Admin: Focus on Environmental Justice  02/28 09:04

   

   (AP) -- When President Joe Biden made environmental protection a key element 
of his campaign, he promised to overhaul the federal office that investigates 
complaints from people in minority communities who believe they have been 
unfairly harmed by industrial pollution or waste disposal.

   Although the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges that disadvantaged 
communities in America are disproportionately affected by pollution, hundreds 
of complaints sent to its civil rights office since the mid-1990s have only 
once resulted in a formal finding of discrimination.

   The situation has provoked criticism from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, 
the EPA's own Office of Inspector General and citizens who have filed 
complaints that sometimes languished for years --- or decades.

   Under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, states, cities and other 
entities that receive federal funds are prohibited from discriminating because 
of race, color or national origin. That means citizens bearing the brunt of 
industrial pollution can bring a complaint if federal money is tied to the 
project.

   In Uniontown, Alabama --- a mainly Black town of 2,200 --- residents 
complained to the EPA in 2013 about the Alabama Department of Environmental 
Management's oversight of a huge landfill containing 4 million tons of coal ash 
that residents blame for respiratory, kidney and other ailments. Five years 
later, the EPA dismissed the complaint, saying residents hadn't proven the 
landfill caused their health problems.

   The U.S. Civil Rights Commission called the dismissal of the Uniontown 
complaint "another distressing step in the wrong direction" by the EPA office.

   The outcome was typical. In three decades of fielding complaints, EPA's 
civil rights office has almost never found pollution was adversely affecting 
human health. And without such a finding, the agency won't even consider 
whether illegal discrimination occurred.

   Marianne Engleman-Lado, who was recently appointed by the Biden 
administration to the EPA's office of general counsel, had helped Uniontown 
residents with their case. She maintains the way the EPA evaluates such 
complaints makes it nearly impossible to prevail because proving with 
scientific certainty that pollution is causing disease is a nearly 
insurmountable obstacle.

   Ben Eaton, a Perry County Commissioner involved in the Uniontown complaint, 
said attorneys warned that discrimination claims usually go nowhere, but 
residents felt their evidence --- including photos and videos --- was 
compelling. "What's the use of having these agencies," he said, "if they're not 
going to do the job?"

   Residents of a predominantly Black and Latino community in Oakland, 
California were similarly disappointed with results of their civil rights 
complaint over air pollution from ships and truck traffic at the busy Port of 
Oakland.

   Margaret Gordon, a co-founder of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators 
Project, said her group did not have a seat at the table when EPA hammered out 
an informal resolution with the port. Air pollution is still a problem, she 
said, although port officials are now more willing to listen to community 
members.

   Lilian Sotolongo Dorka, who heads the EPAs office of external civil rights 
enforcement, touted the 2019 Oakland resolution as an "extremely effective" 
example of the difference her office is making in people's lives.

   But Richard Grow, who worked at EPA for 40 years before retiring in 2019 and 
was one of the agency's negotiators, agrees with Gordon's assessment.

   "We put forth a number of very practical ... solutions and recommendations 
and they just said 'No,'" Grow said. When he reported the port's and city's 
position to Dorka's office, he said he was told nothing could be done.

   The office had no further comment, and the port issued a statement saying it 
is committed to continuing a dialogue with the community.

   The EPA has the power to withdraw funding from groups that discriminate, 
although it has never used that power. Dorka defends her office's record, 
saying it has eliminated a chronic backlog of complaints.

   "I disagree very significantly with the conclusion that you can judge our 
civil rights program by the number of formal findings (of discrimination) we've 
made," she said, noting the office is required by regulation to seek informal 
resolutions wherever possible.

   U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) is among those who think EPA's civil 
rights office should do more. During confirmation hearings this month for 
Michael Regan, Biden's nominee for EPA administrator, Booker spoke of meeting 
Alabama citizens suffering from tropical diseases they attribute to sewage 
pollution, children with elevated lead levels in his own state, and families in 
Louisiana's so-called "cancer alley" who felt abandoned by their government.

   The EPA's civil rights office "has been eviscerated over the years," the 
African-American senator told Regan. "You're not even equipped, in my opinion, 
to actually begin to fight against these issues that affect millions of 
Americans."

   Regan promised to make environmental justice a top priority, including 
"restructuring and reorganizing" the office of civil rights, which has 12 
fulltime employees. "We will need additional resources. ..." he said.

   Critics concede that Dorka, who took over the office of external civil 
rights under President Barak Obama, has made some progress, including producing 
a case resolution manual to guide investigations.

   Obama's last day in office marked the only time Dorka's office issued a 
formal finding of discrimination --- in a complaint filed 25 years earlier over 
the Genesee Power Plant outside Flint, Michigan. The agency dismissed 
allegations that the plant's emissions hurt Black residents, finding 
insufficient evidence of harm to their health. However, the EPA did find 
residents were not given a fair opportunity to participate in the permitting 
process.

   Dorka said progress has continued under the Trump administration.

   EPA spokeswoman Lindsay Hamilton said that "The new leadership team will be 
working closely with career colleagues ... as well as receiving input from 
stakeholder groups, in an effort to bolster the agency's capabilities to 
deliver on our environmental justice and civil rights missions."

   Environmental justice advocates say the changes need to be significant.

   "There are still places where people don't have access to safe drinking 
water, where they live in close proximity to hazardous sources," said Vernice 
Miller-Travis, a longtime advocate and cofounder of WE ACT for Environmental 
Justice. "This could be a moment of real sea change in terms of how the EPA is 
not just paying lip service to civil rights."