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EJIWG
Framework
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Fiscal Years 2016-2018
MARCH 2016
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
BACKGROUND: Federal I nteragency Working Group on EnvironmentalJustice 4
EJ IWG FRAMEWORK FOR COLLABORATION GOALS 6
I. Enhance communication and coordination to improve the health, quality-of-life,
and economic opportunities in overburdened communities 6
II. Enhance multi-agency support of holistic community-based solutions to provide
assistance as needed to address environmental justice issues 6
III. Advance interagency strategies to identify and address environmental justice
concerns in agency programs, policies, and activities 7
IV. Develop partnerships with academic institutions to assist in providing long-term
technical assistance to overburdened communities 7
APPENDIX A: Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice
Governance Structure 8
APPENDIX B: EJ IWG Framework for Collaboration 2016 Priorities 12
APPENDIX C: Annual Progress Report for the Framework 13
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INTRODUCTION
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and CEQ
Managing Director Christy Goldfus
The Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental
Justice (EJ IWG) plays a central role in creating healthy
and sustainable communities by bringing together the
federal family to address critical environmental justice
issues. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
defines environmental justice as: The fair treatment and
meaningful involvement of all people-regard less of race,
color, national origin, or income-with respect to the
development, implementation, and enforcement of
environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
The EJ IWG provides leadership, guidance, and support to federal agencies by:
• Coordinating a focused and concerted effort by federal agencies to directly address the
environmental, social, economic, and public health burdens in minority, low-income,
indigenous and tribal communities;
• Implementing policies that have measurable impacts on environmental justice;
• Focusing federal agency resources and technical assistance to address disproportionately high
and adverse health or environmental effects; and
• Developing partnerships with colleges, universities, and other organizations outside of the
federal government to facilitate long-term support for, and improvement in, overburdened
communities.
The EJ IWG Framework for Collaboration (Framework) outlines goals for the next three years that
advance greater federal agency collaboration to improve quality - of- life and support economic
opportunities in overburdened1 and under-resourced communities. Increased coordination and
cooperation among federal agencies will promote holistic community-based solutions to
environmental justice issues and ensure that the public has meaningful opportunities for
participation in the decision-making process.
Successful community engagement meets communities "where they are" by employing approaches to
outreach and communication that they value and find effective. The EJ IWG listening sessions held
across the country between 2011 and 2015 generated numerous public comments that influenced the
development of the draft Framework. The draft also underwent a public comment period and the EJ
IWG reviewed and considered all of the comments received to develop this final Framework
document. The Framework builds upon the earlier work of the EJ IWG and outlines activities,
priorities, and resources to strengthen a comprehensive federal approach to improve the health and
sustainability of those communities that need the most assistance. As the EJ IWG and its committees
implement the Framework, the input received during the public comment period will continue to be
incorporated, as appropriate, and the EJ IWG will work to ensure that its community engagement
efforts are successful.
https://compliancegov.zendesk.com /he/en -us/articles/211430208- What-is-the-definition-of-overburdened-community-that-is-relevant-
for-EPA-Actions-and-Promising-Practices-
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BACKGROUND:
Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice
The EJ IWG facilitates the active involvement of all federal agencies to implement Executive Order
12898, "Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income
Populations," (Order)2. The Order states that federal agencies must identify and address, as
appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of their
programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.
Established by the Order, the EJ IWG provides a forum for federal agencies collectively to advance
environmental justice principles. The EJ IWG works as a federal family to assist communities in
building the capacity to promote and implement innovative and comprehensive solutions that
address environmental justice issues.
The EJ IWG is chaired by the EPA Administrator and includes federal agencies and White House
offices. The EJ IWG has standing committees and other committees established as necessary to carry
out responsibilities outlined by the Order. The EJ IWG consists of senior leadership representatives,
senior staff representatives, and other persons designated by a federal agency. Additional
information on the EJ IWG governance structure and a list of agencies can be found in Appendix A of
this document.
In 2011, the EJ IWG agencies took a landmark step to
support environmental justice by signing a Memorandum of
Understanding3 on Environmental Justice and Executive
Order 12898 (MOU) and adopting a Charter. The MOU serves
as a formal agreement among federal agencies to recommit
to addressing environmental justice through a more
collaborative, comprehensive, and efficient process. The
Charter, revised in late 2014,4 outlines the EJ IWG
governance structure which includes the following four
standing (permanent) committees: £'J IWG Senior Principals Meeting
• Public Participation
• Regional Interagency Working Groups
• Strategy and Implementation Progress Report
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act
Executive Order No. 12898, 59 F.R. 7629 (1994):
http://www.epa.gov/environmentaliustice/resources/policv/exec order 12898.pdf
3 Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898 (2011):
http://www3.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/publications/interagency/e1-mou-2011-08.pdf
4 Charter for Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice:
http://www3.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/publications/interagency/iwg-charter-2014.pdf
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In addition, consistent with the Presidential Memorandum5 issued with the Order, and based on
public recommendations, every three years the EJ IWG determines if there are additional focus areas
for federal agencies to consider and address.
During years 2016 - 2018, the EJ IWG will maintain
committees to address the following five focus
areas:
Native Americans/Indigenous Peoples
Rural Communities
Impacts from Climate Change
Impacts from Commercial Transportation
(Goods Movement)
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
Mustafa S. All, Senior Advisor to the Administrator on
Environmental Justice
Additional information on these committees is found in Appendix A.
5 Presidential Memorandum for Executive Order on Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority
Populations and Low-Income Populations, 1994:
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EJ IWG FRAMEWORK FOR COLLABORATION GOALS
The EJ IWG developed this Framework, which builds on decades of environmental justice work, to
focus the collective efforts of the federal agencies on four goals for years 2016, 2017, and 2018:
I. Enhance communication and coordination to improve the
health, quality-of-life, and economic opportunities in
overburdened communities;
II. Enhance multi-agency support of holistic community-
based solutions to provide assistance as needed to
address environmental justice issues;
III. Advance interagency strategies to identify and address
environmental justice concerns in agency programs,
policies, and activities; and
IV. Develop partnerships with academic institutions to assist
in providing long-term technical assistance to
overburdened communities.
HHS Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Dr.
Wanda Jones
Outlined below are a few ways the EJ IWG committees will work to achieve the goals over the next
three years.
I. Enhance communication and coordination to improve the health,
quality-of-life, and economic opportunities in overburdened communities
• Enhance community outreach to provide greater public access to
federal information, resources, and trainings;
• Increase public access to and understanding of data, mapping,
and assessment tools to address environmental justice issues; and
• Maximize opportunities for federal agency leadership to consider
stakeholder feedback.
EJ IWC Tribal Meeting in
Bismark, North Dakota
Enhance multi-agency support of holistic community-based solutions to provide
assistance as needed to address environmental justice issues
• Enhance community capacity building by sharing lessons
learned, promising practices, and resources;
» Identify and leverage federal resources to address
environmental challenges and build sustainable
community infrastructure; and
» Foster federal interagency collaboration on a regional,
state, tribal, and local level through various outreach
efforts and other activities.
HHS Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Dr.
Wanda Jones
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Advance interagency strategies to identify and address environmental justice
concerns in agency programs, policies, and activities
• Increase community awareness of federal agency
environmental justice strategies and goals to get
feedback that assists the federal family in
implementation;
• Identify opportunities to highlight interagency
community solutions to help advance implementation
of federal environmental justice policies and
guidance; and
• Improve implementation of federal environmental
justice policies and guidance by creating appropriate
benchmarks.
HHS Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Dr.
Wanda Jones
IV. Develop partnerships with academic institutions to assist in providing long-term
technical assistance to overburdened communities
Butch Blazer, Deputy Under Secretary for
Natural Resources ft Environment
Improve technical assistance to overburdened
communities by leveraging programs such as the
College/Underserved Community Partnership Program
(CUPP);
Encourage enhanced training from federal agencies to
academic institutions, particularly minority serving
academic institutions and tribal colleges and
universities, in areas such as grant writing and access
to federal resources organized by community issues,
rather than federal agency; and
Develop internship opportunities for college students
in overburdened communities to enhance the
knowledge base of the communities and to educate
college students on the conditions in overburdened
communities.
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APPENDIX A: GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE
EJ IWG Federal Agencies
• Environmental Protection Agency (Chair)
• Department of Agriculture
• Department of Commerce
• Department of Defense
• Department of Education
• Department of Energy
• Department of Health and Human Services
• Department of Homeland Security
• Department of Housing and Urban
Development
Department of Interior
Department of Justice
Department of Labor
Department of Transportation
Department of Veterans Affairs
General Services Administration
Small Business Administration
White House Office: Council on
Environmental Quality
The EJ IWG responsibilities and authority to act on environmental justice issues are established by
Executive Order 12898, "Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations
and Low-Income Populations," with two accompanying documents: 1) the 2011 Memorandum of
Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898 and 2) the Charter for the
Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice. Both documents are available at:
http://www3.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/interagencv/resources.html.
The chart below outlines the committee structure and focus areas for the EJ IWG. The Charter
created the Permanent committees listed in green. Consistent with the MOU, at least every three
years, the EJ IWG will, based in part on public recommendations identified in annual progress
reports, identify important areas for federal agencies to consider and address, as appropriate, in
environmental justice strategies, annual implementation progress reports, and other efforts.
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APPENDIX A: GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE (CONT'D)
EJ IWG Governance Structure 2016 - 2018
Executive Order
12898
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• Worl
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• Just
Interagency
Working Group on
Environmental
Justice (EJ IWG)
EJ IWG Charter
EJ IWG MOU
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Public
Participation
Committee
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Regional EJ IWGs
Committee
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Native Americans/
Indigenous Peoples
Committee
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Key
Permanent EJ IWG Committees
Focus Area EJ IWG Committees
Strategy and
Implementation
Progress Report
Committee
_
Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act
Committee
Rural Communities
Committee
Impacts from
Climate Change
Committee
Tram
Commercial
Transportation
"Goods Movement"
Corn-iittee
National
Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA)
Committee
December 2015
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EJ IWG STANDING COMMITTEES
(PERMANENT, Displayed in green on the Governance Chart)
COMMITTEE NAME
PURPOSE OF COMMITTEE
Public Participation
Increases transparency, language accessible outreach and
addresses technological barriers. Develops listening sessions and
opportunities for public input. Facilitates collaboration and public
participation with federal agencies and external stakeholders.
Utilizes traditional means of communication and social media to
build participation. Helps coordinate responses to public input.
Regional Interagency Working
Groups
Provides targeted and coordinated technical assistance; develops
relationships between federal field and regional staff; and
develops best practices for prioritizing environmental justice
concerns. Develops community resource materials. Strengthens
education, training, and/or engagement on environmental justice
among local and state agencies.
Strategy and Implementation
Progress Report
Serves as a resource for federal agencies as they review, update,
or develop their environmental justice strategy, and the annual
implementation progress reports. Works with agencies to help
coordinate programs, policies, and activities. Coordinates EJ IWG
Senior Leadership meetings. Manages implementation of the EJ
IWG Framework for Collaboration and standard operating
procedures.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act
Serves as a resource to help agencies connect their civil rights
enforcement responsibilities with their other efforts to achieve
environmental justice.
EJ IWG AD HOC COAAMITTEES
(AD HOC, Displayed in light blue on the Governance Chart)
COMMITTEE NAME
PURPOSE OF COMMITTEE
Native Americans/Indigenous
Peoples
Facilitates effective coordination and collaboration of federal
agencies in identifying and addressing issues of environmental
justice that are of concern to federally recognized tribes,
indigenous peoples (including state recognized tribes, tribal
members, indigenous community-based organizations, Native
Hawaiians, Alaska Natives, American Indians), and others living in
Indian country.
Rural Communities
Supports efforts to: ensure collaboration between federal
agencies and rural environmental justice communities, develop
economic opportunities so rural overburdened communities are
self-sustaining and economically thriving, and coordinate federal
agency investments to further holistic community-based solutions
that reduce environmental justice issues.
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EJ IWG AD HOC COMMITTEES
(AD HOC, Displayed in light blue on the Governance Chart)
COMMITTEE NAME
PURPOSE OF COMMITTEE
Impacts from Climate Change
Supports collaboration across federal agencies and with
communities with environmental justice concerns around climate
change-related issues including facilitating consideration of
vulnerable populations in agency climate adaptation activities;
providing information, services, and data to help make
communities more resilient; providing relevant tools, systems, and
policies to communities and businesses to mitigate impacts on
natural resources and human health due to climate change; and
ensuring two-way communication around climate-change related
issues. Implements the Educate, Motivate and Innovate (EMI)
Project.
Impacts from Commercial
Transportation
"Goods Movement"
Serves as a resource to coordinate with other federal agencies on
reducing environmental and health effects of commercial
transportation and supporting infrastructure ("goods movement")
that impact low-income, minority and tribal populations
(overburdened communities ). Ensures that overburdened
communities have greater opportunities to access benefits from
federal efforts related to goods movement.
National Environmental Policy
Act(NEPA)
Improves effective, efficient and consistent consideration of
environmental justice principles in the NEPA process by sharing
promising practices and lessons learned developed by federal
departments and agencies.
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APPENDIX B: 2016 PRIORITIES
The Framework spans a three-year timeframe. The 2016 priorities are a snapshot of the activities
planned for implementation by the end of October 2016. The EJ IWG will produce an annual EJ IWG
Framework for Collaboration Progress Report and increase opportunities for public input and
engagement with the EJ IWG.
Collaboration
• Identify, highlight, and replicate, where possible, successful community-based models that
leverage federal investments, technical assistance, and community-based resources; use the
EJ IWG website and other appropriate methods to share these success stories with
stakeholders.
• Increase collaboration and leveraging of resources for capacity building, economic
investments, and research (e.g., climate, traditional cultural resources) in rural communities.
• Improve the effective, efficient, and consistent consideration of environmental justice issues
in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process by promoting the use of Promising
Practices for EJ Methodologies in NEPA Reviews.
• Promote awareness of and solutions to community-based environmental challenges associated
with Goods Movement (commercial transportation of freight and supporting infrastructure) in
and through overburdened communities and communities enduring adverse health impacts as
a result of goods movement.
Community Resources
• Issue and post on the EJ IWG home page a memorandum to federal funding recipients on how
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, applies to federally funded activities that
have an impact on the environment and human health; use other appropriate methods to
share the information provided in the memorandum with communities.
• Update and post on the EJ IWG home page a Community-Based Federal Environmental Justice
Resource Guide and Directory and make the document available in multiple languages; use
other appropriate methods to share the resource guide and directory information with
communities.
• Post on the EJ IWG home page an Annual Framework Progress Report and the annual agency
Environmental Justice Implementation Progress Reports; use other appropriate methods to
share the information in these reports with communities.
External Communications and Outreach
• Through traditional and electronic communication methods, select EJ IWG Committees intend
to conduct trainings, webinars, or presentations on EJ IWG focus areas to inform, engage, and
provide community residents and stakeholders an opportunity to provide feedback.
• The Public Participation Committee (PPC) will identify opportunities to increase transparency
and address the linguistic, cultural, and technological barriers that exist between federal
agencies and overburdened communities.
• The PPC will focus on prioritizing in-person outreach efforts through community visits and
public dialogue sessions that solicit feedback from residents directly experiencing
environmental impacts. The PPC will also explore opportunities to add state and local
government engagement dialogue sessions as part of existing agency community outreach
efforts.
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APPENDIX C: ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE FRAMEWORK
The EJ IWG will post annual progress reports (i.e., 2016, 2017, and 2018) on the EJ IWG website
(www.epa.gov/environmentaliustice/interagency) to share its progress in implementing the EJ IWG
Framework for Collaboration. In addition, each federal agency will include relevant Framework
highlights in their annual Environmental Justice Implementation Progress Reports posted in
accordance with the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding6 on Environmental Justice and Executive
Order 12898.
6 Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898 (2011):
http://www3.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/resources/publications/interagencv/ej-mou-2011-08.pdf
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