EPA NE rolls out Environmental Justice Plan

EPA New England has a long
and successful history of
addressing issues related to
environmental justice (EJ). With
the recent appointment of regional
administrator Bob Varney, the
region gained the knowledge,
support, energy, and new ideals
of someone with a history of
commitment to this issue.

Soon after Varney's arrival,
the EPA New England EJ Council
briefed the office directors and
regional administrator on past
successes and efforts over the last
18 months to develop an EJ
Action Plan, which would help
institutionalize EJ in the everyday

work of the agency. Varney
praised the council and challenged
it to do even better.

Today we are seeing the
results — a new Environmental
Justice Action Plan that lays out a
clear agenda for EPA staff and
external partners to boost EJ

In this issue

*An EJ success story
*EJ council and

leadership
*EJ Grants
"Message from EPA
Administrator Whitman
•National EJ Strategy

activities all across New England.

The EJ Action Plan being
rolled out today is the next step in
our continuing efforts to institu-
tionalize EJ in the region over the
next two years. Strategies were
developed around six themes:

•Develop program-specific EJ
guidance in areas such as
enforcement and inspections,
permitting, grants, performance
partnership agreements, state
delegated programs and public
participation.

•Educate and train all EPA
staff so they understand EJ, and
provide them with tools to identify
EJ communities of concern and

continued on page 2

Castagna takes job as EJ Coordinator

Kathleen Castagna, a 21-year
EPA veteran, is the region's new
Environmental Justice Coordina-
tor, a position in the Office of
Civil Rights and Urban Affairs in
EPA New England's Office of the
Regional Administrator.

"The role of the EJ Coordina-
tor is two-pronged," Castagna
said. "Internally you have
responsibility for integrating EJ
into the regions programs and
policies, and externally you have
to be responsive to communities
that raise concerns."

Castagna formerly worked in
the Office of Site Remediation
and Restoration, home of the
Superfund program, where she

was a regional proj ect officer for
RCRA Enforcement and Per-
mitting Assistance Contracts. She
also recently served as assistant
to the director of Civil Rights and
Urban Affairs and as the Federal
Women's Program manager.

Her last two decades of

experience with EPA gave her
experience in many areas, with an
emphasis on program and policy
development, project manage-
ment, environmental evaluation,
community consensus-building
and team-leading skills.

"I am most excited about
working with communities and
serving as the EPA representative
when a community group raises a
concern," said Castagna. "I grew
up in an urban area and didn't
have access to clean beaches,
parks or air, and I committed
early in my life to environmental
issues because of that."

Kathleen Castagna can be
reached at 617-918-1429.

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November 2001

Page 2

EJ Council will take lead on action

EPA New England created
the Environmental Justice Council
in 1999, with a mission of
institutionalizing environmental
justice throughout the office.

The goal was ensure that
environmental justice is consid-
ered when the region sets its
priorities each year and to help
incorporate EJ into the region's
day-to-day activities. The council
will use the Action Plan an-
nounced today to achieve these
goals.

EPANew England's
Environmental Justice Council is
made up of the deputy office
directors and support staff from

the region's six program and
administrative offices. The council
is chaired by the director of the
Office of Civil Rights and Urban
Affairs, James Younger, who has
overall management accountability
for ensuring thatEJ is institutional-
ized throughout the organization.

Members of the council are:
from the Office of Ecosystem
Protection: Susan Studlien,Marv
Rosenstein and Lois Adams; from
the Office of Site Remediation
and Restoration: Rich
Cavagnero, Michael Barry, Edgar
Davis and Athanasios
Hatzopoulos; from the Office of
Environmental Stewardship:

Gerry Levy, Veronica Harrington,
Rhona Julien and Hugh Martinez;
from the Office of Environmen-
tal Measurement and
Evaluation: Carol Wood and
Rich Fisher; from the Office of
Administration and Resource
Management: James Owens
and Deborah Cohen; from the
Office of Civil Rights and
Urban Affairs: James Younger,
Kathleen Castagna; Natasha
Greaves and Davina Wy sin; from
the Office of Regional
Counsel: Pam Hill. In addition, a
representative from the Agency
for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry has a seat on the council.

New environmental justice plan goes even further

continued from page 1

factor EJ into their everyday work.

•Engage community-based and health organiza-
tions, and federal, state and local government, to
collectively broaden efforts to understand, identify,
and resolve EJ concerns, and to meaningfully involve
these partners in the region's decision-making.

•Create an inventory of EJ projects, programs,
initiatives and activities, and make it available
electronically to all staff.

•Increase communication with both internal staff
and outside stakeholders through the use of the
internet and newsletters.

•Include EJ in the annual strategic planning
process for the 2002 fiscal year and beyond.

At the same time as the council is releasing this
plan, Varney has issued a revised EJ policy that will
set the framework and direction for putting in place
the aggressive strategies contained in the plan. The
goal, ultimately, is to ensure that all the citizens of
New England receive fair and equal environmental
protection regardless of their race or income status.

EPA New England was the first region in the
country to issue an EJ Policy and Implementation
Plan, and to map EJ areas of concern. All this
happened in New England in the early 1990s, as the

organization made progress in changing its culture to
emphasize its relationships and connections to
citizens and communities in New England who are
most in need of environmental protection.

EJ efforts focus on
asthma, children's health

As part of its work on EJ, EPA New England
has made a commitment to protect the health and
environments of children, particularly those living in
low income and minority communities.

Among the priorities of the region's Children's
First program is tackling the triggers of asthma, a
disease that disproportionately affects children in
low income urban areas. As a founding member of
the New England Regional Asthma Coordinating
Council, EPA New England helped develop a 12-
point plan to reduce the incidence of asthma in the
region.

EPA New England's lead safe yards program
focuses on reducing lead contamination in soil and
homes, and the Healthy Schools agenda works to
improve school environments for students. For
more information on Children First, visit http://
www.epa.gov/regionl/children/index.html.

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November 2001

Page 3

An EJ success story

EPA and partners reduce threat of lead

Although children's blood
lead levels have declined
dramatically in recent years, lead
continues to threaten children's
health-especially in Boston where
much of the older housing stock
contains lead-based paint. The
greatest threat may lurk outside of
homes-in yards where children
play

This concern has spurred
EPA to test and clean more than
100 backyards in Boston's
Dudley and Bowdoin neighbor-
hoods since 1998 through the
Lead-Safe Yard Proj ect.

Lead poisoning can cause
permanent damage to the brain,
kidneys and nervous system.

Even low levels of lead can slow
a young child's development and
cause learning and behavior
problems. Lead-based paint on
older housing is the main source
of lead poisoning in
Masachusetts, and the Mass.
Department of Public Health
reports that in communities with
the highest risk of childhood lead
poisoning, 63 percent of the
housing was built prior to 1950.

EPA's lead-safe yards
program, launched in 1998, offers
low- and no-cost techniques that
significantly reduce exposure risks
for preschool children to lead in
soil. The proj ect is funded
through the EPA's Environmental
Monitoring for Public Access and
Community Tracking program,
and the EPA worked with local
government, several community-

Bowdoin Street Community Health Center conducts outreach in the
neighborhood

based organizations, a university,
and a couple of landscaping
companies to carry out the
project.

The project targeted the
neighborhoods surrounding
Bowdoin and Dudley Streets in
the North Dorchester and
Roxbury areas of Boston. These
communities are on the "lead belt"
of Boston, home to most of the
children with elevated blood
levels. Both neighborhoods are
primarily made up of low-income
African-American, Hispanic, and
Cape Verdean residents.

EPA partnered with Boston's
Department of Neighborhood
Development, the Bowdoin Street
Community Health Center and the
Dudley Street Neighborhood
Initiative to choose bl ocks that
contained mostly older wood-
framed houses, and to conduct

outreach, education, safety
training, sampling and analysis
efforts. So far, 100 properties
have been tested and cleaned of
elevated levels of lead in soil

The project has raised
residents' awareness of the
hazards of lead poisoning and
educated them about the
childhood health risks posed by
lead in soil. The project has also
shown that simple steps can be
taken inside and outside the home
to alleviate risks of exposure to
lead paint.

In addition, project staff
worked with the Boston
University School of Public
Health to develop a model for
other communities to abate lead
contamination in their own yards.
The project has sponsored a
technology transfer training

continued on Page 8

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November 2001

Page 4

\fcrney has a history of commitment to justice

Bob Varney grew up in the
homogenous suburbs of
Massachusetts. That, however,
didn't prevent his growing interest
in those who face discrimination.

While in high school, Bob
Varney took a class in black
literature, which introduced him to
books about civil rights, race and
discrimination. Later, he studied
urban planning, where i ssues of
equity and justice were central to
the curriculum.

As commissioner of the NH
Department of Environmental
Services, Varney in 1994 made
New Hampshire the first state in
the country to establish an
environmental justice policy. At
the same time, he urged EPA
New England to become more
aggressive in addressing EJ
issues. His leadership was
recognized when EPA invited him
to join the national Environmental
Justice Advisory Council, where
he served until his appointment at
EPA New England.

And now, as regional
admini strator of EPA N ew
England, Varney is committed to
making sure that environmental
justice is a central consideration in
all EPA's policies and actions.

"It has always been important
to me," said Varney, who co-
chaired a national meeting in
Nashville, Tenn. in 1999 that
brought together EJ activists and
state environmental officials from
around the country.

Although EPA New
England's Environmental Justice
Council was formed before
Varney started at EPA New
England, the new RA has fueled

the effort.

"I made it known I was
interested in seeing us accelerate
our efforts in environmental
justice," said Varney, who had to
give up his seat on the National
EJ Advisory Committee when he
became RA.

From Varney's point of view,
environmental justice means
ensuring that "no people suffer
from a disparate impact on their
environment."

This includes not only making
sure that people of minority
backgrounds are protected, but
also that low income people are
protected. And, he adds, the
issue is rural, as well as urban.

The new EJ action plan will
address how environmental
justice will be handled at EPA
New England in the coming two
years.

"N umber one is to increase
awareness among staff," he said.
"We want to make sure every
employee, from the receptionist to
the Regional Administrator, has
EJ training so we understand it's
an issue and a concern and how
we can factor it into our daily

activities."

Key to this effort will be
enhanced outreach, Varney said.
This will ensure all residents of
New England have a say and an
opportunity "not only to voice
their concerns, but to have their
concerns factored into the
decision-making process."

As an example of how EJ
will become a priority, Varney
noted EJ communities will get
added consideration when
considering a cleanup action, or a
brownfields development, for
instance.

Achieving environmental
justice must involve the states, as
well. It will be EPA New
England's job to make sure all
states know EJ is a central
priority for us and to encourage
them to make it one for them.
Many already include EJ missions
in their agreements with EPA,
Varney noted. Although the goal
of EJ is to equitably distribute
environmental impacts and
protections, Varney said the
central issue is really justice,
which i s about far more then the
environment.

"It's the issue of disparate
impact," or inequality, he said. "It
can come into play in almost any
issue - making sure all communi-
ties have adequate medical
services, education, police
protection and community
investment. Justice is certainly a
broad issue and EJ is only one
part of that, but we need to do
our part to ensure low income
people and minorities do not
suffer from a di sparate impact in
our society."

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November 2001

EPA announces this year's EJ grantees

Page 5

Keep Providence Beautiful volunteers clean Waverly Street
through an EJSG in 1999

Seven grants totaling $ 100,000
have been awarded through the
Environmental Justice Smal l
Grants program to community
groups throughout New England.
This year's grants focus on public
health projects and those that
address how environmental
information is made available in
minority/low income communities.
Six of the EJSG grantees received
$15,000 each and one grantee,
"Keep Providence Beautiful/
Groundwork Providence,"
received $10,000.

Awardees include:

Action for Boston Commu-
nity Development Healthy
HomeslHealthy Kids.

This project addresses
inextricably linked housing and
health problems among Boston's
two largest non-English speaking
immigrant groups, Haitians and
Latinos, in Roxbury, Dorchester,
and Mattapan.

Nuestra Comunidad
Development Corp. - Swifty
Auto Mall Environmental
Education and Prototype
Project.

This project aims to show that
the auto service industry can be
environmentally-friendly and
economically viable. The project
targets Roxbury where there are
over 35 auto-related businesses
within one mile of the renovated
building site of Swifty Auto Mall,
and where levels of cancer, heart-
related problems, and asthma are
among the highest in Boston.

The Way Home - Commu-
nity Organizing for Environ-
mentally Safe Housing.

The purpose of this project is
to increase Manchester, New
Hampshire's stock of affordable,
lead-safe housing in order to
reduce environmental hazards to

children from low-income families.

The Food Project - Urban
Agriculture and Capacity
Building.

Through this grant, the Food
Project's youdi, staff, and
community members will work
through their urban agriculture
program to educate peer
organizations and participants at
local and regional conferences
about the connections between
healthy food, healthy land, and
healthy communities, and will
increase organic food production
in its urban agriculture program by
30 percent.

Chelsea Human Services
Collaborative - Chelsea Green
Space and Recreation Commit-
tee.

This project will address the
severe truck traffic problem that is
a major contributor to the soaring
asthma and respiratory illnesses m
Chelsea. The Green Space
project plans to involve 750 people
in its traffic reduction campaign.

Maine Lead Action
Project- Healthy Children,
Healthy Communities.

The MLAP will partner with
three existing Healthy Communi-
ties/ Communities for Children

coalitions in Houlton, Bath, and
Rumford to develop prevention
and education intervention
campaigns targeting low-income,
high-risk populations.

Keep Providence Beauti-
ful/ Groundwork Providence -
Environmental Education
Outreach Program.

This project was designed to
help residents and community
groups in Providence's racially
diverse West End neighborhood to
identify and assess environmental
risks and pollution sources in the
community; devise strategies for
environmental improvements; and
provide education, information, and
training on crucial environmental
and public health issues.

In addition to these seven
grants, an Environmental
Justice Through Pollution
Prevention Grant in the amount
of $75,000 has been awarded to
the Connecticut Coalition for
Environmental Justice to
support their Diesel Informa-
tion and Education Simply to
Extend Life (DIESEL) Bus
Project.

Through this project the CCEJ
will address the disproportionate

continued on page 7

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November 2001

Page 6

From the EPA Administrator: "Vlfe are committed to EJ"

The Environmental Protection
Agency has a firm commitment to
the issue of environmental justice
and its integration into all pro-
grams, policies, and activities,
consistent with existing environ-
mental laws and their implement-
ing regulations.

The agency defines environ-
mental justice to mean the fair
treatment of people of all races,
cultures, and incomes with respect
to the development, implementa-
tion, and enforcement of environ-
mental laws and policies, and their
meaningful involvement in the
decisionmaking processes of the
government. Among other things,
this requires the following:

(a)	Conducting our programs,
policies, and activities that substan-
tially affect human health and the
environment in a manner that
ensures the fair treatment of all
people, including minority popula-
tions and/or low-income popula-
tions;

(b)	Ensuring equal enforce-
ment of protective environmental
laws for all people, including
minority populations and/or low-
income populations;

(c)	Ensuring greater public
participation in the agency's
development and implementation
of environmental regulations and
policies; and

(d)	Improving research and
data collection for agency pro-
grams relating to the health of. and
the environment of all people,
including minority populations and/
or low-income populations.

In sum, environmental justice is
the goal to be achieved for all
communities and persons across
this nation. Environmental justice is
achieved when even one, regard-
less of race, culture, or income,
enjoys the same degree of protec-
tion from environmental and health
hazards and equal access to the

decision-making process to have a
healthy environment in which to
live, learn, and work.

The purpose of this memoran-
dum is to ensure your continued
support and commitment in
administering environmental laws
and their implementing regulations
to assure that environmental
justice is, in fact, secured for all
communities and persons. Environ-
mental statutes provide many
opportunities to address environ-
mental risks and hazards in
minority communities and/or low-
income communities. Application

of these existing statutory provi-
sions is an important part of this
agency's effort to prevent those
communities from being subject to
disproportionately high and ad-
verse impacts, and environmental
effects.

In the National Environmental
Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA),
Congress could not have been any
clearer when it stated that it shall
be the continuing responsibility of
the Federal government to assure
for all Americans safe, healthful,
productive and aesthetically and
culturally pleasing surroundings.

Integration of environmental
justice into the programs, policies,
and activities via Headquarters/
Regional Office Memoranda of
Agreements and Regional Office/
State Performance Partnership
Agreements is an Agency priority.
The Director of the Office of
Environmental Justice, Barry E.
Hill, and his staff are available to
assist you. Barry Hill can be
reached at (202)564-2515.

I am positive that each of you
will join me in working to secure
environmental justice for all
communities.

-Christie Todd Whitman

States, feds have EJ agendas

Three of the six New England coordinati ng with the National
states - New Hampshire,

Connecticut and Massachusetts -
have Environmental Justice
policies in place, and others are
working on them. In addition,
EPA and the New England State
Environmental Commissioners are
having ongoing discussions on EJ
through the Environmental Justice/
Title VI Work Group. This group
meets twice a year to identify EJ
issues and share information on
EJ in New England.

The group is now focusing on
EJ mapping tools, training,

Environmental Justice Advisory
Council (NEJAC), state/EPA
partnerships, assessing risk in
communities of concern.
Massachusetts has developed
cumulative risk guidance and site
assessment regulations that are
now under review.

This month EPA New
England sponsored a Pilot
Environmental Justice Training
Program for state agencies and
other outside groups involved in
EJ. The course was developed by
continued on page 7

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November 2001	Page 7

Barry Hill, director of EPAs EJ Office, outlines priorities

In July, Barry E. Hill, the
Director of the national Office of
Environmental Justice (OEJ),
shared the EPA's national priorities
for the 2002 fiscal year with the
regional offices. Through a
memorandum Hill stressed that
OEJ plans to work closely with
each of the 10 regions over the
coming year to provide compre-
hensive guidance to assess and
address allegations of environmen-
tal injustice.

"The whole is equal to the
sum of its parts," said Hill,
explaining why OEJ will focus on
regional outreach in order to
achieve its ultimate goal for the
EPA's national and regional
environmental justice programs to
be both consistent and well-
coordinated.

Many of OEJ's priorities for
the 2002 fiscal year are similar to
EPA New England's, as outlined in
the EJ Action Plan being released
today, including the focus on
guidance, training, mapping,
alternative dispute resolution, and
most importantly-the integration of
environmental justice into EPA's
programs, policies and activities.
Below are some highlights of
OEJ's priorities for the coming
year:

•Support the Interagency
Working Group on Environmental
Justice in developing 15 new
model projects to address
environmental justice through
cooperation among federal
agencies.

•Pursue the release of OEJ's
"Guidance for Addressing and
Assessing Allegations of
Environmental Injustice" for public
comment. The document provides
information to help EPA personnel
understand the manifestations of
environmental justice and to
address them in practical terms.

•Press for the public release
of the complete Environmental

Justice Mapper, which includes
EPA environmental and compli-
ance data, health data from the
Department of Health and Human
services, census data, and links to
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration data. The complete
system is available to all EPA
personnel via the intranet, and
another version is available to the
public on the internet that does not
include compliance information.
The full public system is being held
up because of inaccuracy of the
compliance data.

•Continue to promote the use
of alternative dispute resolution by
helping regions identify appropriate
opportunities for its use.

•Foster the integration of
environmental justice into the
EPA's programs, policies, and
activities through cooperative

On the state and

continued from page 6

the EJ Training Collaborative,
which has been traveling across
the country soliciting input in
developing a "Fundamentals of
Environmental Justice" course.

On the national front, the
National Environmental Justice
Advisory Council (NEJAC), a
federal advisory committee to the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, has begun work to
sharpen EPA's effectiveness when
working on EJ.

The NEJAC Executive
Council met in August to assess
its progress and mission. The
executive council decided to
focus on two areas:

improving community
participation for residents who are
poor and people of color in the
EJ dialogue, and

* assisting communities in
articulating their concerns relative

agreements with the National
Academy of Public Administrators
and the Environmental Law
Institute, which will issue reports in
December on environmental
justice integration in permitting
programs and on other environ-
mental statutes.

•Work with the Training
Collaborative program to develop,
for example, modules for the
Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act, the Clean Air Act,
and the Clean Water Act
permitting programs.

•Provide direction to the
National Environmental Justice
Advisory Council (NEJAC) to
provide cogent and timely
recommendations, and to ensure
that program offices work
effectively with NEJAC subcom-
mittees.

national scene

to specific sites.

The executive council will
develop a strategic plan for
NEJAC over the next few
months. The next NEJAC
meeting is Dec. 3 to 6 in Seattle.
The meeting will focus on
subsistence aquatic consumption
patterns and the relationship to
EPA water quality standards.

Grants for EJ

continued from page 5

amount of diesel bus emission that
the elderly and schoolchildren are
exposed to.

Each of these grantees was
selected through a competitive
grants process. Applications were
selected by a grant review panel
consisting of representatives from
each of the EPA New England
offices. Recommendations of the
best applications were made to the
regional administrator who made
the final selections.

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October, 2001

Page 8

Lead-Safe Yards Program brings justice into EPA work

continued from page 4

program, prepared a "how to"
handbook that provides technical
information for soil lead abate-
ment, and conducted seminars to
provide guidance to other
interested community organizers
throughout the country.

So far, the state of Rhode
Island and the Syracuse
community have initiated their
own Lead-Safe Yard Programs
and other communities are
interested in similar lead-safe
projects.

Over three years, the proj ect
has been active, EPA and its
partners have collaborated to
reduce lead problems in buildings

and Seal and to ultimately make Sampling with the Niton 702 XRF to collect real-time soil lead data

residences completely lead-safe.

Where and how to get more EJ info

Telephone Resources
James M. Younger
Director, Office of Civil Rights
and Urban Affairs
617-918-1061

Kathleen Castagna
EJ Coordinator
617-918-1429

Ronnie Harrington
Environmental Justice Grants
Program Manager
617-918-1703

National EJ Hotline
1-800-962-6215

Web Resources
EPA New England Environ-
mental Justice Program
website

http://www.epa.gov/regionl/
steward/ejprog/index.html

EPA New England Environ-
mental Justice Grants Program

http://www.epa.gov/regionl/
steward/ej/index.html

National Office of Environmen-
tal Justice

http://es.epa.gov/oeca/main/ej/
index.html

National Environmental Justice
Advisory Council

http://es.epa.gov/oeca/main/ej/
nejac/index.html

National Office of Civil Rights

http://www.epa.gov/ocrpagel/
aboutocr.htm

State Contacts
Connecticut

Edith Pestana, Ct. DEP, Environ-
mental Equity Program
860-424-3044

Maine

Brook Barnes, Maine DEP.
Deputv Commissioner
207-287-7887

Massachusetts

Veronica Eady, EOEA, director
of Environmental Justice
617-626-1053

New Hampshire

Philip O'Brien, NH DES
Director. Waste Management
603-271-2905

Rhode Island

Gerald McAvoy, RI DEM, lead
EJ person for state
401-222-6607X2301

Vermont

Edward Leonard, Vt. DEC
Policy and Regulatory Manager
802-241-3811

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