|
A new study by a Panel of the National Academy
of Public Administration has concluded that the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency must work more proactively to integrate
environmental justice into its core mission. Although EPA
has been trying for a decade to ensure that its permitting
programs achieve fair treatment and meaningful involvement
of all people, the study found that the agency still has not
effectively incorporated environmental justice issues into
its permits.
"We looked for practical public administration
techniques that EPA could use to address environmental justice
concerns through permits. We found that the agency can make
significant progress on this important problem by making changes
in four areas: leadership, permitting procedures, priority
setting, and public participation," said Dr. Philip Rutledge,
Chair of the Academy's distinguished panel of Fellows that
conducted the study. Rutledge is Professor Emeritus at Indiana
University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
It is widely recognized that low-income
and people of color communities are exposed to significantly
greater environmental and public health hazards than other
communities. The Academy's report, Environmental Justice in
EPA Permitting: Reducing Pollution in High-Risk Communities
Is Integral to the Agency's Mission, is designed to help those
community residents and other stakeholders gain a better understanding
of how they can more effectively bring environmental justice
concerns to the attention of EPA's permitting programs.
The Academy is releasing its study at the
annual meeting of the National Environmental Justice Advisory
Council (NEJAC), which is being held in Seattle at the Renaissance
Madison Hotel from December 3 to 6, 2001. NEJAC provides EPA
with advice from diverse stakeholders. It has 26 members from
community groups, industry, non-governmental organizations,
and state, local and tribal governments, plus 50 individuals
who serve as members of various NEJAC subcommittees.
The Academy panel recognized that state
agencies have received approval to issue most environmental
permits. But it found that EPA can serve as a model to demonstrate
how environmental justice concerns can be addressed through
permits at individual facilities and through more proactive
initiatives to reduce pollution and eliminate health risks
in already overburdened communities. To achieve these goals,
EPA should establish clear measures for the performance and
accountability of its managers and staff and provide them
with the appropriate guidance, training, and tools, so they
will be receptive, willing, and able to execute fully their
responsibilities in this important area.
The Academy panel recommended that:
- EPA should build on the solid policy
foundation underlying its environmental justice programs
to ensure that these considerations are integrated into
the agency's core mission. This change will require sustained
leadership, clearer performance goals, improved outcome
measures, stronger accountability mechanisms, and better
training.
- EPA should use fully its existing legal
authorities to ensure that its permitting programs can more
effectively address environmental justice concerns.
- EPA should provide simple, easily used
tools that will enable its permit writers to identify and
address pollution exposures at very local levels, expand
monitoring to provide them with better information, and
focus more enforcement resources on communities that are
disproportionately impacted by pollution.
- EPA should work with state and local
authorities to identify high-risk communities and prioritize
them for pollution reduction efforts using various tools,
including the permitting process.
- EPA should provide more resources to
aid participation by historically under-represented groups,
create new opportunities for them to participate earlier
in its permitting programs, and use informal dispute resolution
processes more frequently.
In addition to Rutledge, the Academy Fellows
who served on the study panel included Jim Barnes, Professor
at both the Schools of Law and Public and Environmental Affairs
at Indiana University; Jonathan Howes, Professor of Planning
and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill; Valerie Lemmie, City Manager of Dayton, Ohio; David
Mora, City Manager of Salinas, California; James Murley, Professor
at the Joint Center for Environmental and Urban Problems at
Florida Atlantic University; and Eddie Williams, President
of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
To obtain a copy of Environmental
Justice in EPA Permitting, please contact Bill Shields at
(202) 347-3190, ext. 3014, or visit the Academy's web site
at www.napawash.org.
|
