Environmental Justice
FY2017 Progress Report
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FY2017 PROGRESS REPORT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5
INTRODUCTION 7
SECTION I - DELIVERING REAL RESULTS IN AIR, WATER AND LAND 8
MEASURABLE ENVIRONMENTAL OUTCOMES - Fine Particle Air Pollution PM2.5, Small
Community Drinking Water Systems, Tribal Drinking Water Systems 8
AIR 9
PM2.5 Measure 9
Diesel Emission Reduction Act Programs and Environmental Justice Communities 1 0
Near-Port Community Capacity Building Project 1 2
Asthma Control and Healthy Homes 14
DRINKING WATER 14
Drinking Water Measures and Office of Water Program Activities 1 4
Regional Highlight 1 6
LAND 17
Brownfields Program 1 7
Omaha Lead Superfund Site 1 8
Fort Peck Indian Reservation Community Projects 1 9
SECTION II - COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM 21
STATES 22
Lawrence, Massachusetts 22
Navassa, North Carolina 23
Alexandria/Pineville, Louisiana 23
Performance Partnership Agreement in Virginia 23
Identifying and Disseminating Best Practices 24
Partnering with States to Empower Communities to Participate in the Regulatory
Process 24
TRIBES AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 25
Fort Berthold Indian Reservation 25
Efforts with State Recognized Tribes and Indigenous Peoples 25
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 26
Detroit, Michigan 26
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 27
Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice 27
Brownfields to Healthfields 28
National Environmental Policy Act 29
CHILDHOOD LEAD DISPARITIES 30
DISASTER RESPONSE 32
SECTION III - RULE OF LAW AND FAIR PROCESS 33
ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE 33
Enforcement and Compliance: Advancing, Sustaining, and Innovating on EJ
Integration 33
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
National Enforcement Initiatives 33
Geographic Community-Focus Enforcement Initiatives 33
SCIENCE 34
Air 34
Water 35
Land 36
Health Disparities 36
Tribal Science Grants 37
Tools and Research to Facilitate Community Action 37
EJSCREEN 37
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL RIGHTS COORDINATION 39
SECTION IV - BUILDING COMMUNITY CAPACITY AND ENGAGEMENT 40
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ADVISORY COUNCIL 41
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE GRANTS 41
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR COMMUNITIES 42
URBAN WATERS 43
OFFICE OF SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES 44
EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT 45
THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE HOTLINE 45
TRAINING 46
Empowering Government Partners and Communities to Achieve Better Environmental
and Health Outcomes 46
Empowering Communities, Tribes and Indigenous Peoples to Enhance Meaningful
Engagement 46
Empowering Communities to Obtain and Leverage Resources 47
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 48
CONCLUSION: MOVING FORWARD 49
Mention of trade names, products, or services does not convey official EPA approval, endorsement, or
recommendation.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of its Office of Environmental Justice, EPA's
Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report highlights the considerable ongoing environmental justice
(EJ) work that continues throughout the Agency. Its focus on demonstrating tangible results in minority, low-
income, tribal and indigenous communities affirms through action how deeply environmental justice is
ingrained in EPA's fabric. The report illustrates the meaningful and impactful work that EPA staff are doing
every day and how we can build on them to achieve more for the nation's most vulnerable communities. It
focuses on four themes: (1) delivering environmental results; (2) cooperative federalism; (3) rule of law and
fair process; and (4) building community capacity and engagement.
1. Delivering Environmental Results
EPA identified significant national EJ challenges and reported measurable environmental outcomes for
them. These measure were:
• Fine Particle Air Pollution (PM2.5) — In United States (US) counties with PM2.5 monitors, the percentage
of the low-income population in the US living in areas in attainment for the PM2.5 National Ambient Air
Quality Standards increased from 43% in 2006-2008 (baseline period) to 92% in 2014-201 6. This is
a significant improvement in helping low-income populations breathe cleaner air.
• Small Community Drinking Water - Small community drinking water systems with repeat health-based
violations decreased from 1.2% to 0.5% nationally in FY2017, from 754 to 326 systems.
• Tribal Drinking Water - People living in Indian County served by drinking water systems meeting all
applicable health-based standards increased from 87.9% to 90.5% in FY2017. The number of systems
out of compliance decreased from 92 to 65.
Examples of tangible environmental benefits for overburdened and underserved communities included:
• Percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels in the area around the Omaha Lead Superfund
Site reduced from 25% in 1 999 to 0.3% in 2017;
• $1 2.7 million in water infrastructure technical assistance awarded nationally;
• 38 out of 44 small public drinking water systems in exceedance of lead standards and 31 out of 1 81
such systems in exceedance of arsenic standards were returned to compliance in the Pacific Southwest;
• 312 Brownfields grants totaling $63.3 million, representing $16.59 in additional benefits leveraged
per dollar spent; and
• Improved air quality around ports, rail yards and freight distribution centers through Diesel Emissions
Reduction Act program grants totaling $23.8 million.
2. Cooperative Federalism
EPA's partnerships with state, local, tribal governments and other federal agencies produced tangible
benefits for the nation's underserved and overburdened communities that included:
• Over $1 million in state, local and EPA Brownfields funding awarded to the City of Lawrence, MA;
• Community visioning to shape reuse plans for the Kerr-McGee Superfund Site in Navassa, NC;
• Supporting Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality's regulatory oversight of creosoting
facilities in Alexandra and Pineville, LA;
• Assisting Detroit, Ml, to comprehensively achieve environmental quality and economic revitalization in
its recovery from municipal bankruptcy;
• Facilitating health care, economic advancement and environmental progress in communities with federal
interagency and stakeholder partnerships through Brownfields to Healthfields efforts; and
• Deploying hundreds of EPA staff in response to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
Cooperative efforts aimed at building EJ capacity within partner agencies involved:
• Identifying best practices on community involvement and equity in state permitting programs
(Environmental Council of the States report), training communities on how to participate in regulatory
processes (Clean Air Act training), and incorporating EJ in joint planning (Virginia Performance
Partnership Agreement);
• Strengthened consideration of EJ in the National Environmental Policy Act review process and sharing
lessons on collaboration through the federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice; and
• Working with 1 1 federal departments and agencies and 6 White House offices to harness their
expertise and resources through the development of a federal inventory of lead programs - Key
Federal Programs to Reduce Childhood Lead Exposures and Eliminate Associated Health Impacts.
3. Rule of Law and Fair Process
• Enforcement and Compliance - EPA's enforcement and compliance program focused on sustaining
progress in integrating EJ into all parts of the enforcement life cycle. It compiled important summary
national enforcement results related to EJ, three of which are below. In addition, cooperative efforts
with states represent new opportunities for EPA's EJ efforts with enforcement. This was illustrated by
EPA Region 9's participation in California EPA's environmental justice enforcement initiative, which
focused on East and West Oakland, and Pomona in FY2017.
Enforcement Actions
National
Total
Number in Areas with
Potential EJ Concerns
Percent in Areas with
Potential EJ Concerns
Final Administrative Penalty Orders
1,259
457
36%
Supplemental Environmental Projects
94
42
45%
Estimated Environmental Benefits
Pollutants Reduced, Treated, or Eliminated (millions of pounds)
217
77
35%
• Science - EPA strengthened the foundational link between EPA science and the needs of underserved
and overburdened communities, in areas of air, water, land, health disparities, and in tribal science
grants.
• Coordination between EJ and Civil Rights Programs - EPA's two-pronged effort included: (1)
investigation of complaints filed with EPA pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and (2)
training and technical assistance to 38 states, as well as local agencies and tribes, across all ten EPA
Regions, on how to proactively address their civil rights obligations.
• EJSCREEN - EPA continued engagement around EJSCREEN, a tool to further integrate EJ in the
Agency's work, and updated it to include a revised surface water data layer and other enhancements.
4. Building Community Capacity and Engagement
EPA maintained a comprehensive program to ensure engagement with and build capacity within
communities, including:
• Providing recommendations to the EPA Administrator and lifting up community, tribal and state voices
through the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council;
• Providing financial and technical assistance through 36 EJ Grants totaling $1.08 million, the Urban
Waters Small Grants program, the Technical Assistance Services to Communities program, the Office of
Sustainable Communities and EPA's work on equitable development;
• Training by EPA Regions and programs on issues such as lead exposure, grant writing and leveraging
resources, and on the Policy on Environmental Justice for Working with Federally Recognized Tribes and
Indigenous Peoples; and
• Convening past and current recipients of EPA Region, state or local agencies' EJ grant(s) to share
successes related to citizen science, partnering and environmental education.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
INTRODUCTION
2017 marked the 25th
anniversary of the creation of
the Office of Environmental
Justice (OEJ) at the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), a testament of
EPA's commitment to furthering
environmental justice (EJ) by
addressing the environmental and public health
concerns of minority, low-income, tribal and
indigenous communities. We believe that after a
quarter century of progress, EPA's dedication to
environmental justice is deeply ingrained in the
fabric of the Agency. In the years leading up to
the establishment of OEJ and since, many voices
have demanded that EPA do more to ensure that
all Americans see the full benefit of
environmental protection. While many of these
stakeholders agree that we have come a long
way, they also remind us that we have a long
way yet to go.
Furthering environmental justice in our work and
through our leadership across the federal
government is a responsibility of everyone at
EPA. The work highlighted in this Environmental
Justice FY2017 Progress Report represents an
affirmation of our ongoing commitment to the
mission and goals of the Agency's environmental
justice program - to engage with and meet the
needs of our nation's most vulnerable communities
to improve disproportionate environmental
impacts, health disparities, and economic distress.
We will continue to strengthen and complement
our environmental justice work with the activities
of all parts of the Agency, enabling EPA to
provide better support to communities as we
work to improve health, protect the environment
and grow local economies. Most important, our
commitment to environmental justice must
demonstrate tangible results in our most
vulnerable communities.
This report highlights EPA's accomplishments in
advancing environmental justice to better address
the issues confronting minority, low-income, tribal
and indigenous communities throughout the
nation. This report is not intended to report on all
of the environmental justice efforts that have
occurred at EPA in FY2017. It aims to highlight a
number of accomplishments to increase
transparency, promote accountability and
provide opportunities for collective learning on
how to advance the Agency's goals.
These accomplishments reflect the goals of the
Agency's Draft FY 201 8-2022 EPA Strategic
Plan and EPA's long history of making direct
investment in communities to build their capacities
to address environmental justice issues, including:
1. Delivering results in air, water and land;
2. Cooperative federalism;
3. Rule of law and fair process; and
4. Building community capacity and
engagement.
An overarching focus of this report is
demonstrating tangible results in the nation's most
vulnerable communities. This theme is reflected in
all four of the goals listed above. As EPA's
environmental justice program matures, the
standard that we increasingly strive to achieve is
measurable environmental and public health
outcomes in minority, low-income, tribal and
indigenous communities. This work is carried out
by EPA's programs and Regions, gnd involves
mgny fgcets, including outregch gnd engggement,
cgpgcity building, building pgrtnerships, gnd
developing gnd implementing gnglyticgl tools
gnd guidgnce gcross the Agency's programs. All
of these elements gre importgnt. They gre
significgnt steps in gchieving our vision to help
environmentglly burdened gnd economicglly
disgdvgntgged communities in Americg become
heglthier, clegner gnd more prosperous plgces to
live, work, plgy gnd legrn.
working for
environmental
justice
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
t
SECTION I:
DELIVERING RESULTS
IN AIR, WATER AND
LAND
working for
environmental
justice
EPA's mission is to protect
public health and the
environment. In carrying out
this mission, EPA pays
particular attention to vulnerable populations,
including those minority, low-income, tribal and
indigenous communities that may face greater
risks because of proximity to contaminated sites
or because fewer resources are available to
avoid exposure to pollution.
As EPA's environmental justice program has
matured over the past two decades, it has
grappled with the critical endeavor of how to
demonstrate measurable environmental outcomes
in vulnerable communities. We are continuing to
make progress on this complex task. The Agency
has identified several important national
environmental justice challenges in the areas of
air, water, land and toxic substances. FY2017
represents the first year that EPA is able to
report on several of these measures in an
environmental justice context.
This section highlights three measures where EPA
showed progress for FY2017, i.e., fine particle
air pollution (PM2.5), small community drinking
water systems and tribal drinking water
systems. It describes some of the programmatic
activities that supported the achievement of these
measures. In addition, it highlights other ways that
EPA has demonstrated tangible environmental
and health benefits for minority, low-income,
tribal and indigenous communities.
MEASURABLE ENVIRONMENTAL OUTCOMES
In 2017, EPA's environmental justice work took on the challenge of beginning to document measurable
environmental outcomes of its programmatic activities in minority, low-income, tribal and indigenous communities.
We are able to provide measures for 2017 in three areas: fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5), small drinking
water systems, and tribal drinking water systems.
FINE PARTICLE AIR POLLUTION (PM2.5)
• Percentage of low-income people living in counties with PM2..5 monitors meeting the 201 2 annual and 2006 24-
hour PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) since the baseline period of 2006-2008.
¦ 2014-2016:92%
¦ 2006-2008: 43%
SMALL COMMUNITY DRINKING WATER SYSTEMS
• Number and percent of small community water systems and non-transient non-community water systems with
repeat health-based violations of key contaminants.
¦ 2016: 754 systems (1.2%)
¦ 2017: 326 systems (0.5%)
TRIBAL DRINKING WATER SYSTEMS
• Percent of population in Indian country served by community water systems with drinking water that meets all
applicable health-based drinking water standards.
¦ 2016: 87.9%
¦ 2017: 90.5%
The number of tribal drinking water systems out of compliance decreased from 92 to 65.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
AIR
PM2.5 Measure
EPA's air program works to improve air quality.
Particle pollution, also called particulate matter
or PM, is a complex mixture of extremely small
particles and liquid droplets in the air. The
environmental justice measure for air is focused
on the reduction of PM2.5. When inhaled, these
particles can reach the deepest regions of the
lungs. Exposure to particle pollution has been
linked to a variety of significant health
problems.1 Low-income populations are among
the populations that are most at-risk for adverse
health effects from exposure to PM2.5. People
with low incomes generally have been found to
have a higher prevalence of pre-existing
diseases, limited access to medical treatment, and
increased nutritional deficiencies, which can
increase their risk of particle pollution-related
effects.2 Fine particle pollution is monitored
throughout the country to identify whether an
area is meeting EPA's PM2.5 NAAQS.3 Particle
pollution monitors are placed in areas where high
concentrations are expected.
EPA revised the PM2.5 NAAQS most recently in
201 2, and in 201 5 designated several areas as
not attaining the standard. The Clean Air Act
specifies planning and control requirements to be
implemented in these "nonattainment" areas. All
areas are initially classified as "Moderate." Any
area that cannot attain the standard over a 6-
year timeframe are then reclassified as "Serious"
and required to attain the standard by the end
of the 1 0-year cycle. For this reason, the air
quality measure is linked to air quality changes
that will be achieved through 2025.
When compared to a baseline period of 2006-
2008, recent (2014-2016) monitoring data show
that of the low-income population living where
monitoring data are available, 92% live in
counties where the PM2.5 NAAQS are being met.
This reflects a significant improvement since
Percentage of Low Income Population Living in Counties Meeting the Annual
and 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS for Years 2006-2016
2006-2008
2014-2016
1 See 78 FR 3086, January 15, 2013
2 U.S. EPA. Integrated Science Assessment for Particulate Matter.
December 2009, EPA/600/R-08/139F.
3 The Clean Air Act, which was last amended in 1990, requires
EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (40 CFR part
50) for pollutants considered harmful to public health and the
environment. EPA has set National Ambient Air Quality
Standards for six principal pollutants, which are called "criteria"
air pollutants, one of which is particle pollution (PM).
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
U.S. Low-Income Population Living in Counties with Attainment and Non attainment of the
2014 2016 PM 2.S NAAQS
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
benefited communities with environmental justice
concerns.
• Port of Los Angeles Electric Crane Project:
Cargo handling equipment at the Port of Los
Angeles is a major contributor of pollutants in
the South Coast Air Basin where communities
with environmental justice concerns are
located. The $1.3 million DERA project
replaced a 1987 diesel crane with an all-
electric crane. Over the course of its life, the
crane will eliminate harmful nitrogen oxides,
particulate matter, hydrocarbons, carbon
monoxide and greenhouse gases. The
eliminated particulate matter emissions from
this crane will be equivalent to taking 3,400
heavy duty trucks off the road for a year.
m
• Houston Independent School District School
Bus Replacement Project: The Houston
Independent School District recently scrapped
ten older 1999 school buses and replaced
them with new 2017 school buses with DERA
funding. The new school buses, which will
serve several low-income communities, will
reduce harmful particulate matter and
nitrogen oxides by 90% over the old buses,
helping reduce the exposure of children to
diesel exhaust pollution.
• Chicago Transit Authority Electric Bus
Project: Utilizing $1.8 million in DERA funding,
the Chicago Transit Authority is replacing five
1 998 model year transit buses that would
have run for several more years with zero
emission all-electric buses. The route of the
five buses takes them through communities
with environmental justice concerns. Replacing
the older, dirtier buses with electric models
will reduce exposure to harmful diesel
exhaust by more than 1 6,000 tons over five
years.
• Southwest Detroit Urban Trucking and
School Bus Fleets:
The Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision
(SDEV) diesel project focused on decreasing
diesel emissions through the retrofit of various
diesel vehicles, including the replacement of
24 medium heavy-duty diesel trucks and
eight school buses. SDEV received a total of
$1.2 million in grant funding to work with
Greater Lansing Area Clean Cities,
NextEnergy Center, and nine fleet
partners. This project impacted multiple
economically disadvantaged and
underserved urban areas in Michigan (Detroit,
Dearborn, Flint, Lansing), as well as
vulnerable populations in suburban and rural
areas with poor air quality.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
Draft Community Action Roadma
EPA's Near-Port Community Capacity
Building Project: Shaping Environmental
Justice and Goods Movement Near Ports
Ports are a hub of
commerce and are
critically important
for a thriving U.S.
economy. For the
estimated 39 million4
people in the United
States living and
working near ports,
freight transport
activities can present
air pollution and other environmental concerns.
Overburdened and underserved communities
near ports can also experience challenges with
access to information about the planning,
development, and permitting of projects and the
availability of resources that support meaningful
engagement in the decision-making process.
In partnership with EPA's Office of Environmental
Justice (OEJ) and Regional Office colleagues, the
Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) established
EPA's Near-Port Community Capacity Building
Project to support effective stakeholder
engagement in conjunction with the overall EPA
Ports Initiative. The key goals of the Near-Port
Community Capacity Building Project include
improving environmental health outcomes and
environmental performance at ports by building
the capacity of community stakeholders and
industry through new tools that support effective
engagement, partnership building and direct
technical assistance. Early, frequent and ongoing
collaborative problem-solving between
stakeholders supports the foundational principles
and practices of environmental justice and is at
the core of this project.
Capacity Building Toolkit
The Agency has developed a set of draft tools
and resource materials to address key challenges
The Agency has developed a set of
draft tools and resource materials to
address key challenges noted by
stakeholders who are directly involved
with, and impacted by, port-related
goods movement activities.
noted by stakeholders who are directly involved
with, and impacted by, port-related goods
movement activities. Stakeholder outreach,
listening and collaborative action have guided
the development of this suite of tools. During the
early planning and draft stages, EPA sought input
from its federal advisory committee members
representing environmental justice community
organizations, environmental advocacy groups,
and industry sector stakeholders, and consulted
members of EPA's National Environmental Justice
Advisory Council (NEJAC) and the Mobile Sources
Technical Review Subcommittee (MSTRS) Ports
Workgroup. The draft toolkit was also posted for
public comment on EPA's Ports Initiative
webpage.
The toolkit has three components. The Draft Ports
Primer for Communities: An Overview of Ports
Planning and Operations to Support Community
Participation (Ports Primer) is intended to help
community members participate effectively in the
decision-making
process about port
actions that may
impact local land
use, the environment
and quality of life.
The Draft Community
Action Roadmap:
Empowering Near-
Port Communities is a
companion document
that provides a step-
by-step process to apply the information in the
Ports Primer for building capacity and
4 Based on U.S. Census Bureau data for people living within 5 km
of ports.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
empowering communities. The Draft Environmental
Justice Primer for Ports: The Good Neighbor Guide
to Building Partnerships and Social Equity with
Communities is designed to inform the port
industry sector of the perspectives, priorities and
challenges often unique to communities with
environmental justice concerns and provides a
step-by-step process to improve the effectiveness
of port-community engagement.
Innovative Pilot Projects
In Summer 201 6, OAR announced the opportunity
to participate in pilot projects for ports and
nearby communities and invited interested near-
port communities and ports to apply. EPA
conducted outreach for the Pilot Project
Opportunity through a variety of channels. Of the
nearly two dozen applicants, three pilot locations
were selected: New Orleans, Louisiana;
Savannah, Georgia; and Seattle, Washington.
The Pilot Project Opportunity provides ports and
near-port communities with direct technical
assistance from EPA to: 1) enhance skills in
building partnerships; 2) develop an
engagement/capacity building action plan for
collaboratively addressing stakeholder priorities;
3) utilize the draft capacity building tools in
assessing local conditions and testing capabilities
in challenging real-world situations; and 4) collect
feedback and refine the content of the draft
tools. Since kickoff in early 2017, all three pilot
projects have progressed significantly and
achieved planned milestones, including
completion of initial site visits to assess
stakeholder needs, outreach to broaden project
awareness and support, press coverage,
interagency support opportunities and initial
feedback. Pilot project participants have
embraced the opportunity to leverage the draft
capacity building tools and are providing
feedback to enhance utility.
Early and Projected Benefits
The draft tools and pilot project activities are
providing port industry sector and community
stakeholders with information, skills and guidance
to effectively develop and implement
collaborative actions that reduce environmental
pollution and accommodate more efficient goods
movement. A number of early pilot project
implementation achievements have occurred. On
a tour of one near-port community during an
initial site visit, residents brought to the port's
attention concerns regarding adverse impacts
that an unmaintained port-leased property was
having on the neighborhood. The port not only
took corrective action with the lease holder, but
also restructured their leasing policy to prevent
repeated conditions from occurring. What was
believed to be illegal dumping activity was also
noted during the tour and immediate corrective
action was taken. As a result of this initial site
visit, a communication network has been
established to facilitate ongoing interaction.
As implementation of the pilot projects progress,
OAR anticipates durable partnerships and
increased capabilities will result through use of
the draft capacity-building tools. After
completion of the pilots and finalization of the
draft capacity building tools, their outcomes will
be shared with additional stakeholders, creating
the potential to replicate successful community-
port collaboration throughout the country. OAR is
also developing an interactive network to support
peer-to-peer exchange among ports and nearby
communities and to extend the reach and impact
of the neighborhood solutions that emerge from
the Near-Port Community Capacity Building Pilot
Projects.
Bun
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
Asthma Control and Healthy Homes
EPA has led federal efforts to help communities,
states, and tribes find local solutions for delivery
and sustainability of in-home environmental
asthma interventions. EPA supports widespread
delivery of in-home environmental asthma
interventions, with a particular emphasis on
communities with environmental [ustice concerns.
These interventions seek to improve health
outcomes, reduce health care costs, increase
savings, and expand the health care workforce.
Together with the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD), EPA has
co-led 1 2 Regional Summits across the nation
covering 1 8 states' best practices related to
asthma education and in-home assessments. The
Regional Summits helped spur Missouri and
Pennsylvania to pass legislation expanding
Medicaid5 coverage to include in-home
assessments. In addition, asthma home visit pilot
projects in New Jersey and Colorado were
funded and new coalitions and workgroups have
formed in Illinois and California with the
Associated Tribes of Northwest Indians to pursue
asthma assessments and interactions through the
Regional Summits.
In addition to the Regional Summits, EPA supports
and promotes several cooperative partnerships
with grant funding to develop educational,
training and intervention-based programming
aimed at providing a sustainable home and
learning environment for children living with
asthma, particularly those most in need. In
FY2017, the partnerships involved the National
Center for Healthy Housing, the Public Health
Institute, the Regional Asthma Management
Program, the Allergy and Asthma Network and
the National Tribal Air Association. In addition,
EPA awarded nearly $8 million in grant funding
5 Medicaid is the nation's main public health insurance program
for low-income people of ail ages, spending more than $10
billion annually to treat asthma in children and adults.
6 The environmental justice measure around small community
drinking water systems focuses on systems serving less than
3,300 people and the number and percent of small community
to states and tribes to support testing and
mitigation of homes, schools and other buildings
for radon and promote the building of new
radon-resistance structures.
DRINKING WATER
Drinking Water Measures and Office of
Water Program Activities
EPA continues to engage in key activities that
advance the nexus between environmental justice
and safe drinking water by partnering with
states, public water systems, tribes, laboratories
and water sector stakeholders to assist public
water systems in delivering safe water and
working to improve drinking water infrastructure
across the United States. Of the approximately
52,000 community water systems nationwide that
supply drinking water to more than 95% of the
U.S. population, the vast majority (82%) are
small
community
water
systems
that
typically
serve
fewer than
3,300
people. Many of these small drinking water
systems serve disadvantaged communities. In
addition, these small community water systems
and tribal systems are often disproportionately
impacted by lack of financial resources, aging
infrastructure, lack of economies of scale,
management limitations and lack of qualified and
experienced operators and personnel.
For these reasons, the activities described below
contributed to the achievement of the
environmental justice measures for small
community drinking water systems6 and tribal
water systems and non-transient non-community water systems
with repeat health-based violations. EPA defines a community
water system (CWS) as a public water system that serves at ieast
15 service connections used by year-round residents or regularly
serves at least 25 year-round residents. A repeat health based
violation is defined as a system that triggers more than one
health based violation in a 12-month period.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
drinking water systems.7 Between 2016 to 2017,
the number of small community systems and non-
transient non-community water systems with
repeat health-based violations of key
contaminants decreased from 754 systems (1.2%)
to 326 systems (0.5%). Between 201 6 to 2017,
the percentage of the population in Indian
Country served by community water systems with
drinking water that meets all applicable health-
based drinking water standards increased from
87.9% to 90.5%. The number of tribal drinking
water systems out of compliance decreased from
92 to 65.
EPA provides training and technical assistance to
help public water systems achieve technical,
financial and managerial capacity in an effort to
promote effective management of the systems'
assets and infrastructure. In addition, EPA
provides grant funding to primacy agencies and
third party technical assistance providers to help
small systems achieve compliance with the
National Primary Drinking Water Regulations
and to build their managerial and financial
capacity. Since its inception, the Drinking Water
State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) has provided
$9.2 billion to small systems through more than
8,000 assistance agreements. Since FY201 2, the
Agency has awarded over $42 million in grants
to technical assistance providers to help small
FY2017 WATER TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
GRANTS AND SUPPORT
In FY2017, EPA awarded approximately
$ 1 2.7 million in technical assistance grants.
Recipients include the National Rural Water
Association, the Rural Community Assistance
Partnership, and the Environmental Finance
Center Network. EPA also launched the Water
Finance Clearinghouse, a web-based portal that
provides communities with a searchable database
with more than $10 billion in water funding
sources and over 550 resources to support local I
water infrastructure projects.
systems build their technical, managerial and
financial capacity.
Water system partnerships strengthen technical,
managerial and financial capabilities of small
systems and provide more reliable services to
customers through a variety of approaches,
including informal management agreements,
contracting for operations and maintenance
services or mergers and acquisitions to
consolidate small systems. EPA has been working
closely with state programs, technical assistance
providers, utilities and other stakeholders to
promote water system partnerships to reduce
costs, increase operational efficiency and
decrease vulnerability to disaster and emergency
situations.
EPA also works closely
with other federal
agencies, states and
i I technical assistance
providers to build small
system capacity through
technical assistance, trainings, and workshops.
Additionally, EPA's Office of Water and Office
of Research and Development host a monthly
webinar training series on drinking water
implementation challenges and emerging
technologies that can help states and public
water systems address compliance issues. In
addition, EPA hosts a highly attended national
Capacity Development and Operator
Certification workshop every three years. This
workshop provides states and technical assistance
providers an opportunity to inform each other
about the challenges small systems are facing
and some of the best practices being
implemented across the country.
EPA also works collaboratively with tribal
governments, tribal utilities and tribal members to
implement the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)
to improve access to safe drinking water on tribal
meets all health-based drinking water standards does not
exceed a maximum contaminant level (MCL) nor violate a
treatment technique.
7 The environmental justice measure on tribal drinking water
systems focused on the percent of population in Indian country
served by community water systems that meet all applicable
health-based drinking water standards. Safe drinking water that
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
In FY2017, EPA's DWIG-TSA funding level was
$20 million. EPA's Tribal Direct Implementation
PWSS Supervision Funds were $6.45 million in
FY201 7, including a $457,000 grant to the
Navajo Nation.
lands. Where EPA has primacy, EPA Regional
offices implement the Public Water System
Supervision (PWSS) program and have
enforcement authority over tribal drinking water
systems. To date, only the Navajo Nation has
applied for and received primacy. EPA
administers the Drinking Water Infrastructure
Grant Tribal Set Aside (DWIG-TSA) Program,
which provides financial support for infrastructure
projects to achieve compliance with drinking
water regulations. EPA also administers the Tribal
Direct Implementation PWSS Funds, which are
distributed to EPA's Regional tribal PWSS
programs for direct implementation activities with
an emphasis on compliance assistance activities.
They are used for technical assistance, sanitary
surveys, and operator training and certification.
Under the National Tribal Drinking Water
Operator Certification Program. EPA recognized
the Inter-Tribgl Council of Arizong, the United
South gnd Egstern Tribes, gnd the Associgtion of
Bogrds of Certificgtion gs drinking wgter
operator certificgtion providers.
Regional Highlight
EPA Region 9 includes the stgtes of Arizong,
Cglifornig, Hgwgii gnd Nevgdg, the Pgcific
Islgnds gnd 148 Tribgl Ngtions. Mgny of Region
9's disgdvgntgged communities gre served by
smgll public drinking wgter systems (PWSs)
Igcking sufficient cgpgcity to gssure consistent
complignce with the Sgfe Drinking Wgter Act
(SDWA). To underscore the chgllenge, gregter
thgn 90% of PWSs in the Region gre smgll
systems (no more thgn 3300 persons) serving 2.8
million people. In August 201 6, g Region 9 Smgll
Public Drinking Wgter System Action Plgn (Plgn)
wgs developed to improve the sgfety of public
drinking wgter supplied to residents,
schoolchildren gnd tribgl members in these
communities, building on efforts described in
EPA's ngtiongl strgtegic plgns for environmentgl
justice gnd drinking wgter. The Plgn focuses on
reducing exposure to two contgmingnts with long-
term heglth effects: grsenic gnd legd. Arsenic is g
known humgn cgrcinogen gnd is ngturglly
prevglent in groundwgter in the West. Legd
exposure poses serious heglth risks for young
children gnd is g ngtiongl priority. The Plgn glso
includes gn initigtive to voluntgrily sgmple for
legd gt tgps in tribgl schools gnd supports Region
9 stgtes thgt hgve initigted similgr school
sgmpling progrgms.
By the close of FY2017, 31 of the 1 81 systems
not in complignce with the grsenic stgndgrd in
August 2016 hgd returned to complignce. Of the
Aug 2016-Sept 2017
Compliance with Arsenic Standard by
181 Public Water Systems in Region 9
Not in
Compliance
23%
ft
Returned
to
Compliance
17%
Under
Order to
Comply
60%
remgining systems, 72% gre under orders with gn
enforceoble schedule. Of the 18 school wgter
systems which were not meeting the grsenic
stgndgrd, oil gre now providing olterngtive
wgter or serving compliont wgter. Of the 44
systems thgt hgd exceeded the legd gction level
in August 2016, only 6 continued to exceed the
legd gction level by the end of FY2017. School
wgter systems not meeting this level gre
providing olterngtive wgter. Working with Indion
Heglth Services gnd controctor support, over
25% of tribol schools hod their drinking wgter
tested for leod gnd were provided technicol gnd
fingncigl gssistgnce informotion to reduce the
presence of leod where found.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
LAND
Brownfields Program
EPA's Brownfields Program empowers states,
communities, and other stakeholders to work
together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and
sustainably reuse contaminated properties.
Revitalizing brownfield sites and putting these
properties back into productive reuse creates
many economic and environmental benefits
throughout the community. The Brownfields
Program helps address the inability of many
communities to pay for assessing and cleaning up
brownfield sites. The program makes grant
funding and technical assistance resources
available to communities for assessing and
cleaning up brownfields, capitalizing revolving
loan funds for brownfields cleanup, and
providing environmental job training.
In FY2017, EPA's Office of Brownfields and Land
Revitalization (OBLR) conducted brownfields
grant competitions that resulted in the award of
208 Assessment Grants (for $43.1 million); 71
Cleanup Grants (for $1 3.7 million); 14
Environmental Workforce Development Job
Training Grants (for $2.7 million); and 1 9 Area-
wide Planning Grants (for $3.8 million). As part
of the brownfields grant competitions, applicants
are evaluated on the extent to which they
demonstrate need for funding to address their
brownfields challenges, and how these needs
relate to other social, economic and
environmental challenges within their community.
OBLR also awarded $46.9 million to support
state and tribal response programs. If states and
tribes are using funding to perform site-specific
activities, EPA's Brownfields Program encourages
them to prioritize sites in communities with the
greatest need, including communities with
environmental justice issues. OBLR also awarded
$5.4 million in supplemental revolving loan fund
(RLF) funding to 1 1 existing, high-performing
brownfields RLF grantees.
Through FY2017, on average, $16.59 in benefits
was leveraged for each EPA Brownfields dollar
expended and 8.5 jobs leveraged per
$100,000 of EPA brownfields funds provided for
assessment, cleanup, and revolving loan fund
cooperative agreements. Brownfield sites tend to
have greater location efficiency than alternative
development scenarios. Results of a five-city pilot
study show a 32 to 57% reduction in vehicle
miles traveled when development occurred at a
brownfield site rather than a greenfield. Fewer
vehicle miles traveled means a reduction in
pollution emissions including greenhouse gases.
These same site comparisons show an estimated
47 to 62% reduction of stormwater runoff for
brownfield site development. A 201 5 study
concluded that cleaning up brownfield properties
leads to residential property value increases of 5
- 15.2% within 1.29 miles of the sites.8
The former Harrison Avenue Landfill in Camden,
New Jersey, is one of many noteworthy
Brownfields Program success stories. It is an
inactive 83-acre city dump located in the Cramer
Hill neighborhood that was owned and operated
by the City of Camden from approximately
1 952 to 1971. The types of waste disposed of at
the dump for almost two decades were
unrestricted, and included household refuse,
demolition debris, and bulk, industrial, chemical,
and medical wastes. Although the use of the
dump was officially discontinued by 1971,
uncontrolled illegal dumping reportedly continued
8 Haninger, K., L. Ma, and C. Timimins. 2017. The Value of
Brownfield Remediation. Journal of the Association of
Environmental arid Resource Economists, 4(1): 197-241.
17
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for many years thereafter. Following the
completion of assessment work under an EPA
Brownfield grant, the revitalization of the landfill
property was made possible through technical
and remediation assistance provided by the New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP) under their EPA CERCLA 1 28 (a) grant, as
well as a major grant from the Joan Kroc estate.
The work commenced more than eight years ago
and includes $26 million in remediation funding
of the former Harrison Avenue Landfill, as well as
several EPA Brownfields Program grants
(including funding in FY2017). The former
Harrison Avenue Landfill in Camden is now home
to the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center. The
1 20,000-square-foot community center provides
Camden with a gymnasium, an indoor competition
pool and water park, black box theater,
community gathering plaza, media center,
learning center, culinary arts teaching kitchen,
choice food pantry, early childhood education
center, teen center, senior center, athletic fields
and health clinic.
Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
Omaha Lead Superfund Site
Over 175,000 people live within the 27-square-
mile foot print of the Omaha Lead Superfund
Site, in Omaha, Nebraska, where EPA has
focused efforts to protect people from exposure
to lead. This includes residential properties, as
well as child day-care facilities, schools, and
playgrounds where children may be exposed to
lead-contaminated soil as a result of deposition
of historic lead smelting and refining operations
in the area. After 1 8 years of work on the
cleanup, child blood lead levels have dropped
measurably in the city. The percentage of
children with elevated blood lead levels in the
area around the Omaha Lead Superfund Site
decreased from 25% in 1 999 to 0.3% in 2017.9
This is one example of how, under the
Comprehensive Environmental Response.
Compensation and Liability Act. EPA's Superfund
program works to protect human health and the
environment. EPA involves the community to clean
up polluted, abandoned or uncontrolled
hazardous waste sites to return previously
polluted land to productive use.
The percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels
in the area around the Omaha Lead Superfund Site
decreased from 25% in 1999 to 0.3% in 2017.
30%
25%
5%
0.3%
1999 2004 2017
Source: Douglas County Health Department
9 This most recent data is from Douglas County Health
Department.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
The Agency began to investigate this community
in 1 998 when Omaha City Council sent a letter to
EPA to address the high incidence of elevated
blood lead levels found in children. Between
1 999 and 201 5, EPA remediated more than
1 3,000 residential properties at the site. The
testing and cleanup of soil, exterior lead-based
paint, and interior dust was conducted at no cost
to the property owner. The cleanup action
included the excavation of soil exhibiting lead
concentrations greater than 400 ppm,
replacement of contaminated soil with clean
backfill, placement of sod, stabilization of lead-
based paint to protect the remediated soil,
testing of indoor dust, and public education and
outreach to assist the public in recognizing other
potential sources of lead contamination.
Special considerations for outreach and
education were needed since the population of
the Omaha Lead site is complex (60% low-
income, 57% minority, and 1 0% linguistically
isolated.10)11 Since 2000, EPA has provided $2.2
million in health education-related funding from
Agency programs through Superfund, Technical
Assistance Grant program. Regional Geographic
Initiatives, Toxic Substances Control Act, and
Environmental Education and Environmental
Justice grants to several nonprofits. In the mid-
2000's an Omaha Lead Site Community Advisory
Group and the Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance, a
nonprofit organization to help address elevated
blood lead levels in children, were established.
In May 201 5, at the city's request, EPA entered
into a $42 million cooperative agreement with
the city of Omaha to collect soil samples and
clean up the remaining properties. EPA is
currently working to renew and consolidate
The most recent data reported by the Douglas
County Health Department indicated that the
percentage of children with elevated blood
lead levels was 0.3% in 2017.
existing cooperative agreements with the
Douglas County Health Department (DCHD).
These include a $6 million cooperative
agreement to compile blood lead data from
health care providers and obtain access to homes
and collect interior dust samples.
Fort Peck Indian Reservation Community
Projects
In FY2017, EPA harnessed many Agency
resources to produce tangible public health,
environmental and economic benefits for the
residents of the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar,
Montana. The work built on engagement with Fort
Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, and a
partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development and U.S. Department of
Transportation. EPA's Brownfields Program
selected the Fort Peck Tribes for a $200.000
grant in FY2017 and worked with Region 8 and
the city of Poplgr to leverage humgn resources,
equipment gnd funding. EPA's Superfund
program provided funding gnd contract
gssistgnce to remove two gbgndoned buildings.
EPA glso gssisted with infrastructure plgnning gnd
supported green infrastructure plgnning for
multiple tribgl programs gnd for the city of
Poplgr. Region 8 glso provided support for the
redevelopment of the 260-gcre Old Airport
property, which included pgrtigl development of
g Sustgingble Villgge where 20 LEED Plgtinum-
certified homes were built. An EPA enforcement
settlement, including g Supplement Environmentgl
Project, resulted in the removgl gnd proper
disposgl of 88 gbgndoned or inoperable vehicles
from the Fort Peck Indign Reservgtion. These
efforts help reduce blight gnd mgke the
community g clegner gnd sgfer plgce to live.
Robust engggement with government gnd tribgl
pgrtners gre glso legding to visible gnd
collgborative gctions to revitglize the community,
improve housing, gnd further economic
development in Poplgr. EPA's Conflict Prevention
English "very well." Adult is defined as age 14 or older, which
identifies household members of high school age and older.
11 Demographic information provided by EJSCREEN (January
2018).
According to the US Census Bureau defines, "linguistic
isolation" is dependent on the English-speaking ability of all
adults in a household. A household is linguistically isolated if all
adults speak a language other than English and none speaks
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
and Resolution Center supported several
dialogues between the tribes and the city of
Poplar leading to better coordination on
addressing blight on tribal and private
properties. The tribes began collaborating with
students from Montana State University to create
landscaping designs for two properties in
downtown Poplar that will include edible
landscaping (e.g., fruit trees and berry bushes) to
help address food insecurity issues. The town of
Poplar and the tribes have also begun laying the
foundation for a Community Resource Assessment,
which in turn, will lay the groundwork for a City
Master Plan.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
f
SECTION II:
COOPERATIVE
FEDERALISM
w o r k i n 9 for
environmental
justice
EPA recognizes that protecting
human health and the
environment cannot be
achieved by any single entity.
We need to work with states,
tribes, local governments, our sister federal
agencies and communities in a spirit of trust,
collaboration and partnership. Stronger
engagement with states in the spirit of
cooperative federalism is absolutely essential.
EPA has developed a comprehensive suite of
tools and guidance to integrate environmental
justice into its own programs and policies. Sharing
these tools and guidance with our partners, who
are responsible for a majority of environmental
decisions that directly affect communities, has
been an important extension of these efforts. For
instance, EPA reached out to the Environmental
Council of the States (ECOS) and other state
associations to obtain input on the public release
of EJSCREEN, an environmental justice screening
and mapping tool that combines environmental
and demographic indicators to identify and
analyze the most vulnerable geographic areas.
This engagement helped to greatly improve the
tool and resulted in greater use by state
agencies.
Likewise, states are proactively making significant
advancements in environmental justice. At the
National Environmental Justice Advisory Council
meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 26,
2017, EPA highlighted the efforts of four states -
Minnesota, California, South Carolina and
Mississippi. The meeting was held in Minneapolis
because ECOS President John Line Stine,
Commissioner of Minnesota Pollution Control
Agency, made advancing equity one of his
priorities for ECOS. Other efforts include
collaboration between ECOS, EPA and several
law schools to update the Hastings Law
School/American Bar Association's Environmental
Justice for All: A Fifty State Survey of Legislation,
Policies and Cases. EPA also conducts All States
Environmental Justice Calls (East and West) to
provide an interactive forum for meaningful
discussion and dialogue among EPA Regional and
Headquarters staff and state and local EJ
counterparts. The forum promotes learning,
discussion of issues of interest, provides training
and fosters capacity building among EPA and its
state and local government partners on
environmental justice.
This section on cooperative federalism highlights
examples of how state, tribal and local
governments' collaborations with EPA have
resulted in tangible benefits for overburdened
and underserved communities. It builds on EPA's
engagement with states around issues of mutual
concern, such as incorporating community
involvement and environmental justice
considerations into the permitting process. Of
particular importance is the collaboration
between ECOS and EPA, which resulted in the
ECOS Green Report entitled, State Approaches
to Community Engagement and Equity
Considerqtions in Permitting, glong with
collgborgtive efforts between EPA gnd stgtes to
build egpgeity within communities to pgrticipgte in
the regulgtory process. Another importgnt
instgnce of cooperative federalism is joint
plgnning between EPA's regions gnd their
respective stgtes, gs exemplified by how the
Performgnce Pgrtnership Agreement developed
by EPA Region 3 gnd the Virginig Depgrtment of
Environmentgl Quglity focuses on strengthening
pgrtnerships with Historicglly Blgck Colleges gnd
Universities (HBCUs) to eduegte communities
gbout locgl environmentgl impgets.
These gre just g few exgmples of EPA's EJ efforts
on cooperative federalism. They reflect EPA's
commitment to working with pgrtners to develop
the Agency's strategic plgnning on environmentgl
justice to incregse public pgrticipgtion gnd
produce tgngible benefits for the ngtion's most
overburdened gnd underserved communities.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
STATES
Cooperative Federalism and Community
Work in Lawrence, Massachusetts
EPA Region 1, Massachusetts Department of
Environmental Protection (MassDEP), the city of
Lawrence, and the Merrimac Valley Planning
Commission (MVPC) have been coordinating their
efforts to foster funding opportunities, new
investments and the cleanup of brownfields in
Lawrence, Massachusetts. Lawrence is among the
poorest communities in New England (92nd
percentile), among the highest in minority
populations (95th percentile)12, and has a post-
industrial legacy of contamination with over 270
state-recognized brownfields sites. EPA's
Brownfields Program has played a significant
role in fostering better environmental and health
outcomes for this community. Collective efforts
with partners in FY2017 resulted in an investment
of more than $1 million in new Brownfields
Program funding, more than any other community
in New England.
In FY2017, EPA awarded Lawrence two
Brownfields Program grants for assessment
($350k) and cleanup ($2Q0k) for the Tombarello
Site, a former junkyard contaminated with PCBs,
arsenic, barium, chromium, and mercury. EPA
conducted a time critical removal action on one
of the Tombarello Site parcels and upon
completion of cleanup the site will be a prime
candidate for redevelopment. EPA also awarded
Lawrence a Brownfields Program job training
grant ($200k), which will fund the Merrimack
Valley Workforce Investment Board's training
programs for unemployed and underemployed
local residents seeking careers in the
environmental cleanup and construction
fields. Merrimack Valley Planning Commission
(MVPC) also received a new EPA Brownfields
Program assessment grant ($300k) in FY2017
based on its plan to focus on Lawrence and two
other nearby communities. This spirit of
interagency cooperation spans the federal, state,
and local levels and has included a prominent
EPA-funded Brownfields area-wide planning
(AWP) project for a former rail corridor, which
runs through a downtown neighborhood. As a
result of this collaboration, MassDEP made the
city a top priority by dedicating the majority of
its 2016 statewide Brownfields Program
assessment grant funding ($400k) to Lawrence.
Superfund Cleanup and Revitalization in
Navassa, North Carolina
EPA Region 4, the North Carolina Department of
Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) and the
Multistate Environmental Response Trust
(Multistate Trust) are partnering with the
leadership of Navassa, North Carolina, to
engage citizens and partners at the local, state
and federal levels to promote community
sustainability. The collective goal is to leverage
Superfund cleanup, future redevelopment, and
natural resource restoration for Navassa - a
small, rural and industrial community where over
75% of the town's 1,800 residents are African-
American and have a history rooted in Gullah-
Geechee culture. Industrial plants and facilities
that previously provided jobs have long since
closed, with many leaving behind a legacy of
pollution. Four facilities in Navassa have been
addressed by EPA cleanup programs, with
ongoing work being conducted on the Kerr-
McGee Chemical Corp - Navassa Superfund
Site, a former wood treatment facility.
EPA Region 4, NCDEQ and the Multistate Trust
continue to protect people and the environment
12 Demographic information provided by EJSCREEN (October
2017)
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
from site contamination by investigating and
cleaning up the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp -
Navassa Superfund Site. EPA and NCDEQ are
planning the Superfund cleanup in a manner that
will facilitate community-supported
redevelopment. The Multistate Trust is sponsoring
a community-based redevelopment visioning
process that allows the residents of Navassa to
shape the future of the Kerr-McGee Site. Funds
were recovered from the polluters to both
remediate the site contamination and to restore
natural resources. EPA coordinated outreach with
the natural resource restoration effort led by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
and NCDEQ. The Agency's coordination efforts
helped the community to better understand the
restoration process. As a result, the town of
Navassa increased submittals from local entities
for restoration projects. EPA Region 4 has also
facilitated other community partnerships,
including one between Navassa and the
University of North Carolina-Wilmington. The
faculty and students provide support to the
community about health issues, cultural identity,
local policy and citizen science projects.
Empowering
Communities with
Environmental Data in
Alexandria and
Pineville, Louisiana
EPA Region 6 provided
assistance to the Louisiana Department of
Environmental Quality (LDEQ) for the regulatory
oversight of creosoting facilities in Alexandria
and Pineville as part of on-going cleanup efforts.
About 26,600 low-income and minority persons in
Alexandria and Pineville live within a 2-mile
radius of both creosoting sites. To address
community concerns of potential impact on
children's health from the facilities, in 2016, EPA
conducted soil and sediment sampling events in
Hunter Park, Pineville Soccer Park and at
Rapides Training Academy.
Due to the presence of pentachlorophenol, EPA
sampled for dioxins. The LDEQ collected 24-hour
air sampling data from the mobile air monitoring
laboratory from both creosoting sites from 201 3-
201 5. The data collected was sent to the state
Louisiana Department of Health for review and
the results were posted to LDEQ's electronic data
management system in 2017. The Community
Data Assessment Report, which summarizes the
focused projects carried out since 201 5, is in the
process of being finalized with LDEQ.
In addition to empowering the Alexandria and
Pineville communities with environmental data to
guide the decision-making process at the
community level, EPA facilitated improvements
with internal and external communications in
2017. EPA used a collaborative approach to
address the communities' multiple environmental
issues and incorporate concepts of sustainability.
The Community Sustainability Network, a network
of members from the community and industry,
was developed to discuss and resolve community
issues. EPA also hosted a Healthy Homes and
Healthy School Training, conducted by the
Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit in
Alexandria, Louisiana, and assisted the
Alexandria/Pineville cross-divisional team to
create a safer environment for children in the
community by empowering the community with
the resources to discuss and resolve environmental
issues.
Incorporating EJ into Joint Planning:
Virginia Performance Partnership
Agreement
EPA's Region 3 Office of Enforcement,
Compliance and Environmental Justice (OECEJ)
and the Virginia Department of Environmental
Quality (VADEQ) are jointly developing a
Performance Partnership Agreement (PPA) to
improve collaboration between VADEQ and EPA.
Goals established for this PPA are providing
training on environmental justice to VADEQ, local
communities, and other interested parties, and
soliciting academic support from colleges and
universities within Virginia to educate impacted
communities about environmental justice. Elements
of the plan include utilizing an existing
Memorandum of Understanding to engage
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the
Tidewater Area, and developing and reviewing
an outreach strategy to educate communities
about local environmental impacts. OECEJ and
VADEQ seek to combine expertise and resources
to educate government officials, citizen groups
and students on the most effective use of
environmental justice tools and lines of
communication (e.g., EJSCREEN, outreach and
engagement, and citizen support lines). These
collaborative efforts will include a variety of
stakeholders and will increase general
knowledge of environmental justice and improve
citizen involvement in all levels of government.
Identifying and Disseminating Best
Practices
In February 2017, the Environmental Council of
the States (ECOS) published ECOS Green Report
entitled, State Approaches to Community
Engagement and Equity Considerations in
Permitting. This report summarized innovative
efforts conducted by state agencies in California,
Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina,
and Tennessee. The report provides highlights of
information presented in webinars held by ECOS
for states in which representatives from the
Office of Air and Radiation (OAR), Office of
General Counsel and Region 2 leadership, and
regional air programs also participated. The
report showcased elements of the states'
strategies for considering environmental equity in
the permitting process such as increasing public
participation, maintaining community
relationships, transferable practices, and internal
aids and guidance.
In addition, OAR developed a series of program
profiles and case studies and hosted a series of
webinars to highlight effective efforts by state
and local agencies, non-profits, and utilities to
bring energy efficiency and renewable energy to
low-income communities. EPA selected programs
for inclusion based on their demonstrated ability
to achieve results through on-the-ground
implementation and their potential to be
scalable, replicable, and sustainable, and to
highlight a diverse range of communities
(geography, size) and types of energy efficiency
and renewable energy programs.
Partnering with States to Empower
Communities to Participate in the
Regulatory Process
The Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) continues
to conduct both webinars and in-person trainings
to help communities with environmental justice
concerns work with EPA and state agencies on
rules and permits that impact them. The webinars
and in-person trainings are designed to help
develop a fundamental ievel of understanding of
Clean Air Act programs. They also create an
understanding of the communities' concerns early
in the process. The FY2017 webinars included an
overview of how the National Ambient Air
Quality Standards (NAAQS) are established and
implemented, how EPA establishes the status of
air quality for any given areas against those
standards, how communities can engage their
state or local air agencies to participate in
implementing the NAAQS, and how communities
have used citizen science and sensor technology
to support their engagement with their state and
local air agencies. OAR has also provided in-
person trainings tailored to the needs of the
specific community. In each instance, OAR
partnered with state agencies, community
leaders, industry (where possible), and EPA
Regions to design programs that support
improved communications with impacted
communities. Trainings in FY2017 included
partnerships with the states of North Carolina,
Oregon, Minnesota, and Mississippi.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
TRIBES AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Ensuring Environmental Protection on the
Fort Berthold Indian Reservation
EPA Region 8 formed a cross-program team,
called the Bakken Team, to coordinate the
Region's direct implementation of environmental
programs on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation
(FBIR) in North Dakota. This area has experienced
population growth and environmental justice
challenges (e.g. wells with storage tanks that emit
air pollution, spills, etc.), resulting from the
exploration, development, and production of oil
and natural gas from the Bakken shale formation.
The Bakken Team aims to strengthen relationships
with government and tribal partners and
facilitate engagement with impacted communities
to help address the highest environmental threats,
especially those in potentially disproportionately
impacted areas, within existing authorities. The
Bakken Team works with state and tribal partners
through various statutory and regulatory
mechanisms (e.g., Clean Air Act. Safe Drinking
Water Act. Clean Water Act and Resource
Conservation Recovery Act) and through
compliance assistance efforts. Region 8 assures
compliance by conducting inspections annually on
the FBIR as well as by providing technical
assistance to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara
(MHA) Tribes in the procurement, training and
field protocols for using a thermal infrared
camera to detect hydrocarbon emissions in the
field.
Region 8 has worked closely with the MHA Tribe
and federal partners to implement an ambient
water quality monitoring program, which is a
foundational requirement for MHA to pursue their
own Tribal Water Quality Standards. Over the
past four years, EPA has trained and assisted
MHA staff to collect surface water and
groundwater samples, analyze those samples,
and upload the data to the EPA Ambient Water
Quality Monitoring System. Region 8 also
coordinated closely with MHA Tribal government,
the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers to address the impacts from a
sizeable produced water spill by Crestwood
Equity Partners on FBIR and Lake Sakakawea.
This effort resulted in a comprehensive
administrative settlement with Crestwood filed in
April 2017. The settlement addressed the
collective concerns of the MHA and interested
federal agencies in a single remediation plan
that includes on-going sampling, monitoring,
mitigation or restoration of surface water, soils
and groundwater of the lake, its tributaries and
the right-of-way impacted. Based on the concerns
of both the MHA and FBIR communities expressed
during a community involvement meeting in April
201 5, the penalty negotiated between Region 8
and Crestwood in January 201 8 included a
Supplemental Environmental Project. It called for
the purchase and delivery of emergency
response equipment at a minimum of $173,088
and will enable the MHA to improve its ability to
quickly and effectively respond to future oil and
produced water spills on the FBIR.
Efforts with State Recognized Tribes and
Indigenous Peoples
EPA's responsibilities for indigenous peoples go
beyond the important government to government
relationship we have developed with federally
recognized tribes. They include coordinating with
state recognized tribes and indigenous community
groups regarding EPA's programs and
environmental justice efforts. For example, in
FY2017, the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR)
invited a representative from a state recognized
tribe to participate in EPA's staff training on
working with tribes and included an EJ community
representative as an auditor in an EPA Clean Air
Act and Permitting Course for tribes. OAR also
2S
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
coordinated participation of a Tribal
Representative at the Vulnerable Communities
Summit to discuss monitoring and sensor
technology and incorporated the Policy on
Environmental Justice for Working with Federally
Recognized Tribes and Indigenous Peoples into
OAR's Working Effectively with Tribes handbook.
OAR's FY2017 efforts were highlighted by
participation in the North Carolina Commission on
Indian Affairs Environmental Justice Forum, held in
the traditional area of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe,
a state-recognized tribe. EPA staff discussed the
role of EPA's environmental justice program in
working with federally recognized tribes, state
recognized tribes, and all other indigenous
peoples. The EPA Policy on Environmental Justice
for Working with Federally Recognized Tribes
and Indigenous Peoples wos glso discussed, glong
with the Agency's work with tribes on gir quglity.
Most of the diglogue centered ground concerns
thgt the tribes expressed reggrding a proposed
ngturgl ggs pipeline, gnd the role gnd
responsibility of the stgte of North Cgrolino in
considering gnd gssessing the gpproprioteness of
permits for the pipeline. Six representgtives,
including senior legdership, from the stgte of
North Coroling's environmentgl program
pgrticipgted in the meeting. This stgte's
participation was appreciated by the eight tribes
represented. The state of North Carolina officials
expressed an interest in working with EPA on
addressing environmental justice issues in their
state, including concerns facing tribes and
indigenous peoples.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Building Resilience and Sustainability in
Detroit, Michigan
EPA Region 5 is working with federal partners,
state agencies, municipal staff, and local
stakeholders to align resources to support the city
of Detroit's economic, environmental and social
revitalization. Much of this work addresses
challenges that linger from Detroit's industrial
past and recent bankruptcy. While the entire city
faces challenges to environmental justice, the SW
Detroit neighborhood is especially burdened with
longstanding industrial uses. EPA Region 5 has not
only been delivering more projects throughout
Detroit over the past year, but has been
increasing local capacity through internal and
external coordination of its initiatives and those
of the White House Detroit Federal Working
Group.
EPA Region 5 supports the city's recovery efforts
to build resiliency and sustainability into
everyday municipal activities in every
neighborhood so that Detroit is not just bouncing
back, but bouncing forward. For this reason, EPA
activities contribute to the city's efforts to rethink
and improve the urban systems that supply its
energy, transportation, food, water and housing.
Examples include redeveloping contaminated
11,000+
IMPROVED DEMOLITION
PRACTICES OF BLIGHTED
RESI DEN Tl AL BUILDINGS
Community
Notification
Safe Handling
and Disposal of
Materials
Dust
Suppression
Clean Scil
Siormwaler
Management
AO EMERGENCY
1 ^ REMOVAL SITES
$2,706,000
EPA AND RESPONSIBLE
PARTY COSTS |
Oft BROWNFIELD SITES ASSESSED
US FOR REDEVELOPMENT
90
BROWNF ELD
JOS TRAINING
GRADUATES
700/ PLACEMENT
I /O I
' RATE
$48 M
GORDIE
HOWE
BRIDGE
COMMUNITY
BENEFITS
(NEPA)
1,600
SHORELINE
HABITAT W
AREA OF
CONCERN
20
80
NEW CLEAN
DIES EL TRUCKS
IN SW DETROIT
$36 M
EN ERGY STAR IN VESTMENT IN
BENCHMARKS OF EMISSIONS
MUNICIPAL REDUCTIONS
BUILDINGS
fu)
<£OI\/| N PDES PERM IT FOR AN N UAL GREEN
3>OlVI INFRASTRUCTURE INSTALLATION
AM HUD CDBG-DR LEVERAGED FOR
4»0 - OIVI ADDITIONAL GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
<£/inn AHA FOUNDATION SUPPORT TO LAUNCH CITY
$4UU,UUU OF DETROIT SUSTAINABILITY OFFICE
rtmstr-i i— ADDITIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL
PRICELESS PROTECT 'ON C APABIL1TIES IN
| I IMV/UUUUO REVITALIZED CITY OF DETROIT
26
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
brownfields sites, adopting green practices on
over 1 1,000 residential demolitions, converting
vacant lots into rain gardens, and repairing
roads as green streets. EPA is also investing in
aging infrastructure while meeting Clean Water
Act requirements, training workers on lead safe
practices along with hazardous materials safety,
and incorporating new clean diesel trucks to
transport heavy goods near the Port of Detroit.
EPA Region 5 also continues to emphasize air
quality monitoring and enforcement to reduce
environmental impacts in overburdened
neighborhoods in Detroit. In response to
community concerns, EPA deployed its mobile
monitoring resources and the state installed a
new air quality monitor in SW Detroit in FY2017.
EPA also resolved several air cases with
Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) that
resulted in local projects designed for schools and
parks to benefit residents of SW Detroit. EPA
Region 5 also maintains the Great Lakes
program that strategically targets threats to the
Great Lakes ecosystem and accelerates progress
toward long term goals by administering grants,
cooperative agreements and contracts, as well as
works with nonfederal partners to implement
protection and restoration projects. The Great
Lakes program continues to address legacy
contamination by dredging contaminated soil
from the Rouge River Old Channel around Zug
Island. This dredging project addresses a
longstanding community desire to see local
waterways cleaned up from decades of heavy
industry. In 2017, the Great Lakes program took
additional outreach steps to ensure that local
residents are included in the cleanup process
starting in Spring 201 8.
The EPA-funded Wayne County effort to lead a
Brownfields Area Wide Planning project is
another example of how the Agency addresses
legacy contamination and community
infrastructure issues. This funding supports the
community to research, plan and develop
implementation strategies for brownfield cleanup
and revitalization. This project is centered around
DTE Energy's River Rouge power plant near SW
Detroit and is timed to precede the closing of the
coal-fired power plant. The effort brings
together many organizations that previously
fought each other over the health impacts to
discuss the 'just transition' of a prime waterfront
site that represents one-third of the community's
tax base. Whether closing a power plant or
manufacturing site, a 'just transition' is holistic
support of the immediate community impacted by
a closing facility that includes workforce training,
economic development, site cleanup, and
redevelopment. The action plan for this project
will focus on brownfield redevelopment and
community revitalization opportunities located in
this area along the Rouge River and Detroit
Rivers.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Federal Interagency Working Group on
Environmental Justice (IWG)
Established under Executive Order 1 2898, the
Federal Interagency Working Group on
Environmentgl Justice (EJ IWG) gctively enggges
1 6 federgl ggencies gnd the White House
Council on Environmentgl Quglity to "identify gnd
gddress, gs gpproprigte, disproportiongtely high
gnd gdverse humgn heglth or environmentgl
effects of their progrgms, policies, gnd gctivities
on minority populgtions gnd low-income
populgtions." The Administrgtor of EPA chgirs the
EJ IWG gnd EPA's Office of Environmentgl Justice
plgys g criticgl role in its legdership gnd dgy-to-
dgy mgnggement. The EJ IWG brings pgrtners
together to gddress complex, plgce-bgsed
environmentgl justice chgllenges gnd hgs been g
chgmpion of effective interagency collgborgtion,
which led to the Environmentgl Justice
Collgborgtive Problem-Solving Model gnd
gssocigted plgce-bgsed successes. The
collgborgtive problem-solving model provides g
systemgtic gpprogch for communities to build
pgrtnerships with other stgkeholders to improve
their environmentgl gnd public heglth conditions.
In response to requests from federgl ggencies to
legrn more gbout effective environmentgl justice
gpprogches, FY2017 EJ IWG efforts centered on
cregting megningful spgces to foster g common
27
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
understanding of challenges and solutions and
explore opportunities for collaboration.
Recognizing that knowledge empowers action,
the EJ IWG showcased successful models that
deliver tangible results to communities to help in
form and inspire environmental justice
practitioners.
Recordings of the EJ IWG Access & Awareness
Webinar Series is on the EPA EJ IWG
webpaae and showcases the collaborative
work of nearly 30 partner organizations from
an array of sectors. In FY2017, over 3,000
individuals registered and 1,650 individuals
ranging from federal, state, local governments
and community groups attended the live
broadcasts.
In FY2017, the EJ IWG organized and led a
monthly Access and Awareness Webinar Series -
a national platform to strengthen connections and
share environmental justice best practices in
federal and local, place-based collaborations.
The "Brownfields to Healthfields: Championing
the Triple Bottom Line (Health, Environment and
Economy) for Community Infrastructure" webinar
showcased a community in Central Appalachia
that used a grassroots-driven and inclusive
approach to leverage resources from multiple
federal and state partners to establish a health
center on a former brownfields site. The series
also highlighted interagency activities at the
federal level. The "Discrimination Protections and
Promising Practices in Federally Assisted
Emergency Management" webinar provided new
guidance and resources to states and local
governments and the "Whole Community Disaster
Planning" webinar discussed how the federal
government is working to build community
resilience through inclusive public engagement.
The Regional IWG Committee also developed
best practices, tools and resources for place-
based multi-stakeholder, interagency
collaboration, including a compilation of Lessons
Learned that showcases how communities can
drive collaborative problem-solving (bottom-up
approach), as well as how federal staff working
in communities can initiate place-based
collaborations (top-down approach).
Brownfields to Healthfields
EPA uses the Brownfields to Healthfields (B2H)
approach to help local organizations access state
and federal resources to transform brownfields
and blighted properties into community spaces
that improve the environment, public health and
economic potential of vulnerable communities.
Health benefits include reducing exposure to
pollution; increasing patient, family and
community centered health care; increasing food
security, and creating public space for physical
activity. This approach also catalyzes private
investment by increasing economic potential
through the tax base, developing new jobs and
worker skills, and supporting economic resiliency.
This approach is inclusive, collaborative and
involves multiple stakeholders (e.g. federal, state,
tribal and local governments; business and
private sector, academia, nonprofits and
community-based organizations) who each play a
significant role. EPA's role involves identifying
Increasing patient, family &
community centered health
care
Expanding food security 8t
physical activity
Engaging impacted
community in redevelopment
vision
Cleaning up
contaminated sites
Developing new jobs
and worker skills
Transforming blighted
property
Reducing exposure to
pollution
Increasing economic
potential through tax
base
Ensuring worker
productivity
Figure: The Brownfields to Healthfields approach transforms
brownfields into community spaces that strengthen community
health, equity, sustainability and resilience for impacted and
underservedpopulations. The B2H approach has triple bottom
line benefits - health, environmental and economic. Examples of
each benefit are noted above.
28
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
and analyzing opportunities; convening and
facilitating stakeholder engagement; and
providing expertise, guidance and counsel to
help successfully move the process forward. EPA
also supports engagement of the impacted
populations throughout the decision-making
process.
In New Haven, Connecticut, the B2H approach
supported the Yale Child Study Center's Mental
Health Outreach for Mothers (MOMS)
Partnership™, to transform a petroleum
brownfields site into a MOMS Partnership™ HUB
- a neighborhood space that provides resources,
accessible job-readiness workshops, and mental
health services to serve low-income and minority
populations. The B2H approach also helped
obtain a $6.2 million Hurricane Sandy Social
Services Block Grant to expand MOMS
Partnership™ HUBS. In Compton, California, EPA,
through the Rural Communities Committee of the
EJ IWG, supported the Los Angeles
Neighborhood Housing Services' Center for
Sustainable Communities by connecting them with
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Resources
for a community garden and community cafe on
land occupied by an abandoned grocery store.
This approach is also aiding the planning of an
innovative community 3D virtual reality classroom
combined with a primary and vision and eye
health care center.
The B2H approach also has resulted in
environmental, health and economic benefits in
the rural former coal areas of Appalachia
communities. Data reported annually by
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in
eastern Kentucky showed that high risk residents
of Central Appalachia are going without
necessary eye care services with many FQHCs not
yet providing vision care services.13 In response
to this community's needs, the Rural Communities
Committee of the EJ IWG educated stakeholders
about the application of the B2H approach,
which informed the University of Pikeville as it
leveraged resources to expand the FQHC on a
1BhttPS://bphc.hrsa.aov/uds/datacenter.aspx?a=d&vear=201 6&
state=KY#alist
"Vision and eye health care are tremendously
important to the vitality of a small community.
Besides providing vision care for a community, we
bring professionals to the community. We bring
staff to the community. We bring business to a
community." - William T. Reynolds, O.D., member
of American Optometric Association Board of
T rustees
former brownfields site. The U.S. EPA and the
state of Kentucky funded contaminated site
assessment and cleanup of the brownfields site in
order to expand the FQHC at Eula Hall Health
Center to include vision care. Vision care was
extended at the clinic in 2017 and preparation
for onsite expansion is ongoing. EPA; other
federal, regional and state partners; community
leaders; academia and professional healthcare
organizations partnered together to collaborate
on this effort. These B2H efforts complemented
the University of Pikeville's launch of the Kentucky
College of Optometry in the fall of 2016, being
the first and only optometry school in Kentucky.
This school fosters a new generation of eye care
professionals to train in B2H facilities to serve
Appalachia. The benefits of this collaboration
include:
• Regional economic impact of $26.8 million
over four years (expected);
• Approximately 30% of graduates are
expected to practice in medically
underserved areas of Appalachia;
• Operating rural clinics that will serve an
estimated 1 8,000 unique patients annually;
and
• Faculty have already performed hundreds of
eye exams.
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
Under the 1970 National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA), federal agencies must assess the
environmental effects of their proposed actions
prior to making decisions and provide
opportunities for public review and comment on
those evaluations. EPA's Office of Environmental
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
Justice (OEJ) is the founding co-chair and current
member of NEPA Committee's Leadership Team
on the Federal Interagency Working Group on
Environmental Justice. Through these roles, OEJ
has helped to improve effective, efficient and
consistent consideration of environmental
justice principles in the NEPA process by
sharing lessons learned and promoting the use
of Promising Practices for EJ Methodologies in
NEPA Reviews (Promising Practices) in FY2017.
Promising Practices is g compilgtion of
methodologies from current ggency prgctices thgt
shgres the lessons legrned for NEPA practitioners
to incorporate robust, efficient gnd consistent
environmentgl justice efforts into their dgily
practice. With 14 depgrtments, ggencies gnd
White House offices gnd over two hundred
federal NEPA practitioners working together to
cregte this product, this report is g significgnt
model of
pgrtnership,
collgboration gnd
transpgrency for
the federal
government. To
promote
Promising
Practices, OEJ
trained over
1,000 NEPA
practitioners in a 11
mgjor
depgrtments responsible for NEPA
implementgtion (e.g., Depgrtment of
Transportgtion, Depgrtment of Interior, U.S.
Depgrtment of Agriculture, Depgrtment of
Energy, Federal Energy Regulgtory Commission)
on Promising Practices in FY2017. OEJ gnd the EJ
IWG gre glso completing g Citizen Guide to
build the cgpgcity gnd engggement of minority,
low-income, tribgl gnd indigenous communities
who wgnt to ensure thgt their environmentgl
justice issues gre gdequgtely considered with
Promlilng Practice*
for F,| Mrlhodnlogkt
in NhPA Review*
NEPA PRACTITIONERS REPRESENT
THESE FEDERAL AGENCIES
US Department of Agriculture
US Department of Energy
US Department of Health and Human
Services
US Department of Homeland Security
US Department of Housing and Urban
Development
US Department of Interior
US Department of Justice
US Department of State
US Department of Transportation
US Department of Veteran Affairs
Environmental Protection Agency
General Services Administration
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
White House Council on Environmental
Quality
federal ggency gctions.
EPA's Office of Federal
Activities is legding efforts to
finglize g Ngtiongl Training
Product for Promising
Practices (NTP) for use by all
federal agencies. The NTP is
an on-line training that
explains the promising
practices and methodologies and provides
examples of their application. To ensure the
effectiveness of Promising Practices, the NEPA
Committee is designing a Performance Measures
Survey that will also solicit suggestions for
improvement. The goal is to help ensure that
Promising Practices is a living, breathing document
that grows and adapts as our collective
knowledge and experiences on NEPA increases.
CHILDHOOD LEAD DISPARITIES
Lead exposure among young children has been
drastically reduced over the last three decades14
due to federal, state and local regulatory efforts
to reduce or eliminate sources of lead that
children are exposed to, such as: lead-based
paint, leaded automotive gasoline, lead service
lines containing drinking water and plumbing,
contaminated food, and consumer products. As of
201 3-201 6, there are approximately 200,000
children ages 1 -5 years with blood lead levels at
or above 5 |ag/dL, the 97.5th percentile of recent
national blood lead estimates, set as the
reference level at which CDC currently
recommends public health actions be initiated.15
Despite federal and state efforts, reduction in
lead exposure has not been realized equally
across the United States and it remains a top
childhood environmental health problem,
disproportionately impacting minority and/or
low-income populations. Average blood lead
levels remain higher among non-Hispanic black
children when compared to Mexican-American
and non-Hispanic white children. Non-Hispanic
14 Learn More about CDC's Childhood Lead Poisoning Data.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2017.
https://www.cdc.eov/nceh/lead/data/learnmore.htm
30
15 Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Forthcoming, July 2018.
www.childstats.gov
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
black children, children living in families below
the poverty level and children living in older
housing have statistically significantly higher risk
for higher blood lead levels. In 201 3-2016, the
95th percentile blood lead of children ages 1 to
5 years in families with incomes below poverty
level was 3.0 |Jg/dL, and among those in families
at or above the poverty level it was 2.1 |Jg/dL,
a difference that was statistically significant.16
Today, about 3.6 million U.S. families live in a
home with one or more conditions that can
expose their child to levels of lead that EPA
considers hazardous. EPA recognizes that
reducing childhood lead exposures continues to
be a complex challenge in overburdened
communities, requiring stronger strategic
collaboration with other agencies and within the
Agency. In collaboration with federal partners,
EPA is taking action to address childhood lead
exposures and health disparities.
In FY2017, the President's Task Force on
Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to
Children (Task Force), which is co-chaired by the
EPA Administrator and comprised of 1 1
departments and agencies and 6 White House
offices, agreed to develop a collaborative
federal strategy to reduce sources of childhood
lead exposures and associated health impacts in
the United States. This strategy, as currently
envisioned, would address sources of lead in
children's environments; improve surveillance and
monitoring of lead exposure to children; and
improve the health of children exposed to lead.
The strategy is expected to improve federal
communications with communities, policy makers,
and families, and jointly plan cross-federal
research to improve scientific understanding of
lead exposures and health impacts, and inform
cost-effective decision-making. In FY2017, the
Task Force published the Key Federal Programs to
Reduce Childhood Lead Exposures and Eliminate
Associated Health Impacts, which catalogs federal
efforts to understand, prevent, and reduce
various sources of lead exposure among children.
It is a step toward expanding the existing
collaborative federal effort to address lead
exposures in children in the United States, by
providing a basis for the development of a new
strategy to further reduce childhood lead
exposure.
In FY2017, EPA convened an intra-agency team
to develop a method to identify concentrated
geographic areas with the most overburdened
communities where lead exposures are highest,
using a consistent approach. By coordinating
efforts across several programs and regional
offices, EPA can better target actions to reduce
sources of childhood lead contamination. EPA also
partnered with the National Tribal Toxics Council,
the National EPA-Tribal Science Council, and
other EPA Tribal Partnership Groups to increase
understanding of issues in Indian country, educate
tribal communities, and convene and build
partnerships to take multi-media approaches. To
date, the partnership has been designing a
curriculum to educate tribal communities and
parents about the dangers posed to children
from lead exposures, as well as identifying an
approach to facilitate future federal
conversations on tribal childhood blood lead
levels. This approach is expected to be ready for
use by Summer 201 8.
Through the Lead Hotline (1 -800-424-
LEAD), The National Lead Information
Center (NLIC) provides the general public
and professionals with information about
lead, lead hazards, and their prevention.
The NLIC operates under a contract with
EPA, with funding from EPA and the
Department of Housing and Urban
Development. For questions about lead in
drinking water, contact the Safe Drinking
Water Hotline (1 -800-426-4791).
16 U.S. EPA analysis of data from Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey,
https: / / wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs / nhanes /Def ault.aspx
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
DISASTER RESPONSE
EPA coordinated response efforts with federal,
state, territorial, tribal, and local partners to
address human health and environmental impacts
to support people and communities affected by
natural disasters, such as Hurricanes Harvey, Irma
and Maria. These disasters destroyed or severely
affected power, water, and sewage services
impacting millions of households, many of which
are in minority, low-income, tribal and indigenous
communities.
Since fall 2017, EPA has deployed hundreds of
staff in response to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and
Maria. These response efforts were part of a
coordinated federal response under the Stafford
Act. They included providing assessment and
technical assistance to drinking water and
wastewater facilities, assessment of industrial
facilities for the Comprehensive. Environmental
Response. Compensation and Liability Act
(CERCLA) Superfund sites and facilities covered
by the Clean Air Act 1 1 2(r) Prevention of
Accidental Releases program, and assessment
and cleanup of public and private properties, to
render properties safe from hazardous materials
and household hazardous waste. These efforts
are coordinated with a cooperative federalism
approach across all levels of government to help
minimize adverse social, environmental and
economic impacts.
In response to Hurricane Harvey, EPA worked in
communities to assess impacts to regulated
facilities, drinking water, sewage treatment, and
overall human health effects. In addition to
monitoring air quality in neighborhoods near
industrial areas, EPA staff were deployed
alongside state and local partners to conduct
drinking water and waste water system
assessments, hazard evaluations, and container
recovery operations. EPA also deployed
community liaisons to the Houston area to support
38 County Emergency Operations Centers
throughout the impacted area, which included
disseminating information on the environmental
hazards related to flood waters and mold,
residential drinking water well testing, and an
array of other issues. To facilitate communication
and coordination, EPA regularly engaged
environmental justice contacts in Texas and
Louisiana to discuss community concerns in the
affected areas, and then shared those concerns
with EPA's community liaisons.
In FY2017, EPA
continues to help
Puerto Rico and the
U.S. Virgin Islands
(USVI) recover from
the damage caused
by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in close coordination with federal,
commonwealth, territorial and local partners,
along with non-governmental organizations. EPA
on-scene coordinators, scientists, technicians and
community involvement coordinators are
conducting response efforts highlighted in this
story map. These efforts include sampling
drinking water and wastewater systems for
immediate issues to be addressed by the
appropriate agencies and systems providers,
assessing Superfund sites, and informing
communities of the many health and
environmental hazards they face after a
hurricane. EPA augmented these efforts by
collecting household hazardous waste in Puerto
Rico and the USVI, which prevented storm-related
household hazardous materials from being
improperly disposed of in backyards, landfills, or
down drains. In addition, EPA staff supported
Hurricane Irma Recovery efforts through FEMA's
Community Place Based Recovery Support teams
working in Monroe, Lee, Collier and Hendry
counties in Florida, and identifying EPA resources
and technical assistance opportunities to support
the Joint Field Office in Orlando. EPA also
coordinated with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to
offer assistance as needed to tribes in Florida
and other southeastern states impacted by
Hurricane Irma.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
SECTION III:
RULE OF LAW AND
FAIR PROCESS
This section focuses on EPA's
efforts to ensure compliance
and enforcement of EPA's
environmental laws in
overburdened and
underserved communities. In keeping with our
overall theme of tangible results in such
communities, information is provided on national
enforcement results related to environmental
justice. This section provides details regarding
EPA's efforts to strengthen its scientific capacity to
better serve the needs of these communities,
focusing on environmental problems where they
are most acute for low-income, minority, and
tribal and indigenous populations, with an
emphasis on public engagement. It also provides
updates about EJSCREEN and activities carried
out under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1 964.
Enforcement and Compliance: Advancing,
Sustaining, and Innovating on EJ
Integration
FY2017 efforts in EPA's enforcement and
compliance program focused on sustaining
progress from the past several years, as well as
advancing efforts so that consideration of
environmental justice is more fully integrated into
all parts of the enforcement life cycle across all
Regions. This ongoing work includes reviewing all
enforcement cases to determine whether they
may affect overburdened communities and how
the resolution of enforcement actions benefits
affected communities. To advance the work, EPA
built a mapping tool that combines EJSCREEN
information with Enforcement and Compliance
History Online (ECHO) data, to help Regions and
co-regulators (states, tribes and local
government) focus compliance reviews in
overburdened communities. EPA added enhanced
map layers to ECHO, which enable the Agency to
identify overburdened communities or locations
that also appear to have facilities presenting a
high likelihood of non-compliance with
environmental laws. EPA will use this mapping
tool, along with on-the-ground knowledge from
other EPA programs, states, tribes, and
community members and groups, to facilitate
consideration of compliance efforts that would
make a difference to communities. These efforts
illustrate EPA's continued commitment to embed
consideration of environmental justice in the
Agency's day-to-day compliance and
enforcement work.
National Enforcement Results in Areas with
Potential EJ Concerns
The following two tables provide important
summary FY2017 national results on EPA's
enforcement actions in areas with potential
environmental justice concerns17 and the
environmental benefits that EPA estimates will be
achieved from those actions.
based on programmatic knowledge and other available
information relevant to those geographic areas may then
determine whether there are any appropriate opportunities to
address EJ concerns through the enforcement action.
Enforcement Actions
National Total
Number in Areas with
Potential EJ Concerns
Percent in Areas with
Potential EJ Concerns
Administrative Compliance Orders
601
198
33%
Final Administrative Penalty Orders
1,259
457
36%
Judicial Consent Decrees
103
33
32%
Supplemental Environmental Projects
94
42
45%
17 Areas with potential EJ concerns are geographic areas which
meet a threshold of 80th percentile nationally for one or more
of the environmental indicators in EJSCREEN. Further review
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
Estimated Environmental Benefits of
Enforcement Actions
National Total
Number in Areas with
Potential EJ Concerns
Percent in Areas with
Potential EJ Concerns
Pollutants Reduced, Treated, or Eliminated
{millions of pounds)
217
77
35%
Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Waste Treated,
Minimized or Properly Disposed (millions of
pounds)
245
245
100%*
Contaminated Soil/Debris to be Cleaned Up
(millions of cubic yards)
433
219
51%
*Two enforcement cases that concluded in FY2017 accounted for almost the entire total reported for this measure. Both of those cases
involved facilities located in areas with potential EJ concerns.
Geographic Community-Focused Enforcement
Initiatives
Region 9 has historically used a geographic focus
when targeting a portion of its compliance and
enforcement activities to address noncompliance
in overburdened communities. Most recently, the
Region has participated in the California
Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA)
Environmental Justice Task Force. Initiated in
201 3, the Task Force, made up of
representatives of state and local environmental
regulatory agencies, works to increase
compliance with environmental laws in some of
the most overburdened and vulnerable
communities in California. Region 9 has
participated in initiatives focused on Fresno, Los
Angeles neighborhoods, East and West Oakland,
and currently, in Pomona, and serves as an
advisory member of the Task Force Steering
Committee. These initiatives demonstrated the
value of an approach that combines a robust
community engagement process, with compliance
assistance for regulated businesses and
coordinated, multi-agency enforcement reviews
to address environmental concerns. The success of
these pilot initiatives helped to earn the Task
Force permanent funding through California's
201 6 Budget Act. The law created a mandate
for CalEPA to continue its multi-agency
compliance and enforcement approach and to
give priority to disadvantaged communities.
For example, for the 2017 focus on East and
West Oakland, the Region's storm water and
lead paint inspection programs participated
along with state and local inspectors, which was
informed by up-front and meaningful
engagement with community members to learn
about sites of concern through community
meetings and tours of the area. Participation in
this initiative helped strengthen interagency
coordination, emphasized accountability to
community members and helped identify patterns
of noncompliance across some sectors of the
regulated community.
SCIENCE
The Office of Research and Development (ORD)
works closely across the Agency to provide the
science, data, tools, and other resources needed
to advance environmental justice. ORD has also
made important strides to strengthen the
foundational link between EPA science and the
needs of underserved and overburdened
communities. This has helped EPA to better fulfill
its mission of protecting the nation's health and
environment by addressing environmental
problems where they are most acute for low-
income, minority and tribal and indigenous
communities. In FY2017 EPA's science efforts have
produced benefits for our most vulnerable
communities in the areas of air, water, land and
health disparities.
Air
• Ironbound Citizen Science - This
collaboration provided community-based
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
participatory environmental monitoring of
fine particles (PM2.5) and gaseous nitrogen
dioxide (N02) in the heavily overburdened
Ironbound community in Newark, New Jersey.
The project used an environmental sensor pod
designed by ORD for the particular needs of
the community with respect to industrial
emissions and freight transport activities.
Similar air sensor research is now underway
in the Argentine community of Kansas City,
Kansas, leveraging activities in that
community that were funded through an EPA
Environmental Justice Grant.
• Sensor Pods (SPods) for Feneeline
Monitoring - ORD worked with feneeline
communities and industries interested in
detecting leaks and reducing unintentional or
fugitive release to develop and use new,
specially designed sensors to detect and
measure emissions. ORD scientists have
evaluated sensors called SPods in communities
near refinery fencelines in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and have recently launched a
similar project near facilities in the
Rubbertown industrial district of Louisville,
Kentucky.
• Wildfire Smoke Guide - ORD designed A
Guide for Public Health Officials, Wildfire
Vulnerability Index and a Smoke Sense app
to facilitate preparation at ail levels of
governance and citizen science to reduce the
adverse health impacts of wildfire events. This
extremely timely science tool empowers
stakeholders so that they can be more
engaged with addressing the growing issue
of wildfires in many communities across the
nation.
Water
• Proctor Creek Boone Boulevard Project
Health Impact Assessment - This
collaboration between Region 4, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia
state agencies, the city of Atlanta and
community groups
developed a unified
solution to urban water
quality compliance,
flooding, heat stress,
and community
economic development.
This project is a major
success featuring public
participation in
generating
environmentally sound solutions with multiple
benefits including slowing stormwater runoff
from impermeable surfaces, improved access
to community gardens and green space,
increasing shaded corridors for walking and
biking, and expanded opportunities for
community small businesses.
• Lawrence. Massachusetts - Region 1 focused
on protection of Merrimack River water
quality and planning for the resiliency of the
water treatment facility in the face of
periodic flooding. This project is key to the
continued development of the Merrimack
River as a recreational economic resource for
the Lawrence community while also protecting
vulnerable neighborhoods from flooding and
vulnerable individuals from exposure to
waterborne pathogens through drinking
and/or recreational water.
• Multimedia Modeling Analysis of
Childhood Lead Exposure - The objective of
this study is to describe the relative
contributions of water, soil, dust, food, and air
to children's blood levels at different ages
and how these might change under different
exposure scenarios. The modeling analysis is
currently being used in the development of
potential options for the Office of Water's
Lead and Copper Rule, and was published in
the peer reviewed journal Environmental
Health Perspectives18 in FY2017. Additional
research identifies locations of highest lead
18 Zartarian, 2017 "Children's Lead Exposure: A Multimedia
Modeling Analysis to Guide Public Health Decision-Making,"
Environmental health perspectives, 125(9), 097009-097009.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
exposure risk and focuses more closely on the
contribution of soil lead to blood lead.
Land
• St. Louis River Estuary Restoration and
Health Impact Assessment (HIA) - Reports in
FY201719 will describe highly collaborative
(ORD, region, state, local) studies in the St.
Louis River area of Duluth, Wisconsin, on: (a)
community valuation of ecosystem goods and
services (EGS); (b) the institutional context for
the use of EGS in planning decisions; and (c)
the application of HIA in supporting decisions
for transforming remediation projects into
sustainable revitalization of the surrounding
community.
• Pilsen Site - EPA is overseeing the cleanup of
lead-contaminated soil in residential areas,
which includes excavating contaminated dirt
in the yards and gardens of homes with lead
in surface soil. ORD collaborates with Region
5 on soil sample analysis and is working to
identify lead sources using novel
environmental forensics.
• Coeur d'Alene, ID, Bunker Hill Superfund
Site - ORD collaborates with Region 10 on
implementing a structured decision process
engaging EPA, state agencies and the
Spokane and Coeur d'Alene Tribes to
prioritize cleanup of wetlands contaminated
with mining
waste. ORD
and Region
10 also
collaborated
to use new
tools for
evaluating
ecosystem services at this site to aid in
selection of Best Management Practices.
Health Disparities
EPA-NIMHD Centers of Excellence on
Environment and Health Disparities Research -
EPA supported the work of ten Centers, each of
19 "State of the Estuary" - Developing a lone term monitoring,
assessment and reporting framework for the lower Saint Louis
which worked with local communities as part of
the research process. These centers worked on
solutions to environmental health disparities. One
project was a collaboration between Georgia
State University with local community
organizations to evaluate innovative approaches
to reducing school children's exposure to air
pollution. Another project involved research by
University of New Mexico to inform interventions
to protect against DNA damage caused by
arsenic and uranium exposure. Additionally, an
EPA funded study at the University of
Washington found that racial/ethnic disparities
associated with exposure to N02, a
transportation-related pollutant, continues to
persist.
Tribal Science Grants
• University of Arizona - The Center for
Indigenous Environmental Health Research
(CIEHR) is partnering with American Indian
and Alaska Native communities (Hopi and
Navajo) to build capacity to determine the
contribution of chemical and other
environmental exposures to health inequities
and support efforts to address these threats.
These efforts include characterizing the extent
of contamination in culturally significant food
(mutton), as well as in the plants and soil of
the Navajo communities of Leupp, Arizona,
and Cameron, Arizona.
• Yurok Tribe Environmental Program,
Northern Arizona University - The study on
Identifying. Assessing and Adapting to
Climgte Change Impacts to Yurok Water and
Aquatic Resources. Food Security and Tribal
Health aims to increase the tribe's adaptive
capacity to prepare and respond to
environmental change by identifying areas
of water resource vulnerability and resiliency,
and assessing impacts on Yurok food security
and tribal health. They completed
development of their Yurok Local
Environmental Observer as a hub of the
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
River and Utilizing a Health Impact Assessment iHIA) to Connect
Natural Resource Management and Communitv(presentation)
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
(ANTHC) Local Environmental Observer
Network (LEO), with a functioning 'app' now
available for download to both Apple and
Android products. This puts the observation
tools of the LEO Network into the hands of
citizens in the field and allows users to upload
photos, audio, and text to make observations,
thereby helping communities understand and
document a range of environmental concerns.
• Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium -
With the Assessment. Monitoring and
Adaptation to Food and Water Security
Threats to the Sustainabilitv of Arctic Remote
Alaska Native Villages, grantees have
developed g filter pgper methodology to
gssess subsistence mgmmgl (e.g., cgribou)
exposures to pgthogens, gnd gre working
collgborgtively with subsistence hunters, stgte
gnd federgl ggency pgrtners on sgmple
collection gnd processing methodologies. They
presented their work gt the Arctic Council's
Arctic Monitoring gnd Assessment Progrgmme,
Arctic Humgn Heglth Assessment Group, Arctic
Council Science Conference Interngtiongl
Circumpolgr Surveillgnce Workgroup, gnd
One Heglth Workgroup.
Tools and Research to Facilitate Community
Action
EPA science directly supported EPA's Regions,
stgtes gnd stgte-deleggted progrgms gnd
communities, developed science tools gegred
towgrds gction, gnd conducted resegrch thgt
connects environmentgl conditions gnd humgn
heglth gnd well-being. Key tools thgt EPA
produced to fgcilitgte community-scgle gction
included:
• Health Impact Assessment (HIA) resources -
ORD hgs produced cgse studies, g HIA
resource guide, gnd g guide to using
EnviroAtlgs for HIA. These resources help to
expedite the HIA process gnd incregse
scientific rigor in this community-enggged
process designed to mgke high quglity
decisions gbout the impgcts on public heglth
of proposed policies gnd gctions.
• Information Access
Tools - ORD's
Mgterigls
Mgnggement
Wizgrd gnd Green
Infrgstructure Wizgrd
steer users gt oil
levels of expertise
gnd gogls towgrd the most gpproprigte tools
gnd resources to support gnd promote
sustgingble mgnggement of mgterigls gnd
wgter in community plgnning decisions.
EnviroAtlgs g I lows users to view dgtg gbout
their communities to fgcilitgte the evglugtion
of options gnd generation of solutions to
environmentgl issues.
The full rgnge of ORD's science gctivities for
environmentgl justice, including g wide gssortment
of outregch gnd training gctivities, is described in
the EJ Resegrch Rogdmgp. All of these science-
bgsed gccomplishments help to gdvgnce EPA's
mission by protecting the heglth gnd the
environment of the ngtion's most vulnerable
populgtions.
EJSCREEN
To better meet the Agency's public heglth gnd
environmentgl protection responsibilities, EPA
developed gn environmentgl justice (EJ) mgpping
gnd screening tool cglled EJSCREEN. EJSCREEN is
gn online tool thgt gllows the user to combine
environmentgl gnd demographic indicgtors in
mgps gnd reports. Bgsed on ngtionglly consistent
dgtg gnd g ngtionglly consistent gpprogch, this
tool provides the Agency with g uniform wgy of
looking gt environmentgl justice gcross its
progrgms gnd Regions. In 2015, EPA relegsed
EJSCREEN to the public to be more transpgrent
gbout how the Agency considers environmentgl
justice in its work, to gssist our pgrtners in mgking
more informed decisions, gnd to cregte g stgrting
point between EPA gnd stgkeholders when
looking gt issues relgted to environmentgl justice.
Since its public relegse, EJSCREEN hgs consistently
ranked gs one of EPA's most used tools gvgilgble
through the Agency website. Below gre exgmples
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
of how EPA and external stakeholders utilize
EJSCREEN.
As the Agency develops programs, policies and
activities that may affect communities, EPA uses
EJSCREEN to look for areas that may be
candidates for additional consideration, analysis
or outreach. For example, EPA uses the
demographic data to inform outreach and
engagement practices near Superfund sites and
other facilities. EPA also requires the use of
EJSCREEN review for most civil enforcement
cases. In 2017, EPA performed almost 1,000
environmental justice screenings under the
enforcement and compliance program. These
EJSCREEN reviews serve two purposes: (1) to
assure that EPA enforcement personnel working
on a case are aware of the potential
environmental justice concerns in a community and
then look for opportunities to address those
concerns, and (2) to allow the Office of
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance to
measure how much of our enforcement work is
being done in areas with potential environmental
justice concerns. EPA has also been actively
working with partners and stakeholders to
develop external uses of the tool. Today
EJSCREEN is regularly used by other federal,
tribal, state and local government partners, as
well as by nonprofit and community groups,
business and industry, and academia. In 2017,
HUD datasets were incorporated into EJSCREEN,
making it easy to analyze the proximity of public
housing to Superfund sites and other facilities.
EJSCREEN
Check out EPA's environmental justice
screening and mapping tool today!
Input a Location
e.g.: city, state, zip
vyEPA
for a major road construction project in Coeur
d'Alene as a preliminary screening tool to
identify vulnerable populations, and therefore
potential impacts. As part of the planning process
of this project, IDT's Communications Department
collaborated with the Idaho Office of Civil Rights
and used EJSCREEN to ensure that any impacts
were identified and relayed to the public in a
timely manner. The Office of Civil Rights found
that the census block groups surrounding the
wooded parcel were in the 80th-90th percentile
in the state for low income population. Using this
screening report, district staff were directed to
conduct an assessment in the area to validate the
EJSCREEN results and found that there was, in
fact, a low-income population. They also found
an encampment of "working poor" and homeless
populations living in the wooded parcel where
the proposed road would be built. The Office of
Civil Rights in Idaho began working with
surrounding local public agencies to make them
aware of the encampment and help this
community obtain the resources they needed. The
City of Coeur d'Alene embarked on a massive
effort to provide social services to the estimated
300 people living in the encampment, and
eventually helped relocate residents to local
shelters, halfway houses, and more permanent
living situations. After this event, IDT now conducts
environmental justice assessments for every
project possible using the EJSCREEN tool, which is
followed up with an onsite assessment by local
staff.
Community - Clean Air Carolina is a nonprofit
organization based in North Carolina that
partners with policymakers in the state and
applies science-based air quality standards to
advocate for cleaner air for communities. As a
part of a multi-year state-wide project, Clean Air
Carolina used EJSCREEN to conduct preliminary
air quality health reports for multiple counties in
North Carolina. In the most recent report done for
Catawba County in FY2017, EJSCREEN showed
where a comparatively high number of point
source pollution sites and high traffic emissions
are located in the area. Using the findings from
the EJSCREEN report, Clean Air Carolina
State Government - In FY2017, EPA researched
how stakeholders are using EJSCREEN. One
example showed that the Idaho Department of
Transportation (IDT) used EJSCREEN in June 2015
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
concluded that the population in this county
consisted of a higher proportion of low-income
residents who are exposed to higher levels of air
pollutants emitted from stationary facilities and
mobile sources. The numerical and graphical
reports from EJSCREEN are directly referenced in
Clean Air Carolina's official air quality health
report. Clean Air Carolina plans to use this report
to educate residents in Richmond County
neighborhoods about the status of air pollution
and to help state and federal agencies with their
decision-making processes.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CIVIL
RIGHTS COORDINATION
The External Civil Rights Compliance Office
(ECRCO) continues to coordinate with the Office
of Environmental Justice (OEJ) and environmental
justice program staff in the ten EPA Regions, as
well as other program offices both in EPA
Headquarters and Regions, to address
underlying issues of concern in communities and to
develop and secure positive partnerships with
state and local agencies and other recipients that
receive EPA funding. In particular, ECRCO has
worked closely with EJ program partners in the
investigation and resolution processes of several
pending civil rights complaints. It has been able
to leverage the significant involvement of OEJ
and Regional EJ programs with the relevant
recipients, industries and community stakeholders,
in order promote the effective and efficient
resolution of pending civil rights complaints.
Going forward, ECRCO remains committed to
working with the Agency's environmental justice
program to ensure a meaningful and
collaborative approach to civil rights complaint
investigations and resolutions.
In addition, ECRCO provided training and
technical assistance to state and local agencies,
as well as tribal governments in FY2017. ECRCO
engaged approximately 38 states across all 10
EPA Regions through regional environmental
justice outreach calls and meetings. ECRCO and
the environmental justice program will continue to
utilize a comprehensive set of tools, including
training and technical assistance, in working
cooperatively with EPA funding recipients to
address their federal civil rights obligations and
to address underlying issues of concern in
communities, in an effort to resolve issues outside
of the civil rights enforcement process whenever
appropriate.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
SECTION IV:
BUILDING
COMMUNITY
CAPACITY AND
ENGAGEMENT
While much of EPA's
environmental justice efforts
are focused on advancing the
policy and practice of environmental justice within
different levels of government, all environmental
justice work is built upon a foundation of working
with and supporting the efforts of communities.
Direct community support is, in fact, the most
fundamental aspect of EPA's commitment to
answering the challenges faced by communities
throughout the United States. Without such
support, EPA's focus on fair treatment and
meaningful involvement would ring hollow, as the
communities that need support the most would
rarely gain the level of capacity necessary to
pursue environmental justice goals over time and
make use of the tools and policy advances of
their government. The goal of engaging and
building capacity is to empower communities to
help determine and achieve their environmental
and health goals.
EPA's commitment to supporting communities and
their ability to increase their capacity underlies
the varied means and methods of the Agency's
support mechanisms. These include environmental
justice grants that provide smaller levels of
funding for short periods of time to help get
communities started and then larger and longer-
term funding to support a community's efforts to
form collaborations and implement solutions. EPA
community support also includes more specialized
grants that look at specific media challenges, such
as Urban Waters, and also targeted technical
assistance to provide communities with detailed
professional knowledge and guidance on specific
issues, such as growing a local food economy.
EPA also offers general technical assistance that
is designed to meet a community's specific needs,
and an assortment of trainings that range from
general leadership development to specific
statutory based education. EPA's deployment of
these various types of support is absolutely
essential to ensuring that the nation's most
overburdened and underserved populations can
meaningfully engage their government at all
levels and impact the decisions affecting their
communities.
National Environmental Justice Advisory
Council (NEJAC)
The purpose of the National Environmental Justice
Advisory Council (NEJAC) is to provide
independent advice and recommendations to the
EPA Administrator on matters related to
environmental justice, with a focus on key areas
that include evaluation of a broad range of
strategic, scientific, technological, regulatory,
community engagement, and economic policy
issues. As a federal advisory committee
established in 1 993, the NEJAC brings together a
diverse set of stakeholders, who engage in a
systematic and comprehensive review of the
issues before it formulates recommendations.
Independent advice from the NEJAC: (1) provides
EPA with consensus recommendations about often
controversial issues that encompass divergent
viewpoints and interests; (2) comes from a unique
set of appropriately experienced,
knowledgeable, and sensitive multi-stakeholder
representatives committed to consensus
deliberations about environmental justice issues;
(3) enables environmental justice considerations to
be clearly and consistently articulated and
appropriately visible within the Agency's
decision-making process; and (4) provides the
Agency with an existing mechanism by which to
obtain advice from external stakeholders about
environmental justice issues in emergencies and
working for
environmental
justice
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
other special situations. Since there are very few,
if any forums convened by the federal
government regularly available to vulnerable
populations, citizens see the NEJAC as one of the
most powerful means for lifting up their voices for
federal agencies to hear and be responsive.
During FY2017, the NEJAC held two public face-
to-face meetings with teleconference options,
produced four reports, and worked on three
charges that were requested for various EPA
offices to address. These charges focused on
providing monitoring data to communities, water
infrastructure finance and capacity, and youth
perspectives on climate change. One response to
these charges was the Recommendations and
Guidance for EPA to Develop Monitoring
Programs in Communities report, completed at the
April 2017 NEJAC meeting. This report offers
ways EPA can address the needs of communities
when providing monitoring data through
negotiated enforcement settlements or permits, as
well as how to provide environmental data to
communities that is meaningful, relevant and
empowers them to improve their environmental
conditions. The NEJAC also completed four letter
reports that provide advice and
recommendations on four emerging issues that the
NEJAC believes EPA should take action on to
protect our most vulnerable communities. These
emerging issues include: Toxic Exposures Found at
Discount Retail Stores, EPA Implementation of
Worker Protection Standard Regulation, Title VI
of the Civil Rights Act of 1 964 Complaints with
EPA, and Flint Michigan Water Crisis. Many low-
income, minority, tribal and indigenous
communities throughout the United States see the
NEJAC as an impactful forum where they can
come together to speak directly to EPA. As
evidenced by the NEJAC's 20-year retrospective
report. EPA has benefitted tremendously from its
historical commitment to the NEJAC. In both
concrete and tangible ways, the NEJAC has
proven to be a critical means of maintaining a
direct channel of communication with citizens and
communities throughout the United States.
Environmental Justice Grants
The Office of Environmental Justice manages
EPA's Environmental Justice fEJ) Grants. Funding
and Technical Assistance programs, which
supports overburdened communities ond builds
pgrtnerships to promote environmentgl well-being
gnd improve public heglth. Since 1 994, the
program hgs provided fingncial gssistgnce to
community-bgsed orgonizgtions, locgl tribgl
orggnizgtions, gnd tribgl governments working on
projects to oddress environmentgl gnd/or public
heglth concerns in underserved communities. The
program offers one of two funding opportunities
gnnuglly: 1) Environmentgl Justice Smgll Grants
gnd 2) Environmentgl justice Collgborative
Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreements (CPS).
In FY2017, EPA provided fingncigl gssistgnce to
FY2013-2017
EJ Grants Awarded
Air Quality (includes
asthma arid indoor air
pollution)
Water Quality (includes
green infrastructure and
stormwater runoff)
Toxic Substances (includes
lead, pesticides, and
Healthy Homes)
Solid Waste Disposal
(includes recycling)
¦ Green Job Training
¦ Renewables and Energy
Efficiency
Community Resiliency
(includes hazard
identification and disaster
preparedness)
• Farming and Fishing
(includes urban gardening)
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
36 recipients in the amount of $1.08 million for
the Environmental Justice Small Grants, placing
special emphasis on projects in under-represented
states (where three or fewer EPA environmental
justice grants have been awarded over the last
five years), and on newer grantees (eligible
organizations that have not received EPA
environmental justice funding over the last five
years). Of the 36 total projects selected, 23 will
take place in underrepresented states (64%) and
35 will be implemented by newer grantees
(97%).
EPA has awarded environmental justice grants to
more than 1,400 community-based organizations
since 1 994. In FY2017, the more than 50
organizations awarded environmental justice
funding in 2015 and 2016 have made
considerable progress on improving the
conditions of their community. Environmental
Justice Small Grant funds supported the Choctaw
Nation of Oklahoma's (Nation) "Project Oka,"
which focused on maintaining clean sources of
water through recycling support, litter mitigation,
and educational activities to school children, elder
groups, and civic groups. With $29,947 in
environmental justice grant funding, the Nation:
(1) partnered with schools, community centers,
and local organizations to collect 1 2,1 00 pounds
of electronics and 1,894 tires for recycling; (2)
created a disaster recovery plan to address
concerns including disaster preparedness, debris
management, recycling and adaptation
strategies; and (3) engaged 433 students in
educational programming on school grounds and
at lakes in the area.
For brief descriptions of past and
present EPA environmental justice grant
recipients, please visit: EJ Grants
funding for stormwater management, community
engagement, education, and beautification work
to improve the environment and quality of life of
residents in underserved neighborhoods in New
Orleans, Louisiana. Through this EJ Cooperative
Agreement, GWNO developed partnerships with
the Louisiana State University Agriculture
Department, city officials, multiple nonprofits, and
two local schools, engaging approximately 200
residents through 1 2 workshops. The workshops
covered multiple environmental concerns,
including stormwater management, rain barrel
development, healthy soils, and community
mapping. Additionally, GWNO developed an
engaging environmental stewardship curriculum
for students that incorporated environmental
justice lessons along with the importance of
community involvement and problem-solving.
More than 1 00 volunteers joined four community
gatherings and two community clean ups resulting
in the planting of over 1 50 trees and 400 plants.
More importantly, GWNO was able to utilize the
EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving Model to
develop critical relationships that will allow them
to continue to address local environmental and
public health impacts into the future.
"GWNO's curriculum development... has advanced
our education model and enabled us to engage a
wide range of educators, community leaders, and
schools... The students took field trips, engaged with
professionals in different career fields and
presented their knowledge to adults and
professionals in different settings." - Alicia Neal
(Executive Director, GWNO)
Technical Assistance Services for
Communities
Technical assistance, training and environmental
education are often needed to build the capacity
of a community to better understand the science,
regulations and policies of environmental issues
and EPA actions. Through an EPA contract in the
Office of Environmental Justice, the Technical
Assistance Services for Communities (TASC)
program provides this independent assistance to
communities through scientists, engineers and
other professionals who explain technical findings
EPA's Environmental Justice CPS grants are
awarded every two years, with the projects
awarded in 201 4 closing in the first quarter of
FY2017. Groundwork New Orleans (GWNO) is
an organization that utilized their recent CPS
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
to a community and answer their questions. TASC-
supported efforts assist communities in working
with government agencies and other stakeholders
and in participating meaningfully in
environmental decision-making processes. These
services are provided in response to a
community's request - at no cost to the community
- and are determined on a project-specific basis.
In FY2017, EPA provided technical assistance to
a number of overburdened communities, including
neighborhoods in North Central Massachusetts;
Minneapolis, Minnesota; Camden, New Jersey;
Mebane, North Carolina; Shell Bluff (and nearby
communities), Georgia; Hidalgo County, Texas;
St. Louis, Missouri; The Dalles, Corvallis and
Portland, Oregon; and Providence, Rhode Island.
In collaboration with communities, TASC
conducted community trainings on making
effective public comments on environmental issues
(e.g., air monitoring regulations and proposed
plans for Superfund site cleanup), community
education on technical issues (e.g., stormwater
management, vacant property development and
feasibility studies), and a technical needs
assessment and plan development. In Region 2,
TASC funded a collaboration between the
Coopers Ferry Partnership, Camden
Collaborative Initiative and PowerCorps Camden
to develop instructional videos in both English and
Spanish for an online application created by the
Coopers Ferry Partnership that allows residents
to anonymously report illegal dumping and
flooding in real time. This collaboration promoted
community involvement, empowerment and
environmental protection in Camden, New Jersey.
Urban Waters
EPA's Urban Waters Program makes
environmental justice a priority by reconnecting
communities, particularly those that are
overburdened or economically distressed, with
their waterways by improving coordination
Approximately 83% of all Five Star and Urban
Waters Restoration Grants fully or partially
funded by EPA in FY2017 were awarded to
projects planned in underserved communities.
among federal agencies and collaborating with
community-led revitalization efforts. EPA connects
with underserved communities through the 1 5-
agency Urban Waters Federal Partnership
(UWFP), which has active projects in 19
designated locations. These locations demonstrate
a sustainable model that is transferable to any
location with an urban water. The Urban Waters
Learning Network is the innovative sharing
network for exchanging knowledge among
Urban Waters practitioners. In 2017, the Federal
Partnership's efforts to engage communities
across the country were recognized by the
nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public
Service with the People's Choice Award Service
to America Medal.
EPA also provides assistance to communities
through a direct Urban Waters Small Grants
program, and co-sponsors the Five Star and
Urban Waters Restoration Grgnts Progrgm
through the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation (NFWF), which gives priority to
projects that advance water quality goals in
communities with environmental justice concerns. In
2017, NFWF awarded 65 grants totaling $2.5
million to restore wildlife habitat and urban
waters. Grantees have committed an additional
$5.2 million in local project support, generating a
total conservation investment of more than $7.6
million.
In FY2017, the Martin Pena Channel UWFP in
Puerto Rico involved youth and adults in pollution
prevention education. Community members from
one of the poorest
and most
environmentally
overburdened
communities in San
Juan learned
about, designed,
and planted an
urban farm within their community. This farm
is also an example of a green infrastructure
project funded through a Small Grant in an
Urban Waters Federal Partnership location. Key
partners in this location, Corporacion del
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
Proyecto ENLACE del Cano Martin Peng, and the
Cano Martin Pena Community Land Trust Board,
worked with the government of the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to share new
approaches, such as green infrastructure, to help
meet water quality goals. These efforts will help
ensure that the revitalization of the channel and
the resulting water quality improvement does not
lead to residents being priced or pushed out of
their homes. These partnerships and tools are now
being applied to Hurricane Maria recovery
efforts as well, proving that healthy partnerships
are worth cultivating well before they are
needed.
Office of Sustainable Communities
EPA's Office of Sustainable Communities (OSC)
supports locally led, community driven solutions to
environmental and economic development
challenges through our convening capabilities,
tools and technical assistance. In FY2017, OSC
and partners delivered technical assistance to
more than 45 communities. OSC partners with
government, community-based organizations, and
the private sector to help communities develop
action plans and identify strategies to support
reinvestment and reuse of existing community
assets (brownfields, open space, main streets,
etc.) and infrastructure (water, sewer, road) in
ways that support inclusive economic growth, and
protect environmental quality. To accomplish this
work, OSC collaborates with other EPA
programs, federal agencies, regional, state, and
local governments, and a broad array of
nongovernmental and private-sector partners to
bring additional resources to communities to meet
environmental, economic and infrastructure
challenges, and to promote equitable
development. Assistance is provided at the
community's request on issues, such as cleanup
and reuse of abandoned and underused
properties; diversifying economies through food
systems, broadband infrastructure, light
manufacturing, and health care institutions;
disaster recovery and resilience, and "green and
complete street" designs.
In FY2017, OSC and partners delivered
technical assistance to more than 45
communities.
Through Local Foods. Local Places, an
interagency program in which EPA is the lead
coordinator, OSC focused on helping
community stakeholders reimagine a future use
for the former Paradise Inn, a beloved but now
abandoned anchor of the city's Fayette area - an
African-American neighborhood in Martinsville,
Virginia, isolated from downtown by a busy state
road. Through community engagement and
guidance on implementing an action plan, in
2017, EPA and federal partners helped the
community plan for a "healthy hub" that would
bring together multiple food-related enterprises,
such as a restaurant, community kitchen, and/or
business incubator. In Miami, Florida, OSC
examined policy and neighborhood-scale
strategies for diversifying the economy while
improving resilient infrastructure under the
Building Blocks Program. In 201 6, Migmi hgd the
highest income inequglity in the country,
compounded by poor public trgnsportgtion, flood
risk, gnd g hegvy single-industry focus on tourism.
EPA's efforts coupled equitgble community
development with Migmi's ongoing resilience
work with the Rockefeller Foundgtion 700
Resilient Cities Progrgm. OSC's work supports the
Agency's mission by fostering outcomes in the
built environment thgt protect environmentgl
quglity, public heglth gnd gvoid disproportiongte
hgrm to disgdvgntgged communities.
Community revitglizgtion efforts cgn tgke g
vgriety of forms. A new story mgp, "Community
Stories." shows how OSC hgs worked glongside
stgte gnd locgl legders in environmentglly gnd
economicglly distressed gregs to help gchieve
their gogls. Highlighted stories include efforts in
Fresno, Cglifornig, gnd Little Rock, Arizong, thgt
helped spur downtown revitglizgtion,
collgborgtions with communities in Vermont's Mgd
River Vglley gnd lowg City, lowg, to rebuild with
resilience, gnd g pgrtnership with residents gnd
legders in Willigmson, West Virginig, thgt used
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
local food and health fadlities to diversify the
economy and increase main street investment. This
new resource also includes an interactive map
that provides information on the more than 400
communities that have partnered with EPA on
technical assistance projects.
Equitable Development
The Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ)
promotes equitable development, an approach
for meeting the needs of underserved
communities through policies and programs that
reduce disparities while fostering places that are
healthy and vibrant. Because planners, architects
and preservationists have a significant role in the
development of a community, the goal of these
efforts is to help ensure that they are aware of
sensitivities to environmental justice so that
community planning is responsive to the needs of
underserved populations, considers the social and
cultural impacts of actions as required by the
National Environmental Policy Act, and advances
community-driven solutions that are effective and
environmentally-friendly. In FY2017, OEJ helped
raise awareness of equitable development
through outreach, education, and partnership
development, including with professional
associations.
Professional associations, such as the American
Planning Association (APA), National Trust for
Historic Preservation, and the U.S. Green Building
Council, look to EPA for expertise on equitable
development. In response to wanting to learn
more about the successful outcomes of
environmental justice projects, OEJ published
multiple postings and memos that were shared
with the association's national audiences. This
effort included a Planning Advisory Service
Memo that communicated the necessity and
benefits of equitable development, including case
studies and resources, with 40,000 APA members.
Also, OEJ's work on equitable development was
cited in the California Environmental Justice
Alliance's Tool-Kit to promote the implementation
of the state's Senate Bill 1000. The law requires
jurisdictions in California to address
environmental justice in their general plans, either
by creating an environmental justice element or
integrating environmental justice goals, policies
and objectives throughout their general plans'
various elements. These actions send clear signals
that environmental justice should be integrated as
normal practice in the day-to-day work of
planners, architects, designers, builders, and
public administrators. Raising awareness of
equitable development in the context of planning
is a significant, proactive and comprehensive way
to help raise the overall awareness of
environmental justice concerns for overburdened
communities.
National Environmental Justice Hotline
Developed by EPA's Office of Environmental
Justice, The National Environmental Justice Hotline
Process and Protocol (Hotline) is a system
designed to offer citizens an accessible way to
inform the Agency of environmental and public
health concerns. The Hotline serves as a
mechanism to promote the fair treatment and
meaningful involvement of citizens who
experience or have the potential to experience
adverse environmental and public health impacts
in their communities through a nationally
centralized process. In FY2017, the Hotline
achieved a 98% ticket closure rate for the 925
inquiries received. It was recognized with EPA's
Exemplary Customer Service Award for lifting up
the concerns of citizens across the United States
by ensuring that their voices are heard and
answered. It has also received a nomination for
national recognition by EPA for the protocol's
collaborative efforts across all of the Agency's
regions and programs. The national Hotline has
led EPA's regions to look into developing their
own systems. For instance, Region 4 developed a
process that involves collaboration across the
Region and with state partners to more
effectively respond to community issues and
citizen inquiries, leading to improved joint
resolution and positive results. Their Environmental
In FY2017, the Hotline achieved a 98% ticket
closure rate for the 925 inquiries received.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
Justice Complaint Lean Rapid Project Team conducted; and 30 enforcement actions were
received the Region 4 Bronze Metal Award for its taken.
effort in developing these procedures.
TRAINING
Empowering Government Partners and
Communities to Achieve Better Environmental
and Health Outcomes
• Region 5 Collaborative Efforts to Eliminate
Childhood Lead Exposure - Region 5 is
working to empower state and local
governments and community leaders with
information and tools in support of our shared
goal of eliminating childhood lead exposure.
In FY2017, Region 5's Children's Health and
Environmental Justice programs hosted an all-
day Lead Workshop for Communities to share
the range of tools, strategies, and resources
available to help eliminate lead poisoning
with approximately 80 community leaders
from every state in the Region. EPA's
Children's Health Program (CHP) provided
four healthy homes train-the-trainer training
sessions to approximately 1 1 0 educational,
social, health and housing services providers
in Flint, Michigan. In collaboration with state
and local partners, CHP also created
"podcast webinars" that covered children's
health and lead sources.
• Region 8 Northeast Denver Lead-based
Paint Place-based Initiative - Region 8, in
collaboration with the Colorado Department
of Public Health and Environment and the city
and county of Denver, continues to increase
awareness of and compliance with the Toxic
Substances Control Act Lead Renovation,
Repair and Painting Rule in six Northeast
Denver neighborhoods. Through the Initiative,
almost 90 renovators and building code
inspectors have received free Lead-safe
Renovator training and became lead-safe
certified to provide lead-safe renovations;
lead-safe requirements were incorporated
into Colorado child care licensing regulations
and Denver building code and permitting
operations; 52 compliance inspections were
In FY2017, Region 5's Children's Health and
Environmental Justice programs hosted an all-
day Lead Workshop for Communities to share
the range of tools, strategies, and resources
available to help eliminate lead poisoning
with approximately 80 community leaders
from every state in the Region.
Empowering Communities, Tribes and
Indigenous Peoples to Enhance Meaningful
Engagement
• Region 10 Beacon Hill Environmental
Health Collaboration - The Region 10
Environmental Justice Program is partnering
with the community group, El Centro de la
Raza, to implement the Beacon Hill
Environmental Health Collaboration, a two-
year EPA Collaborative Problem Solving
Cooperative Agreement that involves multiple
levels of government, community-based
organizations, university expertise, and
federal agencies to address health impacts
regarding air quality and noise in Seattle's
Beacon Hill neighborhood. Located in close
proximity to high traffic roadways and
airports, residents experience high rates of
cardiovascular, respiratory and other
illnesses, as well as elevated rates of
childhood asthma hospitalizations.
The project aims to empower residents
through educational outreach, engagement,
and capacity building in a cross-culturally
and linguistically-competent manner to
engage the racially and linguistically diverse,
recent immigrant, and low-income
populations. Over 300 community members
were informed of the health impacts and
sources of air and noise quality issues, and
provided an opportunity to generate ideas
for both civic and governmental action steps.
This collaboration also established a Steering
Committee comprised of environmental justice
and service providing community-based
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
organizations, and a Technical Panel with
members from the University of Washington,
King County Public Health, Puget Sound Clean
Air Agency and others. They will help ensure
a degree of environmental justice integration,
technical expertise and local community
knowledge to mobilize and focus resources on
actions selected by the community. In the next
year, there will be the opportunity to deepen
interactions with the Port of Seattle, along
with local, regional agencies and federal
agencies, such as the EJ Interagency Working
Group and the Federal Aviation
Administration.
• Networking Across Agencies to Highlight
Environmental Justice Grantee Successes -
Region 9 led a collaborative planning effort
to design a networking session for the
environmental justice and community grantees
of the Region, CalEPA and the Bay Area Air
Quality Management District in October
2017. The planning team also included EJ
grantees from the three agencies. Successes
were highlighted over the course of two days
for almost a hundred participants. A
thoughtful critique and recommendations for
stronger environmental justice grant programs
from University of Colorado at Boulder's Dr.
Jill Lindsay Harrison and Green Action for
Health and Environmental Justice's Brian
Butler kicked off the workshop. Tracks on
citizen science, environmental education and
innovative financing demonstrated the
impressive accomplishments of environmental
justice and community-based organizations. A
workshop highlight was a tour of West
Oakland, led by Margaret Gordon of the
West Oakland Environmental Indicators
Project.
• Training for Tribes and Indigenous Peoples
- Several EPA regions held trainings on the
EPA Policy on Environmental Justice for
Working with Federally Recognized Tribes
gnd Indigenous Peoples gnd EJSCREEN
throughout 2017. Trginings were
predomingntly held during the gnnugl or
semi-gnnugl meetings with tribgl
environmentgl professiongls, gnd gt the
gnnugl EPA Tribgl Lgnds gnd Environment
Forum, which focused on the "benefits of
megningful public engggement" in tribgl
environmentgl programs. To expgnd
gccessibility, g ngtiongl trgining webingr wgs
held in October 2017 for over 1 80
individugls representing tribgl community-
bgsed orggnizgtions, tribgl environmentgl
stgff, universities, gnd federal ggencies.
Empowering Communities to Obtain and
Leverage Resources
• Environmental Justice Academy (EJ
Academy) - The Environmentgl Justice
Acgdemy in Region 4 is g 9-month trgining
program thgt helps build the cgpgcity for
community legders to better gddress g
community's public heglth gnd environmentgl
chgllenges. Thirty-six gradugtes from the
FY2016 gnd FY2017 clgsses represented 32
communities gnd were empowered to help
gchieve significgnt benefits for their
community. These include working with g locgl
utilities compgny, who ggreed to locgte gnd
replgce over 1 0,000 legd wgter lines;
receiving $4.2 million dollgrs in mitiggtion
funds from the Pglmetto Rgilwgy; gnd
obtgining g $460,000 commitment from
developers to build g community center gnd
cregte 140 jobs. Additiongl gradugte
gchievements include being selected to
pgrticipgte in EPA's Brownfields to
Heglthfields efforts gnd the Institute for
Georgig Environmentgl Legdership, gs well gs
being hired gs gn executive director of g
nonprofit orggnizgtion. Gradugtes hgve glso
been fegtured in grticles, blogs, on Ngtiongl
Public Rgdio gnd gs presenters gt ngtiongl
The Environmentgl Justice Acgdemy in
Region 4 is g 9-month trgining program
thgt helps build the cgpgcity for
community legders to better gddress g
community's public heglth gnd
environmentgl chgllenges.
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Environmental Justice FY2017 Progress Report
and international conferences. The EJ
Academy uses EPA's Collaborative Problem-
Solving Model to create a shared vision and
drive community revitalization among
community-based organizations, local
government, small businesses, academic
institutions and industry.
• Grant Writing and Capacity Building
Workshop - Close to 1 50 participants from
federal, state, local governments, non-
governmental organizations, academia as
well as residents attended Region 7's Grant
Writing and Capacity Building Workshop in
Kansas City, Missouri. This workshop covered
the grant application process, along with
environmental justice tools, best practices and
approaches to increase the capacity of
inexperienced and non-traditional
organizations to seek, obtain, and manage
grants more successfully and to improve the
quality of grant project outputs and
outcomes. Producing the workshop was a
team effort that included partnering with
EPA's Brownfields Programs, state
Brownfields Programs and the Kansas State
University Technical Assistance to Brownfields
Program.
Environmental Justice and International
Affairs
The Office of Environmental Justice's (OEJ) has
two roles in international affairs. First, EPA
supports the domestic implementation of
international human rights agreements, which
includes addressing the environmental and public
health concerns raised within this context. In light
of the Agency's support for these efforts, OEJ has
played a more active role in international affairs
in the past four years. Secondly, more countries
are seeking to identify appropriate mechanisms
for addressing the environmental and public
health concerns of vulnerable communities within
their respective countries. With that in mind, they
are reaching out to EPA to learn from our
experiences and expertise to help guide the
development and implementation of their own
environmental justice programs. In FY2017, EPA
engaged in the following international activities
to help address the environmental and public
health issues of vulnerable communities:
• To fulfill obligations under the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination, all member countries
are required to submit a report and
participate in reviews conducted by the
United Nations (UN). OEJ worked with EPA's
Office of International and Tribal Affairs
(OITA) to develop the environmental and
public health sections of this report, which
focused on the issues raised by the UN and
acknowledged by the U.S. in 2014.
• OEJ worked with OITA to coordinate EPA's
participation in the 2017 Permanent Forum
on Indigenous Issues, which focused on the
1 0th anniversary of issuing the UN Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Agency
staff participated in multi-state meetings to
discuss EPA's work to effectively collaborate
and coordinate with federally recognized
tribes and indigenous peoples to address
their environmental and public health
concerns.
• The South Korean environmental department
invited OEJ to participate in their
Environmental Performance Review under
their Organization of Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD). Since one of the
focuses of the review was to effectively
address environmental justice, OEJ provided
comments on their draft report and was
invited to participate via videoconference for
the "in-person" OECD meeting to discuss the
outcomes of the review with the South Korean
government officials.
• The Chinese environmental department
contacted various stakeholders, including EPA,
to inquire about a visit to the U.S. to discuss
our experiences with addressing the concerns
of vulnerable communities in the siting of
waste facilities and related issues. A date for
the visit has not been set.
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CONCLUSION: LOOKING
FORWARD
EPA works on environmental justice to help
overburdened communities become healthier,
cleaner and more prosperous places to live,
work, play and learn. The examples highlighted
in this report illustrate how EPA is working to
meet the needs of our most vulnerable
communities to address disproportionate
environmental impacts, health disparities, and
economic distress. EPA is partnering with states,
tribes, local governments and other federal
agencies to provide all Americans with clean
water, air and land. EPA is continuing to innovate
and integrate environmental justice into our
programs. EPA is engaging communities,
conducting educational outreach and trainings,
and building collective capacity to empower
communities to help address environmental justice
issues. Looking forward, EPA will continue to
deepen and strengthen its commitment to support
communities and protect the health and
environment of all Americans.
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