phillip P. Frickey. A Common La* for Our
Age of Colonialism: The Judicial Divestiture oflndian Tribal Authority over Nomembers, 109 YALEL. J. J
(1999); Dean 8. Suagee. The Supreme Court 'x "Whack-a-Mole" Game Theory in Federal Indian Law. a
Theory that flax No Place in the Realm of Environmental Iw, 1 GREAT PUUNS NAT, RESOURCES J. 90
(2002).
*" Indigenous Peoples Caucus Statement, Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership
Summit (Washington. D.C.. Oct. 23-26, 2002); Dean B Suagee. Dimensions of Environmental Justice in
Indian Country and Native Alaska, a policy paper prepared for the Second National People of Color
Environmental Leadership Summit (Washington. D.C., Oct. 23-26. 2002).
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Being a champion of the states' role in environmental management
* Providing for the exchange of ideas, views and experiences among states
Fostering cooperation and coordination in environmental management
Articulating state positions on environmental issues to Congress, federal agencies
and the public
ECOS "conducts research on federal environmental programs that have been delegated to
the states, state contributions to federal environmental databases, state environmental and
natural resource funding, and state contribution to enforcement and compliance."65
ECOS has catalogued the research and reporting done by the various states and facilitates
the dialogue on environmental management between the states As noted earlier the
states are mainly responsible for support and encouragement of both pollution prevention
and environmental justice. It is imperative that ECOS, as a facilitator of state dialog and
cooperation, be a contributing partner in the promotion and integration of environmental
justice and pollution prevention in state programs.
The National Environmental Performance Partnership System
The purpose of the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS) is
to improve and strengthen the State/Federal relationship and to improve environmental
performance. Under NEPPS, the USEPA identifies environmental goals and then the
states decide how those goals may best be attained. NEPPS establishes a partnership
between the states and EPA and facilitates dialogue and planning. The majority of states
participates in NEPPS with either Performance Partnership Grants (PPG) or Performance
Partnership Agreements (PPA) and uses this as a platform to leverage resources and
maximize possible environmental protection and results. NEPPS identified core
performance measures for environmental results. The states have assessed under NEPPS
that three pieces of information are necessary to measure the environmental results of a
program. The three information pieces are:
1. Environmental indicators
2. Program outcomes
3. Program outputs66
Each of the three information pieces provides the states and EPA with different
measurable outcomes. The compilation of the performance measures (collected
throughout the 50 states) provides a national picture of environmental protection and will
initiate insights on measures that can be taken in the future to improve environmental
65 5 Aug. 2002. .
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programs. The integration of pollution prevention and environmental justice into NEPPS
performance measures may be a desirable step in the future.
Compliance and Technical Assistance
Along with pollution prevention technical assistance programs, a number of states, and
EPA, have implemented cooperative programs for compliance assistance. Cooperative
programs work by aiding local communities, business, and industry in complying with
the environmental regulations. Examples:
In FY 2001 USEPA developed a Compliance Assistance Activity Plan inventory
of 368 projects that focused on compliance assistance tools for new regulations
and for existing regulations that presented compliance problems. The Plan also
included activities that provide information to help the regulated community
understand their regulatory obligations. USEPA developed compliance guides
and other compliance assistance tools. These included technical guides, self-audit
checklists and protocols, applicability flowcharts and expert systems.
Additionally, the Plan provided overviews of laws/regulations, best management
practices, guidance documents, and outreach opportunities such as training,
seminars/workshops, mailings, hotlines, and new websites.67
The Park Heights Auto Repair Project in Maryland seeks to assist auto body and
mechanical repair facilities in complying with statewide legislation. Auto body
shops are given an opportunity (voluntarily) to disclose to the state those
regulations with which they are not compliant. The MDE then spends a year
teaching the project participants about environmental regulations and what must
be done to comply with the law. At the end of this technical assistance period, all
shops must comply with the regulations.
The Compliance Assistance and Waste Reduction Program for Metal Finishing
Facilities in Oklahoma City. This program provided technical and compliance
assistance to metal finishing job shops in Oklahoma City. Voluntarily
participating facilities were inspected to determine areas of noncompliance and
then assigned a "facility manager" who worked closely with the facility to provide
education and assistance for waste reduction and compliance. There was no
enforcement and participants were excluded from routine inspections while in the
program. At the end, there was a full regulatory inspection to determine
compliance with applicable rules and regulations and to provide a measure of
success.
There are similar programs in every state. Some focus on industrial sectors and others on
industrial processes. Some have a geographical focus. These programs provide
67
Compliance Assistance Activity Plan Fiscal Year 2001, EPA 305-R-01-002 April 2001
http://www.q)a.gav/CompUance/resources/piiblicaUon5/assistance/planning/acdvityplan.^
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invaluable support to participating facilities helping them to improve processes and
increase efficiency. When these programs concentrate on environmental justice
communities, then there is the added bonus of community involvement and everyone
wins.
Another cooperative grant assistance program is the National Industrial Competitiveness
through Energy, Environment, and Economics (NICE3). NICE3, sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE), sponsors an innovative, cost-sharing program to promote
energy efficiency, clean production, and economic competitiveness in industry. Through
NICE3 state and industry partnerships can receive financial support for demonstration
projects for advances in energy efficiency and clean production technologies.68
The Environmental Leadership Programs (ELP) is a program that trains and supports
(through grants and networks) emerging environmental professionals69. Selected
applicants are provided with leadership training and they are then more able to share the
knowledge gained with their communities.
Cooperative Programs can also be found on the local level. Local government and
organizations collaborate with industry to provide assistance and education and reduce
pollution. Some examples are:
The Montgomery County, Maryland auto body initiative
The Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish, and Whatcom Counties
EnviroStar Programs
The Albuquerque, New Mexico Silver Management Program
These partnerships have developed compliance manuals, checklists, self-audit
handbooks, best management practices, videos, CDs, etc.
Refer to Appendix III for additional information on governmental, voluntary and other
partnership programs.
POLLUTION PREVENTION AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
Regulations, voluntary initiatives, and cooperatives provide the framework for pollution
prevention. Applicants for funding of pollution prevention projects are required to
comply with criteria that show partnership, a probability of success, measures of success,
and collaboration with mandatory programs. Pollution prevention success and the
success of pollution prevention programs may be measured in several ways. It is
particularly important to use a consistent ways to measure the impacts of pollution
prevention and compliance assistance efforts. These measurements can be used to:
68 NICE3, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Industrial Technology, http://www.oit.doe.gov/nice3/
69 Environmental Leadership Program. 19 July 2002. .
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Effectively communicate the activities and accomplishments of the state and local
agencies to policy makers
Improve program management
» Measure progress toward goals
Provide those who fund programs with relevant activity and outcome information
Influence policy development
One method for measuring success is mathematical. This means that the amount of a
particular pollutant (pounds, gallons, grams, etc.) is measured at an initial point and then
again at some future date. If the pollutant has decreased, then pollution prevention (or
reduction) has been successful.
This method is used by many states to determine the success of pollution prevention
because it is simple. This mathematical formula for measuring pollution
reduction/prevention can provide a "snapshot" at a particular location but does not
provide a national picture. Generally, these initial measurements are available when
there is an enforceable regulatory requirement for industries to report. Many faculties are
not regulated. Secondly, there is a gap hi the data if regulated industries are not required
to report the specific information. The National Environmental Performance Partnership
System (NEPPS) has attempted to improve this scenario by creating core performance
measures. However, there is still no conclusive national picture of accurate measures of
pollution prevention success.
Pollution prevention reduces or eliminates pollution. Changes in behavior of
government, industry, communities, and organizations are essential to attaining this goal.
These behavioral changes are facilitated by an increase in knowledge about pollution and
waste minimization, general environmental awareness, and public participation. The
simple mathematical formula outlined above does not include these factors.
Additionally, the method does not determine the reason for a decrease in pollution. For
example, the reduction in pollution could be a result of lower production volume and not
a systematic plan for reduction. The need to comply with environmental regulations is
also one of the primary factors that can incentivize a company to invest time, effort, and
resources in preventing pollution. Threats of fines, the danger of inviting additional
paperwork, and concerns control and possible "jail time" contribute to this motivation.
However, regulatory requirements provide influence only in cases where pollution is a
regulatory issue. A different instrument may be necessary for measuring behavior,
knowledge, and awareness.
A survey is one way to assess behavior, knowledge, or awareness. If the survey
questions are properly framed the survey could gather valuable information to assess the
attitude, behavior, and education of a community to pollution prevention. In
environmental justice communities, a "quality of life" survey could be used. This
"quality of life" survey could be used before and after implementation of pollution
prevention legislation or voluntary initiatives, to determine and perceived changes in
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"quality of life." A quality of life survey could address the aesthetics of the community,
the status of health in the community, as well as the environmental education of
community members. Maryland has proposed the use of quality of life survey as a tool
for measuring the success of its ERP,
Education can also be measured by K-12 curricula to determine the extent of integration
of environmental issues. A much more difficult measure is health of the community.
Although a pollution prevention program may contribute to improving public health,
assessing this impact requires careful planning and support of the public health agencies.
Hence, several methods can demonstrate that pollution prevention is a success. The
method that most states have chosen is to look at net reduction of waste. However,
looking at behavior, community involvement in environmental projects, and education
can also measure success.
POLLUTION PREVENTION MODEL
For most governmental agencies pollution prevention is voluntary and the result of a very
dynamic and fluid process. It requires flexibility, innovation, partnerships, and
commitment. However, no pollution prevention project will ever make it beyond "being
a good -even great-idea" unless the person who makes the decision about whether to
implement a pollution prevention project is convinced of the need as well as the benefit
of doing so. A viable pollution prevention program recognizes that decision makers in
business and industry are influenced by both environmental and financial factors when
they consider whether to implement a project.
Environmental factors
Regulatory requirements
The need to do the "right thing"
Financial factors
The bottom line
Gross revenue
Quality/ Quality control
Production
Public relations
Maintaining the "status quo"70
Environmental justice communities consider public relations as a top priority but it is
only one of a list of factors that decision makers use. Sometimes these public relations
considerations can be the biggest influence for government-operated facilities and
70 Hillenbrand, Steve. "Selling P2", Pollution Prevention Review, Summer 2001
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chemical manufacturers. In the case of small business, it may be a lesser consideration.
This difference in priorities must be addressed when "selling pollution prevention."
An effective pollution prevention program must have:
1. The support of key decision makers
a. Determine the appropriate motivator to use when promoting a pollution
prevention project
b. Identify those features of the project that appeal to this motivation
c. Present the project to the decision maker with these features in mind
2. Defined scopes, objectives, and goals
a. Set specific goals and priorities with all stakeholders
b. Develop a clear understanding of the regulatory requirements
i. What is required?
ii. What requires "going beyond compliance?"
3. A means of evaluating options for technical and economic feasibility
4. Necessary and relevant training and education for all stakeholders with evaluation
and feedback for continuous improvement
5. Funding
6. A method for tracking progress
a. What is to be measured?
b. What is an acceptable baseline?
c. What is an acceptable timeline?
d. Accountability/transparency
7. Recognition/Incentives
8. Documentation of the process and the results
9. The results can be used to help provide a more complete picture for the local
population and to contribute to a statewide, and national, database of pollution
prevention efforts and results. The compilation of results into national, statewide,
and local databases can aid in the development of new legislation (if necessary)
problem areas, or to differential oversight for some facilities, or the repeal of
legislation where it is no longer necessary or effective.
CONCLUSION
There are some innovative pollution prevention activities underway at the EPA such as
the Persistent, Bioaccumulative, and Toxics (PBT) Initiative, expansion of Right-to-
Know requirements, and the promotion of environmental management systems (EMS).
The federal government has played a major role as an enabling partner in pollution
prevention. Regulations on the federal, state, local, and tribal levels help provide the
framework through which industry, community, and government can work together to
reduce and/or eliminate pollution. Through governmental partnerships, regulation,
training, leadership, voluntary, and other programs, stakeholder groups can address:
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Goals for pollution prevention
Industry and community concerns
Effective pollution prevention strategies
Continued partnerships may be used to advance the complementary goals of pollution
prevention and environmental justice. There are many opportunities within the existing
regulatory framework for integration of pollution prevention and environmental justice
ethic and rhetoric. Additionally, this integration may be applied to other partnership
agreements such as NEPPS, PPIS, and other voluntary programs.
The role of ECOS should not be understated. The implementation of these voluntary
initiatives happens on the state level. Without ECOS support the task of creating, and
sustaining, effective pollution prevention and environmental justice programs are almost
insurmountable. ECOS must demonstrate its commitment and support and must be an
advocate on behalf of states for continued and sustained funding for these programs.
ECOS could provide assistance to the states in formulating processes for incorporating
environmental justice considerations into permitting and other environmental decision-
making.
Currently all states have some type of pollution prevention program. The important issue
is lack of funding and support for pollution prevention on both state and national levels.
Although there are some federal funding mechanisms for pollution prevention and
environmental justice the sums available are inadequate and continually in danger of
elimination.
However, even with this limited support pollution prevention programs have used every
creative means necessary to grow and direct many successful endeavors. Many of these
activities, though not specifically aimed at an environmental justice community,
nonetheless, have provided benefit to these communities. This benefit is a result of
assistance and support to facilities located in and around these communities. This
assistance helped these facilities improve both environmental and economic performance;
helping to protect economic and public health. Admittedly, there is still much work left
to do.
EPA must continue to set environmental outcome goals. EPA must then empower states,
local and tribal governments to promote pollution prevention by allowing flexibility to
achieve the goals using a variety of approaches pollution prevention planning,
technical assistance, multi-media permitting, command and control, etc. States' efforts
can be evaluated by their achievement of the environmental outcome goals rather than the
practice of mandated methods. The states must then be supported in:
Developing mechanisms for integrating pollution prevention and community
outreach on environmental justice issues at the earliest feasible stage. For
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example, in the permit application process this would happen when permit
applicants meet with agency staff at pre-application conferences.
Use technical screening tools, Geographic Information Systems, Toxic Release
Inventory data, and other information resources to help the regulated community
identify potential environmental justice issues at the earliest feasible stage.
A pollution prevention program, whether federal, state, local, tribal, regional, or
volunteer community organization based, can be effective as a collaborative effort to stop
pollution. In order to do this, goals and objectives must be realistic and all stakeholders
should be involved in developing the strategies to be used in accomplishing the goals.
Pollution prevention provides a way of escaping the ever-increasing costs of pollution
control. Effective pollution prevention programs are "win/win" situations. These
programs help facilities reduce overall costs and provide economic benefit to the
community.
Pollution prevention, once espoused as antithetical to environmental justice, is decidedly
important for the attainment of sustainable and environmentally just communities.
Unmistakably, environmental justice and pollution prevention advocates are recognizing
the benefits of enacting these programs concomitantly for the revitalization of
environmental justice communities. Government understands this and will continue to
support, enable, and take its lead based on the currencies that emerge from communities,
industries, and other stakeholders toward the betterment and revitalization of
communities across the United States.
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX I: POLLUTION PREVENTION &
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CASE STUDIES
APPENDIX II: CURRENT POLLUTION PREVENTION
MANDATES IN FEDERAL STATUTES
APPENDIX III: POLLUTION PREVENTION
PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMS
APPENDIX IV: POLLUTION PREVENTION WORK
GROUP MEMBERS
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APPENDIX I - POLLUTION PREVENTION AND
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE CASE STUDIES
Case Study #1: Houston Ship Channel Source Reduction Project
Presented by Neil Carmen of the Lone Star Sierra Club Chapter
Houston, located in Harris County, Texas is the third most industrially polluted urban
area in the United States. According to the 1996 Toxic Release Inventory data, there
were more than 5 million pounds of known and suspected carcinogens released in Harris
County in just one year. In the year 2000, Harris County was responsible for releases of
more than 23 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment and ranked number
two in the country for the number of carcinogens released into the environment. The
source reduction project took place in a community known as Channelview that is east of
Houston and covers an area of over twenty miles. Harris County contains more than 1.9
million people and is 56% minority.
Harris County, Texas ranks number one in the number of oil refineries, chemical and
petrochemical plants, hazardous waste incinerators and other industrial facilities. These
facilities are responsible for the release of over 190 toxic release inventory chemicals and
contribute significantly to the smog problem in the Houston area. In 1999 and 2000
Houston surpassed Los Angeles for having the highest number of one-hour high ozone
day in the United States. On one of these high ozone days, girls on the high school track
team and boys on the high school soccer team collapsed on the field. The area was also
characterized by industrial accidents. In 1989 there was a serious accident at the Arco
Plant, now known as Equistar, in which 18 men died. Again in the year 2000 two men
died in industrial accidents.
The community residents who participated in the Source Reduction Project had lived on
the fence-line of the facilities for more than a decade and invited Mr. Carmen to
participate as a technical advisor. These community residents had previously been part of
the community advisory panel to the Lyondell Chemical and Equistar Chemical Plants
and had resigned and formed a separate health and emissions subcommittee to examine
specific impacts of the plants' operation on public health. The companies did not agree
that their emissions impacted on community health. So this was a source of disagreement
and one of the main goals of the project was to create a two-way communication process
that had not worked well in the past. The other key goal of the project was to stress
pollution prevention instead of pollution control and that is why it was called the "source
reduction" project.
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The project targeted specific chemical emissions of each plant that were selected for
toxicity and volume and in the three years of its existence identified six citizen requests.
The first was an aggressive fugitives emissions monitoring program. The plants had
numerous leaks and fugitive emissions. The second request was to reduce flaring. These
facilities had large flares that light up, create smoke and the emissions and odors from the
flares crossed the fence line and were discernable in the community. The third request
was an aggressive, reactive, predictive and preventative maintenance program. Here the
aim was to address potential problems before they became accidents by installing triple
redundant backup systems in the event of an electronic error. So this request focused on
maintenance. The fourth citizen request was to reduce benzene emissions from a specific
Lyondell process flare. The fifth goal was to reduce styrene emissions from a specific
storage tank. The sixth goal was to reduce butadiene emissions from flare activity at
Equistar.
Over the course of three years they were able to come up with a number of effective
source reduction projects that were not very expensive and relatively easy for the
company to implement. The community toured the facilities and the tours helped the
community develop specific requests. The community also spent several months
developing a matrix to determine which chemicals to target out of the 190 that were
being emitted. The matrix was a chart to look at both the pounds of emissions versus the
pounds of product that would be made from the particular unit and the specific chemical
involved. The community group met on a monthly basis for four to six hours over a
period of 3 to 4 years. The company provided inside information during the project that
you would never find in the files of a regulatory agency. While the companies might
discuss some of these things with regulators, the citizens got privy to information they
would never come across otherwise. A facilitator, who was paid for by the companies,
was very helpful. The planning and measured approach used in the project resulted in
significant chemical emissions reductions.
Lyondell Chemical reported they were able to prevent over two million pounds a year of
benzene from going to the flare by calculating a 98 percent destruction efficiency, that is
over 41,000 pounds of benzene a year, that would not be emitted from the flare.
At Equistar, in their East Plant flaring, they reduced chemical emissions from 261,000
pounds in 1996 to 74,000 in 1999. Equistar had previously been ranked number one in
the United States in air releases of 1-3 butadiene, which is a probable carcinogen.
Equistar had four different engineering teams that were looking at ways to reduce what
they called "olefins flaring." Polyolefins are familiar to most of us as the little plastic
baggies we get at the grocery store to put our veggies and fruits in. With the olefins,
when they have a shutdown, they did not have a way to store or recycle the material.
They had to burn it. So strategies were and are now being looked at to recycle or
temporarily store the material.
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However the request regarding the particular storage tank at Lyondell where the
community wanted styrene emissions reductions was not granted because the company
maintained that it would be too expensive to reduce emissions from that tank.
The project resulted in a variety of community benefits. These included reduced
emissions and a potential for many more reductions, a significant reduction in flaring and
improvement in maintenance and reliability. This resulted in benefits to the companies
also because the companies always said that they wanted to do this in order to improve
their profits by keeping the process units of their plants on line. The project also resulted
in an increased knowledge of plant operations. This was one of the most significant
things for the community people, because in these monthly meetings the company would
come back with responses to questions and inquiries and this information exchange
would never have taken place if there had been an adversarial relationship. The project
did not involve any environmental regulators and the changes implemented did not
require any permits or approvals. At the end of the process there was less hostility and a
little less controversy.
There were benefits for the companies that participated as well. The companies saw
reduced emissions, less waste, increased profits and a much a better image in the
community. There was a focus on specific emissions sources. Plant personnel became
more aware of community concerns about the specific chemical emissions. This was
quite interesting, because, at the beginning, the dialogue between a lot of the plant
engineers who weren't used to dealing with community and their interactions were rather
chilly and difficult at times. However, as the project moved into its third year, these
relationships improved even on the part of some of the plant engineers. Some of the
plant personnel said that they liked the projects even though the projects are not going to
make a lot of money for the companies, but they were relatively cheap and they were the
kind of things that the companies can do to make the plants safer for themselves, their
workers, as well as for the community. The matrix helped the companies understand why
specific chemicals were targeted. As a result of the success of this project, other
communities can use this process as a guide, and community residents can learn how
corporations make decisions related to environmental issues and the economics and
safety concerns those decisions involve. The project ended because right now Houston is
under the pressure to reduce smog and cut their nitrogen oxides by 80 percent. As a
result, the company representatives indicated that they did not have the resources to focus
additional attention on the source reduction project and some hostile feelings reemerged.
However, overall the project successfully reduced more than 2 million pounds of targeted
emissions in permanent process changes and was responsive to five of the six community
requests.
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Case Study #2: The Park Heights Auto Body/Auto Repair Shop Case
Study
Presented by Bernard Penner, Tom Voltaggio and Henri Thompson
The Park Heights community in Maryland is a 96% African American community and the
largest urban renewal district in the nation, but it is not a federally designated
empowerment zone. It therefore does not receive the benefits associated with the
economic and community development. This community was once an upper middle
class community bursting with diversity and residential and business vitality. However,
today the Park Heights community, like many inner city urban areas, has more than its
share of crime, grime and abandoned houses, which have a devastating effect on family,
children and businesses. The average income level of the residents residing in southern
Park Heights is between $15,000 and $24,000. Almost 50 percent of the community
receives public assistance. One third of the children live in poverty and in families
headed by females. Over half of the units are rental properties with many substandard
units contaminated with lead based paint. Approximately 35 percent of the youth are not
in school. The teen pregnancy rate is about 14 percent, compared to the overall city rate
of 10 percent. Park Heights has the fourth highest juvenile arrest rate in the city, with
over 12 percent of these arrests among young people age five to six. The community has
significant health problems, with over 3,000 residents that have been diagnosed HIV
related illnesses. The community rates in the top five for lead poisoning, asthma and
prostate cancer cases. Its residents, children and businesses have been neglected and
overlooked when it comes to economical, social, environmental and physical
development.
Park Heights is clearly an environmental justice community and this project, while still a
work in progress, can be a model for improving the working relationships between the
regulators, the regulated community and the residential community. There are three
essential components to this project. The first component is dedicated to finding a way to
talk about compliance rates that makes sense. This project aims to evaluate the
effectiveness of compliance assistance to the auto body shop sector. The project goals
also included improving community between the regulators and the regulated
community, improving the quality of life in this community and raising the awareness of
the community respecting shops that are doing a good job and shops that are not doing a
good job.
There were numerous auto body shops located in a fairly small area and hardly any
enforcement actions were taken in that area. Auto body shops were selected because the
community believed there were an inordinate number of facilities and because auto body
shops had multimedia impacts. There is an air impact, a waste impact and a water
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impact. Regulators may not ordinarily think of the multimedia impact of a facility but
people in the neighborhood have to live next to a facility. They experience the whole
facility, and they haven't gotten the training or perspective on a facility to break it up into
three different media. The project brought together and had the cooperation of three
levels of government-- federal government, state government and local government
because we wanted to get everybody working together to engage in collaborative problem
solving. EPA headquarters provided $275,000 in funding, which aided in planning and
design of the project.
The methodology developed was to delineate the neighborhood. Identifying facilities
through existing permits and through existing regulatory structures did this. A
representative community organization was also paid to go through the community with a
global positioning sensor and match the definitions it saw because what the community
identified had to match the project definitions for the regulatory authorities to have legal
authority. One of the interesting things is that the community thought they really had a
big, big problem here, and they did have a problem, but they thought it was bigger than it
was. They thought there were 150 facilities in the area. It turns out we were only able to
locate 50. Not that 50 doesn't present a problem, because it does, but it really does show
the importance of grass roots investigation. An auto body facility deals in scrap tires,
waste oil, volatile organic compounds and spray emissions from their spray booths. Each
of those areas has a separate body of regulatory requirements. The project developed
environmental business performance indicators in order to rank each area and the type of
behavior associated with that area for each facility. The goal was not to automatically
find a facility in noncompliance but to provide compliance assistance and identify
behavior improvements as performance indicators.
For example, with waste oil, if the facility has a waste oil hauler that tends to indicate that
at least they have an awareness of it. Maryland has a fairly intricate scrap tire program.
If a facility has a scrap tire permit, that tells you at least they know they need to get a
permit and somebody has looked at an application. If a facility has a spray booth, there is
at least some degree of consciousness that they need to contain paint emissions
They started with baseline inspections, from the baseline inspection we inferred where
the problems were, and then began to render the compliance assistance. To assist in the
baseline inspection, they created a baseline inspector checklist. The inspectors went
down the line always asking the same questions. As a result of the baseline inspections,
there emerged two different types of facilities. Some were familiar with the regulations
applicable to their operations and others needed additional assistance. There were also
two types of facilities. The project then developed a plain English guide for the auto
body shops and a plain English guide for the mechanical repair shops. Using the plain
English guide as a teaching tool and with the assistance of the community, the guide will
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be delivered to every shop identified in the community. Then again, using the guide, the
project led training sessions.
After the training, there will be a period for the compliance assistance to be implemented
and then there will be a final round of inspections. The inspectors, with their book and
with their checklist, will go back and again inspect a random sample set of facilities. The
goal is we take what was observed at the beginning of the process, observe conditions at
the end of the compliance assistance process, compare the two, and try to understand
what can be learned.
The anticipated benefits of the project are improved compliance, improvement in the
quality of life for the people that are living in the community and getting the regulators,
regulated and residential community all talking to one another. These workshops will
create that environment for improved communication. The shops have got to be willing
to participate, but if they do they are given limited amnesty. If they disclose a violation to
the regulators, no enforcement action is taken against them. There is nothing unique in
this. This is an environmental audit policy. The goal is also to improve the regulatory
process. The regulators are able to gain additional information and the regulated
community understands that it can come to the regulators for help in solving its problems.
Currently, more than 40 baseline inspections have been done and the plain English
guidebook is in its final draft and is being selectively reviewed by several auto body
shops to see if it makes sense. The training sessions are in the planning stages and the
project is also planning the introductory training sessions to show the whole community
how the project is working. But the compliance assistance phase has not been completed
and there have not been any follow- up inspections. However, other communities in
South Carolina and Florida have had success following similar models, so there is reason
to believe that this project will also be successful.
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APPENDIX II - CURRENT POLLUTION PREVENTION
MANDATES IN FEDERAL STATUTES
Federal Act
Pollution Prevention Act
(PPA)
Clean Air Act (CAA)
Section
13103
13104
13105
13106
7402
7403
7405
7412
7414 and
7418
Subchapterl,
Part C Sec
Subchapter II
Potation Prevention Mandate
EPA mandated to develop and implement a
strategy to promote source reduction.
» EPA as administrator is given the authority
to provide grants to the States to promote
source reduction by businesses
EPA mandated to establish a database that
contains information on source reduction.
Owners and operators of businesses that are
required to file a toxic ciieoifcal release form
natst include a torn; reductk» ^ i^ecycnng
report
Encourages cooperation amongst the federal
departments, states, and local governments
for prevention and control of air pollution.
EPA mandated to establish a
research and development
prevention and air noButkmcontopL
rdination
prevention and control
EPA can make grants to air pollution
prevention and control agencies.
Facilities that reduce their emission of toxics
irto the air by 90-95% can quafify for permit
waivers.
EPA may establish record keeping,
inspections, and monitoring for all facilities
that emit pollutants.
Prevention of significant deterioration of air
quality-establishment of a plan that includes
wCBlfiflC 8OQ TOC -CXiiriljiJulillCufctt
General emissions standards
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Federal Act
RiwrigMify Planning and
Coounniuty Rigbl to Know
Act(EPCRA)
Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act
(RCRA)
Section
11001-11005
11021-11022
11023
6907
6908a
6921-6925
6927
6931
6981
Potation Prevention Mandate
Emergency {banning reqinrements for
pollution and fire control. Provides
substances and facilities covered under this
act.
* Facilities covered under EPCRA must have
ready Material Safety Data Sheets for all
chemicals (MSDS) and must complete
hazardous chemical inventory forms
Owners and operators of facilities covered
under EPCRA must complete a toxic
chemical release form.
EPA must establish waste management
guidelines.
* EPA may assist Indian tribes in waste
management.
6921: Hazardous Waste requirements
established for owners and operators of
facilities that produce hazardous wastes.
Under 6922: Generators must certify in
shipping manifests that they have a plan to
reduce waste. They must also submit a
biennial report indicating their efforts to
reduce volume and toxicity of wastes. 6925:
Permit required for treatment and storage of
hazardous wastes.
* EPA can make facilities d^sOTbe their waste
reduction program and inspect them to
determine whether a program is actually in
place.
Grants appropriated to the States for
assistance in development of Hazardous
Waste Programs
EPA shall render financial assistance to
federal, state, and local agencies that are
researching, investigating, or providing in
areas of waste management and
minimization.
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Federal Act
Clean Water Act (CWA) 1251
1252
Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide and
Rodeaticide Act
(FBFRA)
National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA)
1256
1342
1381
136
4331
4363
4363a
4368a
4368b
Pollution Prevention Mandate
* National goal is to eliminate the discharge of
pollutants into navigable waters.
* EPA mandated in cooperation with federal
state, and local agencies and industries to
develop programs for preventing, reducing,
or eliminating the pollution of the navigable
waters and ground waters and improving the
sanitary condition of surface and
underground waters.
Appropriation of funds to state and local
agencies for pollution control.
EPA can put additional restrictions on
permits (not included hi the act).
EPA given authority to make grants to states
for pollution control revolving fund for
implementation of management and
conservation plans
All pesticides and pesticide establishments
must be registered. Non-registered
pesticides may not be sold or distributed in
the U.S.
Congress recognizes
"the profound impact of man's activity on
the interrelations of all components of the
natural environment."
* EPA shall establish a program for long -term
research for all activities listed under NEPA
EPA mandated to conduct demonstrations of
energy-related pollution control
technologies.
* Utilization of talents of older Americans in
projects of pollution prevention, abatement,
and control through technical assistance to
environmental agencies.
» Provide technical assistance to Indian Tribes
for environmental assistance on Indian lands.
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APPENDIX IV - POLLUTION PREVENTION WORK
GROUP MEMBERS
DESIGNATED FEDERAL OFFICER
Sharon WeiL Austin (P2 Work Group)
Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW (MC7406M)
Washington, DC 20460
Phone: (202) 564-8523
Fax: (202) 564-8528
E-mail: austin.sharon@epa.gov
Charles Lee (NEJACDFO)
Associate Director for Policy and Interagency
Liaison
Office of Environmental Justice
US Environmental Protection Agency
1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20460
Phone: 202-564-2597
Fax: (202)501-1163
E-mail; lee.charles@epa.gov
WORK GROUP MEMBERS
* Denotes Liaison to NEJAC subcommittee
Nicholas Ashford
1 Amherst Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139_4307
Phone: 617-253-8973
fax: 617-253-7140
E-mail: nashford@mit.edu
Charles (Chuck) Bennett, PhD
Senior Research Associate
Global Corporate Citizenship/
Townley Global Management Center
The Conference Board
845 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022-6679
Phone: 212-339-0356
fax: 212-836-9717 (Fax)
E-mail: chuck.bennett@conference-board.org
CO-CHAIRS
Wilma Subra
LEAN Representative
Subra Company, Inc.
P. O. Box 9813
3814 Old Jeanerette Rd.
New Iberia, LA 70562
Phone:(337)367-2216
Fax: (337) 367-2217
E-mail: SubraCom@aol.com
Kenneth J. Warren, Esq.
Chair of Environmental Department
Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen
1650 Arch Street, 22nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: (215) 977-2276
Fax: (215) 977-2334
E-mail: kwarren@wolfblock.com
Sue Briggum
Director of Environmental Affairs
Waste Management, Inc.
601 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
North Building, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20004
Phone: 202-639-1219
Fax: 202-628-0400
E-mail: sbriggum@wm.com
Robin Morris Collia
PO Box 3185
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Phone:(541)607-1072
Fax: 541-607-1072
E-mail: homcmoio@aol.com
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OTHER PROGRAMS
The federal, state, local, and non-profit plans for pollution prevention and environmental
protection provide important regulations and strategies to reduce pollution. The
identification and implementation of opportunities for pollution prevention integration in
these regulations, plans, and strategies is critical to the success of all pollution prevention
programs. To ensure the success of pollution prevention programs, government and other
agencies must encourage and promote innovation (innovation of pollution-prevention
technologies, innovation of pollution prevention methodologies, etc) and education. A
key component to compliance is understanding why and how pollution control is
imperative. Community leaders, "champions," should be identified and trained so that
they can promote the importance, implications, significance, and benefits of pollution
prevention in their communities.
Compliance assistance should be provided for small businesses and the non-regulated
community to aid in understanding the regulations and beneficial pollution prevention
practices. Promotion of innovation, fostering pollution prevention education, and training
pollution prevention "champions" is costly. Funding support is crucial to the success of
this plan. Pollution prevention and environmental justice have traditionally been referred
to as federal priorities but have not been awarded sufficient and consistent budget
appropriations to support full implementation and success. The adequacy of funding,
innovation, education, and leadership are paramount for the success of the partnership
between government and industry in thwarting pollution.
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VOLUNTARY PROGRAMS
Regulatory initiatives are not the only method in which industry, federal, state, and local
governments can team up to prevent pollution There are several voluntary programs that
are also out to promote pollution prevention and get industry and the community
involved. The following are some examples of voluntary pollution prevention programs
Program
Green Building Programs9
Energy Star1
.10
WasteWise
11
Waste Prevention
How it Works
Promotes environmentally friendly
construction of buildings
Providence of environmentally friendly
homes.
Promotion of homes meeting environmental
criteria.
Technical assistance/training
Offers consumers and businesses energy
efficient solutions
Solutions save money and provide for
e^nvironmentaJ protection.
Open to all organizations
Promotes waste reduction through municipal
solid waste elimination
Flexible allows partners to design their
own solid waste reduction programs tailored
to their needs^
Involves altering the design, manufacture,
purchase, or use of products
Reduce the amount and toxicity of waste
Helps shift the nation's emphasis from
pollution cleanup to pollution avoidance
" "Community Green Building Programs." U.S. Department of Energy. 19 July 2(K)2
.
10 Energy Slar. 19 July 2(X)2. .
" WasteWise. 14 August 2(K)2. http://ww^.cpa.gov/wastewisc/about/overvicw.htm
12 Waste Prevention 14 August 2(K)2. http://www.cpa,gQv/cpaoswcr/non-hw/reduce/prevcnt.htm
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Program
Common Sense
Initiative6
Goal
f
Performance
Track7
Green Star8
Partnership with
representatives from
federal, state, local
governments, community-
based and national
environmental groups,
environmental justice
groups, labor, and
industry with the EPA to
examine environmental
requirements impacting
the following industries.
o Car manufacturing
o Computers/Electro
nics
o Iron/Steel
o Metal finishing
o Petroleum refining
o Printing
Public/private partnership
To recognize and
encourage top
environmental performers
To go beyond compliance
with regulatory
requirements
To attain levels of
environmental
performance that benefit
people, communities, and
the environment
Encouragement of
businesses to practice
waste reduction through
pollution prevention
How it Works
» Reduction of costs and burdens of
compliance with air regulations in
manufacturing sector.
Developing new ways to address
iron/steel cleanup
Making it easier for computers and
electronics sector to achieve
pollution prevention
Other projects relating to specified
industries.
* Facilities must have:
» Adopted and implemented an
environmental management system
(EMS)
* Commit to improving their
environmental performance
Commit to public outreach and
performance reporting
* Have a record of sustained
compliance with environmental
requirements
Education
Technical Assistance
Award Programs
*"EPA's Common Sense Initiative (CS1)." EnviroScnsc 19 July 2002
.
National Environmental Performance Track, August 14, 2002. http://www.cpa.KOv/pcrforniancctrack.
"Green Star 19 July 2002.
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Program
Project XL5
Goal
To obtain a partnership
between stat e and local
governments, businesses and
federal facilities with the
EPA in order to develop
strategies for environmental
protection
How it Works
8 selection criteria including:
o Production of better
environmental results than
those that can be achieved
through regulations
o Production of benefits (money
savings, regulatory flexibility,
incentives, etc.)
o Support by stakeholders
o Achieve pollution prevention
o Transferable lessons
o Demonstrate feasibility
o Establish accountability
(reporting, monitoring,
evaluations)
o Avoid shifting risk
" "Project XL: What is Project XL''" US Environmental Protection Agency 19 July 2(K)2.
''http://mw.epa gov/projcctxl/filc2.htm>.
ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE THROUGH POLLUTION PREVENTION
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148
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Program
Common Sense
Initiative2
Goal
Performance
Track3
Green Star4
Partnership with
representatives from
federal, state, local
governments, community-
based and national
environmental groups,
environmental justice
groups, labor, and
industry with the EPA to
examine environmental
requirements impacting
the following industries.
o Car manufacturing
o Computers/Electro
nics
o Iron/Steel
o Metal finishing
o Petroleum refining
o Printing
Public/private partnership
To recognize and
encourage top
environmental performers
To go beyond compliance
with regulatory
requirements
To attain levels of
environmental
performance that benefit
people, communities, and
the environment
Encouragement of
businesses to practice
waste reduction through
pollution prevention
How it Works
Reduction of costs and burdens of
compliance with air regulations in
manufacturing sector
Developing new ways to address
iron/steel cleanup.
Making it easier for computers and
electronics sector to achieve
pollution prevention
Other projects relating to specified
industries
Facilities must have:
Adopted and implemented an
environmental management system
(EMS)
Commit to improving their
environmental performance
* Commit to public outreach and
performance reporting
Have a record of sustained
compliance with environmental
requirements
Education
Technical Assistance
Award Programs
2"EPA's Common Sense Initiative (CSI)" EnvtroSense. 19 July 2002
.
1 National Environmental Performance Track. August 14. 2002. http://www.cpa.gov/perfonnancctrack.
4 Green Star. 19 July 2002.
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Program
! Project XLJ
Goal
To obtain a partnership
between state and local
governments, businesses and
federal facilities with the
EPA in order to develop
strategies for environmental
protection
How it Works
8 selection criteria including:
o Production of better
environmental results than
those that can be achieved
through regulations
o Production of benefits (money
savings, regulatory flexibility,
incentives, etc.)
o Support by stakeholders
o Achieve pollution prevention
o Transferable lessons
o Demonstrate feasibility
o Establish accountability
(reporting, monitoring,
evaluations)
o Avoid shifting risk
1 "Project XL: What is Project XL?" USJEimronironuU. Protection Agency
ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL Jtf.srirn THROI ICH FOLIATION PRKVBNTION
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19 July 2002.
146
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APPENDIX III - POLLUTION PREVENTION
PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMS
INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS:
Government has collaborated with industry in a number of widely recognized programs
The partnership between federal, state, and local government and industries provides the
opportunity for collaboration in developing solutions that address pollution prevention,
control, and environmental regulations. The partnership facilitates pollution prevention
by creating common ground for government and industry. The following are a few
partnership programs.
Program
Goal
How it Works
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Veronica Body, Esq. *
Dept. of Urban & Environmental Policy &
Planning
Tufts University
97 Talbot Avenue
Medford,MA 02155
Tel. (617) 627-3394
Fax (617)627-3377
E-mail: veronica.eady@tufis.edu
Ken Geiser
Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute
University of Massachusetts / Lowell
Lowell, MA 01854
Phone: 978-934-3275
Fax: 978-934-3050
E-mail: kgeiser@turi.org
Tom GoUtooth
Indigenous Environmental Network
P. O. Box 485
Bemjidi, MN 56619-0485
Phone: (218)751-4967
Fax:(218)751-0561
E-mail: ien@apc.ipc.org
LeAnn Herren
Industrial Ecology Program
University of South Carolina
School of the Environment
7th floor Burnes Building
Columbia, SC 29298
Phone: (803)777-9061
Fax: (803)
E-mail: herren@environ.sc.edu
Debra Jacobson
Executive Director
Great Lakes Regional P2 Roundtable
1010 Jorie Blvd, Suite 12
Oak Brook, IL 60523
Phone: (630) 472-5019
Fax: (630) 472-5023
djacobso@wmrc.uiuc.edu
Neftali Garcia Martinez
Scientific and Technical Services
RR-2 Buzon
1722 Cupey Alto
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00926
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Phone: (787) 292-0620
Fax: (787) 760-0496
E-mail: sctincigjcoqui.net
Keith McCoy
Director, Environmental Quality
National Association of Manufacturers
1331 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Suite 600
Washington, DC 20004
(202)637-3175
(202) 637-3182 (fax)
E-mail: kmccoy@narn.org
Tirso Moreno
Farmworkers Association of Florida
815 South Park Avenue
Apopka, FL 32703
(407)886-5151
(407) 885-6644 (fax)
E-mail: tirsomoreno@hotmail.com
Theresa Peterson
3M Corporation
1101 15th Street NW
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
Phone:(202)331-6949
E-mail: thpetersonl@mmm.com
Coleen Paler *
Mole Lake Sokoagon Defense Committee
RR 1 Box 2015
Crandon, WI54520
Phone: (715)478-5033
Fax: (715) 365-8977
E-mail: polersdc@newnorth.net
Andrew Sawyers, PhD
Community Planning and Environmental Justice
Coordinator
Maryland Department of the Environment
1800 Washington Blvd
Baltimore, MD 21230
Phone: (410)537-3411
Fax: (410)537-3888
E-mail: asawyers@mde.state.md.us
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Dean B. Suagee *
Vermont Law School
First Nations Environmental Law Program
Chelsea Street
South Royalton, VT 05068
Phone: (802) 763-8303 Ext. 2341
Fax: (802) 763-2940
E-mail: dsuagee@vermontlaw.edu
Connie Tucker
Southern Organizing Committee for
Economic and Social Justice
P.O. Box 10518
Atlanta, GA 30301
Phone: (404)-755-2855
Fax: (404) 755-0575
E-mail: cnucker@mindspnne.com
Joanna Underwood
President
INFORM, Inc.
120 Wall Street, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10005
Phone: (212) 361-2400 x 222
fax: (212) 361-2412
E-mail: underwood@inforrninc.orE
Richm-4 Wells
President
The Lexington Group
110 Hartwell Avenue
Lexington, MA 02421-3136
Phone: (781) 674-7306
Fax:(781)674-2851
E-mail: richard.wells@iexgrp.com
DianneWiUans*
Oklahoma Dept. of Environmental Quality
Pollution Prevention Program
P.O. Box 1677
Oklahoma City, OK 73101-1677
Phone: (405) 702-9128
Fax: (405)702-9101
FedEx: 707 N. Robinson, 73102-6010
E-mail: Dianne.Wilkins@deq.state.ok.us
Donele WiUdns
Detroiter's Working for Environmental Justice
P.O. Box 14944
Detroit, MI 48214
Phone:(313)821-1064
E-mail: dwdwej@msn.com
Consultant
Samara F. Swanston, ESQ.
205 W. 80th St., Apt. ID
New York. New York 10024
Office (718) 384-3339
Home (212)799-1068
Cell: (917) 324-0541
E-mail: fotlah@aol.com
154
ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE THROUGH POLLUTION PREVENTION
NEJAC Pollution Prevention Report
Appendices
June 2003
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