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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
15-P-0101
February 26, 2015
Why We Did This Review
The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), Office of Inspector
General (OIG), conducted this review
to determine whether the EPA's Office
of Enforcement and Compliance
Assurance (OECA) and EPA regions
have targeted facilities in overburdened
communities, or communities with
disproportionate impacts, for air toxics
inspections. Air toxics compliance
evaluations (commonly referred to as
inspections) are onsite visits and offsite
record reviews to determine whether a
facility is in compliance with laws and
regulations that limit emissions.
Air toxics are pollutants known or
suspected to cause cancer or other
serious health effects. Communities
that experience elevated or
disproportionate impacts from air toxics
may be areas of environmental justice
(EJ) concern. EPA regions are
supposed to consider potential EJ
concerns and impacts to communities
when targeting sources for air toxics
inspections.
This report addresses the
following EPA goals or
cross-agency strategies:
•	Addressing climate change and
improving air quality.
•	Protecting human health and the
environment by enforcing laws and
assuring compliance.
•	Working to make a visible
difference in communities.
Send all inquiries to our
public affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.gov/oiq.
The full report is at:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2015/
20150226-15-P-0101.pdf
EPA Regions Have Considered
Environmentai Justice When Targeting
Faciiities for Air Toxics inspections
What We Found
All 10 EPA regions have considered EJ when
targeting facilities for air toxics inspections.
EJ is one of many different factors that
regions used when deciding where to conduct
air toxics inspections. Other common factors
that EPA regions used to target air toxics
inspections included:
•	Cancer risk in the area surrounding a facility.
•	Overall emissions from a facility.
•	A facility's compliance history.
Regions have had limited resources to do air toxics inspections, and these
factors helped regions prioritize their inspections.
OECA has developed several tools to help regions select air toxics facilities
for inspection. One tool, the High-Risk Facilities (HRF) list, identifies large
facilities in areas with elevated cancer risks associated with air toxics. The
list includes an "EJ Score" for each facility to help regions prioritize which
facilities to inspect. The most recent HRF list, provided to the regions in
November 2014, uses EJ information from a relatively new EPA tool, called
EJSCREEN, to develop the "EJ Score." EJSCREEN is an online mapping
and analysis tool developed and issued internally by the EPA to help
program offices and regions integrate EJ into multiple facets of the
agency's work. While regional staff identified several aspects of
EJSCREEN that limit its usefulness for the targeting of air toxics
inspections, recent and planned updates to EJSCREEN include
enhancements that address most of these limitations.
In addition, OECA has developed new mapping tools that combine data
from EJSCREEN with data layers from the EPA's GeoPlatform. These
tools produce maps that include useful information about the location of
facilities and also note areas of potential EJ concerns in nearby
communities. OECA demonstrated these tools to EPA regions and has
worked with two regions to develop individualized mapping tools based on
specific regional needs. We believe that these new mapping tools will help
regions target potentially overburdened communities for air toxics
inspections.
We make no recommendations.
The EPA has considered
EJ in its air toxics facility
targeting activities, and
the implementation of
new tools should
enhance agency efforts.

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