NCD980602163_19981023_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Email from Jim McCleskey - Washington Post article Up Against the Environmental Justice System-OCR

Subject: Au.1;:hor: Date: Environmental -Justice in today's Post Jim Mccleskey <[e-mail]> at Internet 10/23/98 9:58 AM I faxed the referenced appropriations provisions to you on Wednesday. Let me know how I can assist following up. ********************************* Up Against the Environmental Justice System By Cindy Skrzycki Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 23, 1998; Page F0l The U.S. Chamber of Commerce thinks the concept of "environmental justice" is an injustice to business and to minority populations that might benefit from having more industrialization in their neighborhoods. Joining the chamber is an outspoken coalition of mayors, state regulators and governors who want the Environmental Protection Agency to back off from applying a set of guidelines that could overturn local decisions to put plants in areas with predominantly minority populations. Reflecting that view, Congress included a provision in a recently passed appropriations bill that stops the EPA from accepting challenges from citizen groups using provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to stop the construction or expansion of an industrial facility because they believe minorities bear a disproportionate brunt of the nation's pollution. The provision "takes away an EPA procedure that lets them act like a zoning board," said William Kovacs, vice president of environment at the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has led the opposition among business groups to the EPA guidelines, which it says will kill private investment in poor communities. Groups that support the EPA's role as arbiter of environmental justice claims said the provision won't have much practical effect, as the EPA already is backlogged with 15 pending complaints and is working on a new policy to settle them. The legislation allows for the existing cases to go forward. But the groups do view the freezing of funding for new cases as the latest volley in a battle over the issue that has been heating up between environmental groups, black leaders and civil rights groups, and business, state regulators and city mayors. "Around the country, it is communities of color raising this issue," said Damu Smith, toxics specialist with Greenpeace, an environmental group that was involved in neighborhood opposition to a chemical plant being built in Convent, La. "They are tired of being dumped on, tired of being host to dirty polluting industries and then not getting the jobs [from new industry] . " So far, there have been high-profile challenges in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Michigan that call into question the decisions of state regulators who have allowed plants to go into minority neighborhoods that already have some
industrialization.
:i;n"February, EPA decided to publish "interim guidelines" that the agency
~ would use in determining whether putting a facility in a certain area
created a discriminatory impact on the neighborhood.
EPA has the final word on the subject because of a 1994 executive order that
ordered agencies not to tolerate any civil rights violations by state
agencies that receive federal funds.
The directive set off a firestorm in business circles, which pointed to
support for their their views from black mayors, such as Dennis Archer of
Detroit, and the National Black Chamber of Commerce. They said the EPA
policy was illegal and completely at odds with other federal programs that
aim to do the opposite thing --bring jobs and industry to economically
depressed areas of cities.
Russ Harding, director of Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality,
said state permits recently issued to a company to build a new steel plant
in Flint were many times as stringent as federal requirements, but one local
group opposes the plant and has filed an environmental justice complaint
with the EPA.
"The interim guidance is fundamentally flawed. It's vague. It doesn't have
specific criteria. It needs to be radically fixed," Harding said. "You can
do a very good permit, but it only takes one person with a postcard to stop
the whole thing."
EPA admits the guidelines aren't perfect and more "outreach" to mayors and
state regulators should have been done.
In a meeting in July, EPA Administrator Carol Browner said the interim
guidelines are a starting point "so we can shape a final policy that works
for everyone."
Since then, EPA has been trying to convince opponents such as mayors that
economic revitalization and environmental justice are not incompatible.
The agency has set up a high-level advisory committee to come up with
improved final guidelines, a job that may not be finished until next summer.
In the meantime, supporters of the environmental justice concept, including
the Congressional Black Caucus, wanttomake sure the EPA_guidelines are
kept . and broadened. "The health of tfie -cifizens has .tobe t-he first
priority," said an aide to Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), who is African
American.
The chamber said it views the legislation just enacted as a kind of "stay"
that will prevent EPA from considering new claims. The group plans to press
for more congressional oversight of the issue and withdrawal of interim
guidelines.
State administrators such as Harding expect that ultimately the courts will
decide what is environmental justice. He suggests states might think about
turning down federal funds for their environmental programs. He thinks that
might be a small price to pay to avoid challenges to state economic and
environmental decisions.
c Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company