&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Plan EJ 2014
Supporting
Community-Based
Action Programs
Plan EJ 2014 is EPA's roadmap for
integrating environmental justice into
its programs and policies.
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SUPPORTING COMMUNITY-BASED
ACTION PROGRAMS
Implementation Plan
September 2011
Led by
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response,
and Regions 2, 3, and 4
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
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PLAN EJ 2014 AT A GLANCE
Plan EJ 2014 is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s
roadmap to integrating environmental justice into its programs and policies.
The year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order
12898 on environmental justice. Plan EJ 2014 seeks to:
Protect the environment and health in overburdened communities.
- Empower communities to take action to improve their health and
environment.
Establish partnerships with local, state, tribal, and federal
governments and organizations to achieve healthy and sustainable
communities.
As the EPA's overarching environmental justice strategy, Plan EJ 2014 has
three major sections: Cross-Agency Focus Areas, Tools Development
Areas, and Program Initiatives.
The Cross-Agency Focus Areas are:
Incorporating Environmental Justice into Rulemaking.
Considering Environmental Justice in Permitting.
Advancing Environmental Justice through Compliance and
Enforcement.
Supporting Community-Based Action Programs.
Fostering Administration-Wide Action on Environmental Justice.
The Tools Development Areas are:
Science.
Law.
Information.
Resources.
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1.0 INTRODUaiON 1
1.1 Goals 2
1.2 Organizational Structure 2
2.0 IMPLEMENTATION 3
2.1 Strategies 3
2.2 Activities 3
2.3 Community Engagement and Stakeholder Outreach 8
3.0 DELIVERABLES 9
4.0 REPORTING 11
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Goals At-A-G lance
To strengthen community-
based programs to
engage overburdened
communities and build
partnerships that promote
healthy, sustainable, and
green communities.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
For over forty years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s
top priority has been protecting human health and the environment. The
Agency has learned that communities must be the driver for local
solutions. Consequently, EPA has implemented numerous programs that
support community empowerment and provide community benefits at all
levels, from basic educational and leadership development to
comprehensive approaches to achieving healthy, sustainable, and green
communities. These efforts include financial assistance programs such as
Environmental Justice, Community Action for a Renewed Environment
(CARE), Brownfields Area-Wide Planning, and Tribal grants. They also
include other place-based programs such as EPA's Local Climate and
Energy, Childhood Asthma, Sustainable Communities and Smart Growth,
Urban Waters, Superfund, and Brownfields programs. EPA undertakes
these programs in collaboration with other federal agencies, state, tribal,
and local governments, and multiple stakeholders. Significantly, EPA's
ten regions play a leading role in implementing these programs.
While communities continue to impress EPA with their dedication, their
innovative ideas, and most importantly their ability to bring real change
to their communities, we realize that far too many communities still lack
the capacity to affect environmental conditions. Many minority low-
income, tribal, and indigenous1 communities continue to live in the
shadows of the worst pollution and face some of the harshest effects.
The Plan EJ 2014 Supporting Community-Based Action Programs
implementation plan builds upon an Agency effort to improve the
effectiveness of EPA's place-based community programs through better
information access, coordination, and leveraging. Through this process,
EPA hopes to make "community" an organizing principle for our work. To
implement this principle, EPA is currently doing the difficult foundational
work of internally aligning and coordinating its programs. The resulting
foundation will enable EPA, particularly its regions, to more effectively
expand partnerships, build local capacity, and foster health and economic
benefits in overburdened communities2, as well as aligning EPA programs
and investments with those of other federal agencies, state, local, and
tribal governments, and other stakeholders.
'when these terms are used in this document, they refer to entities and individuals in the United
States only.
2 In Plan EJ 2014, EPA uses the term "overburdened" to describe the minority, low-income, tribal, and
indigenous populations or communities in the United States that potentially experience
disproportionate environmental harms and risks as a result of greater vulnerability to environmental
hazards. This increased vulnerability may be attributable to an accumulation of both negative and
lack of positive environmental, health, economic, or social conditions within these populations or
communities.
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EPA will strengthen community-based programs to engage overburdened
communities and build partnerships that promote healthy, sustainable,
and ereen communities.
To accomplish this goal, EPA will build upon and leverage Agency efforts
to promote greater coordination in the use of programs and tools that
support community empowerment. EPA will pursue this goal at all levels,
from basic educational and leadership development to comprehensive
approaches to achieving healthy, sustainable, and green communities.
Through these efforts, EPA will make the Agency's resources more
accessible to underserved communities, while achieving greater internal
efficiency through feedback and better understanding of implementing
community-based programs. This approach will result in environmental,
health, and economic improvements in such communities.
The Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) and regions
2, 3, and 4 are responsible for designing and implementing the Plan EJ
2014 Supporting Community-Based Action Programs focus area. They will
be supported by the Office of Water (OW), the Office of Air and Radiation
(OAR), the Office of Policy (OP), the Office of Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance (OECA), the Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ),
the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), and Regions 1, 6, and 10.
The EPA recognizes that Supporting Community-Based Action Programs is
cross-cutting in nature and requires the participation of all EPA programs
and regions. This integrated One EPA approach enables the Agency to
better engage and empower communities and other stakeholders,
particularly those who have been historically under-represented, in order
to support and advance environmental protection and foster
environmental, health, and economic benefits for all communities.
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2.0 IMPLEMENTATION
2.1 Strategies
EPA will employ six strategies in the Supporting Community-Based Action
Programs Implementation Plan that are tied to the larger Plan EJ 2014
goals and Agency priorities.
Promoting Area-Wide Strategies for Brownfields
Redevelopment and Community Revitalization
EPA is piloting an area-wide planning approach to
brownfields in 23 communities nationwide, recognizing that
revitalization of the area surrounding a brownfield is just as
critical to the successful reuse of the property as site
assessment, cleanup, and redevelopment. Each
community will receive up to $175K in grants and technical
assistance. The pilot program will help further community-
based partnership efforts within underserved or
economically disadvantaged neighborhoods by confronting
local environmental and public health challenges related to
brownfields, while creating a planning framework to
advance economic development and job creation.
As one example, the Ironbound Community Corporation in
Newark, New Jersey, is building upon existing revitalization
and redevelopment efforts to develop an area-wide plan to
create sustainable recreational and mixed-use development
in an area with 100 brownfields. This community is home to
over 50,000 residents and contains the remnants of a once
vibrant economy, anchored by a large brewery that closed
in the 1970s, leaving behind contaminated sites and
deteriorating infrastructure. The area is economically
distressed with the poverty rate as high as 55 percent.
1. Advance environmental justice principles by
building strong state and tribal partnerships
through the National Environmental Performance
Partnership System (NEPPS) and National
Program Manager (NPM) guidance.
2. Identify scalable and replicable elements of
successful Agency community-based programs
and align multiple EPA programs to more fully
address the needs of overburdened communities.
3. Promote an integrated One EPA presence to
better engage communities in the Agency's work
to protect human health and the environment.
4. Foster community-based programs modeled on
the Community Action for a Renewed
Environment (CARE) principles.
5. Explore how EPA funding, policies, and programs
can inform or help decision-makers to maximize
benefits and minimize adverse impacts when
considering current land uses in decision-making,
planning, siting, and permitting.
6. Promote equitable development opportunities
for all communities.
2.2 Activities
This section describes the ten major activities EPA will undertake to
implement these strategies to support community-based programs.
Strategy 1: Advance environmental justice principles by building
strong state and tribal partnerships through the National
Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS) and National
Program Manager (NPM) guidance
This effort will advance the Administrator's priorities on environmental
justice and children's health through state, tribal, and grant work plans.
EPA regions will work with states and tribes to advance environmental
justice by improving environmental conditions and public health in
overburdened communities.
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EPA has established a workgroup and schedule a series of meetings to
hold discussions. The workgroup will make recommendations and
develop appropriate language to incorporate environmental justice
principles and Title VI to better protect overburdened communities. This
effort will demonstrate how the Agency can positively affect
overburdened communities through its partnerships, agreements, work
plans and grants that are governed by NEPPS and NPM guidance
principles.
The workgroup will promote state and tribal engagement with affected
communities in their discussions and decision-making processes. The
workgroup has identified two key activities to address as part of its effort
to advance environmental justice through NEPPS and NPM guidance:
• Activity 1: Provide recommendations that mutually support
community involvement; resource and data sharing; and monitoring,
tracking, and training within programs implemented through
performance partnership agreements, tribal agreements, and work
plans guided by NEPPS and NPM documents.
o Address specific issues and identify barriers within current
practices to incorporating environmental justice principles
into NEPPS and NPM process.
o Develop recommendations on how to best integrate
environmental justice principles into state and tribal grant
work plans.
o Promote state and tribal involvement in environmental
justice discussions, reviews, and decision making to
incorporate environmental justice principles into the NEPPS
and NPM processes.
o Coordinate with NEPPS and NPM efforts, exploring current
regional practices and lessons learned to develop language
for environmental justice guidance on community-based
programs for inclusion in the annual NPM and NEPPS
guidance.
o Identify Agency programs to pilot the inclusion of
environmental justice principles into negotiated work plans
and tribal agreements.
o Incorporate lessons learned from pilot demonstrations of
environmental justice in negotiated work plans and tribal
agreements into NPM and NEPPS annual guidance.
• Activity 2: Develop language for environmental justice principles
including Title VI guidance (as appropriate with all Agency grants) for
inclusion in the FY 2013 NEPPS and FY 2012 NPM guidance through
collaboration and discussions with Office of Congressional and
Intergovernmental Relations (OCIR), Office of Civil Rights (OCR),
regional offices, and states.
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o Consult Agency legal resources for guidance in integrating
environmental justice considerations and Title VI guidance
through NEPPS and NPM guidance documents.
o Review language from Performance Partnership Agreements
(PPAs), Performance Partnership Grants (PPGs), and grants of
Agency and state programs being implemented under NEPPS
and NPM guidance.
Strategy 2: Identify scalable and replicable elements of successful
Agency community-based programs and align multiple EPA programs to
more fully address the needs of overburdened communities.
EPA has achieved great success with community-based programs that
help build capacity to address critical issues affecting overburdened
populations. In order to help Agency community-based programs learn
from experience, this workgroup will engage both headquarters and
regional offices regarding their successes and lessons learned with
community-based programs. The workgroup will also review Office of
Policy's (OP) list of 26 existing Agency community-based programs and
existing evaluations of select Agency EJ programs to identify effective
programmatic elements of successful place-based programs that help to
support healthy and sustainable communities.
This is part of EPA's efforts to improve the effectiveness of its community-
based programs through better information access, coordination, and
leveraging. This effort focuses on making "community" an organizing
principle of our work, increasing community access to our programs, and
improving environmental protection and the quality of life at the
community level.
The workgroup has identified two key activities to improve EPA's
community-based efforts to produce tangible results in overburdened
communities.
• Activity 3: Review Agency and key outside community-based
programs, and existing evaluations of select Agency programs, to
identify scalable and replicable program elements which encourage
place-based solutions to environmental justice issues, strengthen and
promote partnerships, and support healthy and sustainable
communities.
• Activity 4: Make recommendations on how EPA can align its
community-based programs, particularly in EPA's regions to more
fully address the needs of overburdened communities.
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Strategy 3: Promote an integrated One EPA presence to better engage
communities in the Agency's work to protect human health and the
environment.
The organizational structure of EPA presents a challenge for many
communities that are addressing multiple environmental issues. The
reality is that most Americans see EPA as a single entity. More and more
communities are seeking comprehensive environmental solutions that cut
across individual media programs. We will find the best solutions when
we work consistently in a unified way. What we can achieve as One EPA
to assure a clean and healthy environment for all is far greater than the
results of multiple uncoordinated efforts. One EPA is a mindset that
values alignment - investing our time and energy to define together the
outcomes we want and how to get there. It entails our persistent search
for more integrated ways of reaching solutions that better protect the
environment. This involves headquarters and regions working together
to target areas of concerns.
The workgroup has identified the following key activity to address as part
of its effort to promote a One EPA presence.
• Activity 5: Target three approaches to promote an integrated One
EPA presence where EPA will find the best solution by working in a
consistent and unified way.
EPA will identify opportunities to present an integrated One EPA
presence through:
1. Conferences and listening sessions.
2. Communication and outreach to better engage communities.
3. Capacity building through workforce development and job
training.
Strategy 4: Foster community-based programs modeled on Community
Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) principles.
The CARE program was developed from lessons learned from EPA
community-based programs (e.g., Brownfields, Environmental Justice,
Community-Based Environmental Protection, etc.) and advice from the
2004 NEJACto "initiate community-based, collaborative, multi-media, risk
reduction pilot projects."3 The CARE principles will be applied to a One
EPA approach toward testing regional approaches for joint planning and
non-EPA funding of community partnerships. These partnerships will
engage private industry, businesses, foundations, universities and
community colleges, and other groups.
The workgroup has identified the following three key activities to address
as part of its effort to foster community-based programs modeled on
CARE principles:
National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, Ensuring Risk Reduction in Communities with
Multiple Stressors: Environmental Justice and Cumulative Risks/Impacts, December 2004. Available
at: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/ei/resources/publications/neiac/neiac-cum-risk-rpt-122104.pdf.
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• Activity 6: Develop a community-based partners (CBP) initiative for
opportunities in underserved and environmentally overburdened
neighborhoods to collaborate with federal agencies, private industry,
foundations, and other institutions to implement the CARE principles.
o In developing the CBP program, EPA will assess and
implement ways by which the Agency can better act as a
conduit to bring together underserved communities with
federal agencies, private industry, businesses, foundations,
universities, and other institutions.
• Activity 7: Develop a CBP program that caters to grassroots or
emerging community groups with little to no organizational or
technical capacity.
o This second type of CBP program will address Agency
concerns in reaching out to those community groups who
have been unsuccessful in competing for government grants.
• Activity 8: Identify technical assistance resources, program staff, and
regional staff available to aid overburdened communities with issues
related to their areas of expertise.
Strategy 5: Explore how EPA funding, policies, and programs can
inform or help decision makers to maximize benefits and minimize
adverse impacts when considering current land uses in decision making,
planning, siting, and permitting.
EPA is aware of communities concerns about land use planning. To
respond to these concerns, EPA will explore how our programs affect land
use planning, siting, and decision making in overburdened communities.
While land use planning is usually a local government responsibility, EPA
can provide interested jurisdictions with information on best practices
regarding policies and approaches that can benefit all community
stakeholders and minimize adverse impacts.
Building upon its work with the interagency Partnership for Sustainable
Communities, EPA can support a broad discussion forum to explore how
interested jurisdictions might better address the issues of overburdened
communities when making local land use decisions. Due to the cross-
cutting nature of land use planning and its effect on communities, EPA
will work collaboratively with state agencies that, subsequently, will work
with communities and other stakeholders to identify issues and
opportunities.
EPA has identified the following activity to implement its effort to
examine land use decision making, planning, and siting in underserved
and overburdened communities:
• Activity 9: Establish a workgroup and seek stakeholder feedback to
explore ways the Agency's work intersects with land use decision
making, planning, and siting.
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o This workgroup will produce information discussing
environmental concerns that may affect land use planning,
siting, and permitting decisions. This workgroup will be
comprised of select EPA offices, and state, local, and tribal
governments. The workgroup will also develop a
complementary training course for stakeholders with the goal
of increasing awareness of land-use decision making, and its
effect on communities.
Strategy 6: Promote equitable development opportunities for all
communities.
EPA has a range of financing and technical assistance vehicles in place
that communities might be able to tap if they had basic, understandable
information about how to do so. However, ensuring equitable access to
them can be a formidable challenge for communities and organizations
unfamiliar with EPA's processes for both distributing and leveraging these
resources. Therefore, EPA needs to foster a climate in which more
equitable development opportunities can be realized, by providing
tailored information on financing and related tools and strategies,
including outreach to agencies whose complementary tools could be
given a greater community focus.
• Activity 10: Promote equitable development opportunities.
o This workgroup will conduct research on existing financing
vehicles; prepare an analysis (that will integrate existing
Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO)/Environmental
Financial Advisory Board (EFAB) tools, as appropriate);
produce an "EPA Agency-wide Financing and Technical
Assistance Vehicle: Strategies to Apply Them to Support
Equitable Community Development" and post on the web;
and prepare an outreach memorandum to other key
agencies, to encourage application of their tools in ways that
promote equitable development.
2,3 •!
Community engagement and stakeholder partnership activities are
integrated into the different strategies and activities of this
implementation plan. Many strategies and activities of this plan resulted
from community dialogues and the NEJAC advice and recommendations.
In addition, we will coordinate our community outreach and stakeholder
involvement efforts with OEJ.
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3.0 DELIVERABLES
The table below provides a list of activities to be completed with
deliverables and associated milestones.
DELIVERABLES
Activity 1:
Recommendations on
advancing
environmental justice
principles in work
plans and agreements.
MILESTONES
Necessary expertise identified for
developing recommendations.
Recommendations on how to best
integrate NEPPS principles into
state, tribal, and grant work plans.
Agency programs to pilot the
inclusion of environmental justice
into negotiated work plans and
tribal agreements identified.
June 30,
2011
September
30,2011
September
30,2012
Activity 2:
Development of
appropriate language
for incorporating
environmental justice
principles in work
plans and agreements.
The Office of General Counsel
(OGC) guidance on
environmental justice and Title VI
language.
Proposed language on
environmental justice including
Title VI guidance for community-
based (CB) programs for FY 2013
NEPPS guidance and FY 2012
NPM guidance developed.
June 30,
2011
September
30,2012
Activity 3: List of
scalable and replicable
elements of CB
programs.
Workgroup established to
coordinate with OP and look at
Agency and outside CB
programs.
List of scalable and replicable CB
program elements developed.
March 31,
2011
October 28,
2011
Activity 4:
Recommendations on
aligning Agency CB
programs.
Recommendations on aligning
Agency CB programs.
December
31,2011
Activity 5: Target
three approaches to
promote an integrated
One EPA presence.
Conferences and listening
sessions
Communication and outreach to
better engage communities.
Capacity building through
workforce development and job
training.
July 1,
2011
July 29,
2011
December
31,2011
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Activity 6: Develop
and implement CBP
program based on the
CARE model.
Communities with the established
framework in place to implement
this program identified by EPA
regional offices.
Select communities and engage
partnership opportunities.
Preliminary program initiated.
Lessons learned from selected
communities developed.
August
2011
September
2011
June 2012
Activity 7: Develop
and implement CBP
program for grassroots
or emerging
community groups.
Develop a process to select
communities.
Preliminary program initiated.
Lessons learned from selected
communities developed.
December
2011
January
2012
January
2013
Activity 8: Identify
resources available to
underserved
communities.
Identify areas of need.
Reach out to offices and regions
to identify resources and staff.
Develop a list and a system for
updating the list.
September
2011
October
2011
May 2012
Activity 9: Explore
how EPA funding,
policies, and programs
can inform and help
local decision makers
to maximize benefits
and minimize adverse
effects from land use
decision making,
planning, and siting.
Establish a workgroup.
Set up a series of meetings to
begin looking at intersection of
Agency work and land use
planning.
Develop an outreach strategy to
get stakeholder feedback.
Develop training course for
stakeholders.
Develop a tool to showcase
findings
May 2011
March 2011
June 2011
December
2011
December
2011
Activity 10: Promote
equitable development
opportunities.
Conduct research on financing
vehicles.
Prepare the Analysis (which will
integrate existing OCFO and
EFAB tools as appropriate).
Produce an "EPA Agency-wide
Financing and Technical
Assistance Vehicle: Strategies to
Apply Them to Support Equitable
Community Development"
and post on the web.
Prepare an outreach
memorandum to other key
agencies, to encourage
application of their tools in ways
that promote equitable
development.
August 1,
2011
September
30,2011
December
31,2011
December
31,2011
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Progress reports on this implementation plan will be generated annually.
The planned deliverables and milestones for each of the activities are
described in Section 3.0. Each of the offices responsible will further
refine and develop the activities during the process of implementation.
For information, please contact Pat Carey, 202-566-0199,
Carey.Pat@epa.gov.
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CARE Community Action for a Renewed Environment
CB Community-based
CBP Community-based partners
CSO Combined Sewer Overflow
EFAB Environmental Financial Advisory Board
EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
FY Fiscal Year
NEJAC National Environmental Justice Advisory Council
NEPPS National Environmental Performance Partnership System
NPM National Program Management
OAR Office of Air and Radiation
OCFO Office of the Chief Financial Officer
OCIR Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations
OCR Office of Civil Rights
OCSPP Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
OECA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
OEJ Office of Environmental Justice
OGC Office of General Counsel
OIA Office Indian Affairs
OP Office of Policy
OSWER Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
OW Office of Water
PPA Performance Partnership Agreement
PPG Performance Partnership Grants
SSO Sanitary Sewer Overflow
TAB Technical Assistance to Brownfields Communities (grant)
TASC Technical Assistance Services for Communities (program)
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1. Community Action for a Renewed Environment (Leads: OW and OAR)
OAR
2. Community-Based Childhood Asthma Program
3. Local Climate and Energy Program (Climate Showcase Communities)
4. EPA School Monitoring Initiative
OSWER
5. Brownfields - Training, Technical Assistance Grants, including Technical
Assistance to Brownfields Communities (TAB) grants
6. Targeted Brownfields Assessment
7. Superfund Job Training Initiative
8. Superfund Redevelopment Initiative
9. Superfund Community Technical Assistance Grants
10. Brownfields Sustainability Pilots
11. Brownfields Assessment, Cleanup, and RLF Grants, including
Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Pilots
12. Superfund Technical Assistance Services for Communities (TASC)
Program
13. Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Grants
14. Partnership for Sustainable Communities Brownfields Pilots (2010)
15. RE-Powering Feasibility Studies
16. Brownfields and Land Revitalization Technical Support Centers
OW
17. Five Star Restoration Grants Program
18. Lead in Schools Program
29. Urban Waters Initiative
20. Stormwater/Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO)/Combined Sewer
Overflow (CSO) permits
Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP)
21. Community-Based Lead Grant Program
22. Tribal Lead Grant Program
OP
23. Smart Growth Program
Office Indian Affairs (OIA)
24. Indian Environmental General Assistance Program
OECA
25. Environmental Justice Showcase Communities
26. Environmental Justice Small Grants Program
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For more information on Plan EJ 2014, visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of
Environmental Justice website at: http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/plan-ej7
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