EPA Embraces Civil Rights Enforcement of Environmental Laws
The Environmental Protection Agency is pivoting from a largely reactive stance on civil rights to one that aggressively ventures into the field on its own initiative, scanning for areas of greatest concern, kicking off tough compliance reviews, and rethinking how it gives out grants, prioritizes its resources, and enforces the law.
Landwebs
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)is pivoting from a largely reactive stance on civil rights to one that aggressively ventures into the field on its own initiative, scanning for areas of greatest concern, kicking off tough compliance reviews, and rethinking how it gives out grants, prioritizes its resources, and enforces the law, reports Bloomberg News.
To help it pivot to a more proactive footing, the external civil rights compliance office is intensifying its communications with the Justice Department—which has itself prioritized environmental justice—and is working with all the EPA’s offices to “figure out how they can include the core civil rights obligations into everything they put out,” said Lillian Dorka, director of the agency’s external civil rights compliance office.
The office is also readying instructions to states and other grant recipients about the procedural safeguards they must have in place to comply with federal civil rights law, which will address requirements such as grievance procedures for addressing discrimination charges and access for people with limited English proficiency or disabilities.
Dorka’s office is “receiving more complaints than ever before,” with more than 20 since the fiscal year began. She speculated that the increase is happening because “folks believe that this administration is serious about the commitment to strengthening federal civil rights laws—that we’re not going to shelve something and let it sit there for 20 years.”
However, the office is also short-staffed, with only 12 full-time staffers. The White House fiscal 2022 budget will more than double that number. Meanwhile, some critics argue that the EPA is not a civil rights organization, is utterly unequipped to be one, and shouldn’t be used as a means to push unrelated, vague societal objectives.
Additional Reading: Racial Segregation and Environmental Justice, The Crime Report, Oct. 5, 2021
