US EPA requests public's feedback for its Environmental Justice Action Plan, which addresses nation's recycling infrastructure, waste management, SuperFund cleanup sites; virtual, in-person engagement sessions to take place through Aug. 3

WASHINGTON , July 14, 2022 (press release) –

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) released a draft “EJ Action Plan: Building Up Environmental Justice in EPA's Land Protection and Cleanup Programs". The plan highlights projects, tools, and practices to be applied to its land pollution prevention and cleanup programs. These programs include Superfund, Brownfields, Emergency Response, Solid Waste Management and Corrective Action, and Underground Storage Tanks. EPA will provide opportunities for meaningful public input at upcoming virtual and in-person public engagement events in 2022.

OLEM's draft Environmental Justice Action Plan is part of a whole-of-government and EPA-wide effort to address the nation's environmental justice challenges in line with the priorities identified by President Biden and EPA Administrator Regan.

Photo of Draft OLEM Environmental Justice Action Plan Cover Page
The draft plan includes four main goals:

• Strengthening compliance with cornerstone environmental statutes and civil rights laws: This includes developing a “Good Governance” process and referral list to help address follow-up actions on communities’ environmental concerns.
• Incorporating environmental justice considerations during the regulatory development process: This includes assessing impacts to pollution-burdened, underserved, and tribal communities when developing OLEM regulations, while developing tools to identify, track, and consider the implications of potential EJ-related factors throughout the Superfund process.
• Improving community engagement in rulemakings, permitting decisions, and policies: This includes providing earlier and more frequent engagement with pollution-burdened and underserved communities in carrying out OLEM programs, and increasing technical support and risk communication resources for communities through the Agency’s Technical Assistance Services for Communities (TASC) program and various grants.
• Implementing President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative. This includes providing direct and indirect benefits to underserved communities with grant application resources and in making grant award decisions, to the extent allowed by law.

The plan can be accessed here: Draft OLEM Environmental Justice Action Plan (pdf) (January 5, 2022)

How to Provide Input:

EPA welcomes feedback. We anticipate updating the draft plan in Summer 2022, which will capture and reflect relevant public input received by or before August 3, 2022. Please submit any feedback on the draft plan to EJActionPlanOLEM21@epa.gov.

Virtual Stakeholder Engagement Sessions

EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management is hosting five virtual environmental justice community engagement sessions in various time zones starting in July and continuing into August.  During each session, various major projects from OLEM’s Draft OLEM EJ Action Plan will be presented and discussed by agency experts, tribal and community-based speakers, as well as the public at-large to gather stakeholder input in advance of OLEM finalizing the OLEM EJ Action Plan by the end of the fiscal year. Each presentation will be followed by a live, open facilitated public feedback session. All sessions will be hosted on Zoom and provide live Spanish translation. The public agendas for each session like linked here  Public Agendas for Virtual Community Engagement and Feedback Sessions on the OLEM Draft Environmental Justice Action Plan (pdf)

Registration will be required to attend each session. Click on a link below to register. Comments may also be provided in writing until August 3, 2022 to the email address shown above.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.