Q&A: EPA elevating environmental justice and civil rights

Why was this office created?

EPA reorganized the agency to deliver on environmental justice and civil rights issues now, and to integrate environmental justice and civil rights into the work of the agency as we move into the future.

With the launch of the program, we’re really elevating these critical issues to the highest level of the agency. We’re improving the agency’s ability to infuse equity, civil rights and environmental justice principles into all of our practices, policies and programs.

We now have funding from recent legislation, and the new office will put more than 200 EPA staff and billions of dollars and resources towards solving some of our most vexing pollution problems. So it’s an exciting time to be launching this program, and to be elevating these issues to the level at which they deserve.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan signs a document officially creating the new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights in October in Warren County, North Carolina.

Photo courtesy EPA

Why was this new office announced in North Carolina?

Warren County is often called the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, and we went there to acknowledge and celebrate community activists who have been fighting for the future of their health and their environment.

Forty years ago, residents marched daily for six weeks to stop trucks from rolling into their neighborhood with piles of PCP-laced dirt. The residents were jailed, but they pushed for the government to listen to them.

Our new program will honor this history, and we recognize that it was their activism and the voices of other community members across the country that got us here — that pushed for community engagement and for community-driven research.

We’re focusing on both engagement with communities and also integrating environmental justice and civil rights into our decisionmaking because of the work that they did for so many years.

Why is an environmental agency focusing on justice and civil rights?

EPA’s mission is to protect the health and environment for all people in the United States. So ensuring that we’re reaching populations that have been underserved and environmentally overburdened is inherent to carrying out that mission.

In addition, it’s worth noting that civil rights laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin — is applicable to all recipients of federal funds. The law has been around for decades, and our sister agencies have years of experience ensuring that recipients of funds comply with the law. This isn’t an issue limited to the environmental sector, but it is equally applicable to our work.

All of us, under the civil rights laws, have the obligation to ensure that recipients of our federal funds don’t discriminate in the programs or activities receiving those funds.

What are examples of EPA’s involvement in environmental justice and civil rights?

The EPA administrator, Michael Regan, has said that one of the goals of this program is to help us bake environmental justice and civil rights into the DNA of the program. There are so many ways in which EPA is involved in environmental justice and civil rights.

First of all, there’s an executive order that, dating back to the Clinton administration, requires all federal agencies to consider and address disproportionate impacts of our programs and our policies on communities of color, indigenous communities and low-income communities.

We are directed to evaluate those impacts and, consistent with our legal authorities, take environmental justice into account in the full range of decisionmaking.

The last bullet to mention is that the Office of External Civil Rights Compliance also enforces civil rights laws.

This not only includes investigating complaints that come in the door, but also provides training and technical assistance to ensure compliance by recipients of our funds. We have the authority to initiate compliance reviews to ensure compliance as well.

Engelman Lado

How does climate change complicate justice issues?

Low-income communities, people of color, indigenous people, people with disabilities and other groups can be more susceptible to risks posed by climate change, such as storms, floods, wildfires, severe heat and poor air quality. If we want to fulfill our mission to protect the health and environment of all people, we have to really consider what the factors are affecting those communities.

We need to pay attention to the core EJ principle of “meaningful engagement” — that people have the right to have a say in their future. We in government — and other decisionmakers — have to engage communities who are and will be affected by climate change.

They understand their situation better than anyone. That’s critical to our vision of justice.

Tell us about the environmental justice grant program

The Inflation Reduction Act has given us this historic opportunity to expand the grants program to a whole new magnitude and make a difference on the ground. We’re still fine-tuning these programs, and my main message is going to be to stay tuned.

We have announced our new EJ Thriving Community Technical Assistance Centers program, which will establish technical assistance centers across the nation to provide training and support to communities with EJ concerns and their partners.

This includes grant writing, how to navigate government grant systems, managing grants, community engagement and more.

One of your principles of the new office is accountability. What will that mean?

Grants will have reporting and evaluation built in from the get-go. We’re very serious about accountability and it’s entering all of the work we do.

I’d also note that we’re in the process of strengthening our civil rights program. As I suggested before, the civil rights program is in some ways an accountability program — accountability for ensuring that recipients of our funds are not discriminating.

As you may know, our civil rights program historically has been criticized for failing to ensure accountability for civil rights compliance by recipients of our funds.

We’ve revamped our pre-award review process to ensure that recipients of our funds will be in compliance with basic procedural requirements, such as being accessible to people who have limited English proficiency, and having a grievance procedure and meeting certain other state procedural requirements.

For more information on the new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights at EPA, visit www.epa.gov.

This interview was edited for style, clarity and length.