Table of Contents
Action Items
| Conduct presentations on environmental
justice to establish and maintain communication
with the public. |
OERR is committed to improving communications with
communities and establishing trust of EPA in those
communities. The Environmental Justice Speaker Series
provides an opportunity to enhance the Office's employees'
sensitivities to environmental justice issues and seeks
recommendations on ways to improve communication. The series
is informal and presents environmental justice topics of the
presenter's choice.
| 2/96 |
Beverly Baker, the Anacostia
Community Liaison for the Chesapeake Bay Program
spoke about the Anacostia ecosystem. |
| 3/96 |
Robert Holden and John Dossett from
the National Congress of American Indians spoke about
their organization. |
| 4/96 |
Mary Ann Bailor and Joe Rausher from
the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly spoke about their
organizations and the "Adopt a Block"
program. |
Romega Dugger (Community Involvement and Outreach Center),
(703) 603-9092
On September 27, 1995, the EPA Region 3 Hazardous Waste
Division, participated in the HUD Fair Housing Symposium for
the 90's and beyond: How to Plan for Diversity and Overcome
Adversity (Impediments to Fair Housing Choice). Two separate
symposia were held, in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. The symposia were designed to familiarize
participants with the fair housing planning requirements and
how to overcome impediments. The attendees of the symposia
included community group representatives, State and local
government housing representatives, HUD grantee
representatives, and staff from HUD.
Participants were taught practical approaches to fair
housing planning and for the first time examined
environmental factors associated with housing decisions. EPA
Region 3 joined other panelists from the Department of
Justice and HUD in making a presentation, "What is
Environmental Justice and how to ensure it in your
community." The EPA presentation followed a short video
entitled, "Toxic Racism," which focused on
outlining the Agency's Environmental Justice Program and a
presentation of two case studies--Chester, Pennsylvania, and
Abex Superfund Site, Portsmouth, Virginia. Follow-up meetings
with HUD-Philadelphia staff have been conducted on
environmental justice issues.
On June 7, 1995, Charles Lee, of the United Church of
Christ Commission for Racial Justice, hosted a public
dialogue with EPA OSWER (and OSWER funding) and Region 3 on
issues of urban revitalization and strategies to create
healthy and sustainable communities. The day-long event
included site visits to Chester, Pennsylvania, and sections
of Philadelphia including Germantown, South/Southwest, and
the American Street corridor empowerment zone. Also included
were a presentation on LandView, EPA's geographic information
system tool, and an evening public hearing on the issues.
The dialogue was designed to provide an opportunity for
grassroots environmental justice proponents and residents of
impacted communities to articulate their aspirations,
concerns, and recommendations for developing healthy and
sustainable urban communities. The meetings resulted in a
final report from the NEJAC entitled, "Environmental
Justice, Urban Revitalization, And Brownfields: The Search
For Authentic Signs Of Hope."
| 6/95 |
Hosted public dialogue on urban
revitalization issues. |
| 9/95 |
Participated in HUD Fair Housing
Symposium. |
| Educate the public as to the role of various
governmental bodies in the environmental cleanup process.
|
Region 6 strives to anticipate which governmental agencies
(whether local, State or Federal), grassroots groups, and
local leaders will be considered stakeholders and to include
them in developing informational materials and
scheduling/holding meetings with the public. In this way, the
groups most qualified to answer questions are readily
available, or are at least able to provide input to
information released about Superfund cleanups.
Inquiries made to the Region 6 toll-free hotline
frequently require answers from non-EPA sources. The Region
attempts to refer the callers to the correct agency or group,
and a follow-up call is subsequently made to the caller to
ensure they received the needed information.
Verne McFarland, (214) 665-6617
| Enter into partnerships to resolve issues that do
not fall exclusively under OSWER jurisdiction. |
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
is implementing several projects which will look at an area
holistically and use a variety of compliance, enforcement,
and assessment tools to ensure that a particular resource is
being protected and/or remediated. The Holyoke initiative is
the most advanced of those projects.
The geotargeting approach to compliance evaluation used
during the Holyoke initiative was effective in determining
the "state of the City" in terms of oil and
hazardous materials (OHM) releases. The project was effective
in promoting compliance with the Massachusetts Contingency
Plan. The Department's evaluation of the area indicated that
there were no major unidentified public health or
environmental problems related to OHM in Holyoke.
Early and continual contact with City officials was
instrumental in focusing on areas of highest local concern.
The time spent in establishing working relationships was
worthwhile, and continues to bear fruit as City officials are
comfortable having a Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup contact to
call as new hazardous waste situations develop.
- Identification and implementation of risk reduction
opportunities at 5 sites.
- Identification of the Commercial Street corridor as a
Massachusetts Highway Department SEP project,
anticipated to result in the cleanup of two sites and
the creation of an urban green space, in conjunction
with street alignment.
- Creation of a working partnership between Department
of Environmental Protection Bureau of Waste Site
Cleanup staff and city staff.
- Identification and review of the transition status of
all Holyoke sites, resulting in correct PRP
identification, compliance assistance, and site
linkages.
- Targeted compliance and enforcement actions by Bureau
of Waste Site Cleanup, including 3 Notices of
Responses and 4 Notices of Noncompliance.
- Public involvement through input of the Churchill
Neighborhood Partnership and staff of Nueva
Esperanza.
- Creation of GIS maps for Holyoke, including site
mapping as well as use of Census data.
- Successful referrals to the Bureau of Waste
Prevention, Division of Solid Waste Management, Board
of Health, and the Fire Marshall's Office.
Steve Novick, (617) 573-9671, (617) 573-9662 (Fax)
Technical Outreach Services to Communities (TOSC)
representatives are working with Pueblo Indians at the Taos
Landfill in New Mexico and residents affected by the Devil's
Swamp site in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to provide technical
assistance to citizens ineligible for Superfund TAGs as these
sites are not on the NPL.
In another effort to forge partnerships to resolve issues
that do not fall exclusively under OSWER jurisdiction, the
Region conducted a seminar in the Press Park area of New
Orleans. In FY95, Region 6 built on a significant amount of
preliminary work done in the third and fourth quarters of
FY94. The seminar was hosted by EPA and the City of New
Orleans on December 3, 1994. This pilot project brought
together several Federal agencies, EPA prime contractors and
training vendors/providers in one room and made them directly
available to potential disadvantaged and minority contractors
for networking and information sharing on government
subcontracting opportunities. Participants numbering over 150
included the City of New Orleans, a labor union, the
Louisiana Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business
Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the General
Services Administration, the Department of Energy, several
local universities, and a host of local contractors and
citizens.
A project notebook was compiled to document the seminar
development and implementation process, and information about
the seminar was distributed throughout the Agency as a model.
A second seminar was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on
August 11, 1995, in conjunction with an environmental justice
public forum held August 10, and a Superfund Summit held
August 9. The planning committee was composed of
representatives from grass-roots/community-based
organizations, Federal Agencies (DOE, EPA), the City of
Albuquerque and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
| 8/95 |
Arranged for and conducted seminar. |
Verne McFarland, (214) 665-6617
Carlene Chambers, (214) 665-6720
| Conduct Regional environmental justice public
forums. |
The Region 4 Waste Division has begun preliminary
discussions to determine how best to conduct public forums,
has identified State environmental justice program
coordinators, and is developing a Regional dialogue with
individual State representatives. During November 1996, the
Region hosted a meeting of State environmental justice
coordinators with the intent of defining State environmental
justice needs and concerns and developing an action plan to
produce public forums which will include significant State
participation. The meeting was attended by representatives
from each of the eight states in the region. Future meetings
have been planned to address environmental justice issues in
an on-going basis.
| 11/96 |
Held meeting of State environmental
justice personnel. |
Eddie Wright, (404) 562-8669
The Region 5 RCRA program awarded a grant to People for
Community Recovery (PCR), a local environmental justice
community group based at Altgeld Gardens housing project in
southeast Chicago, to plan and implement an environmental
justice public forum. In partnership with other environmental
groups in Region 5, PCR developed a consortium of grassroots
community groups to plan a public forum on environmental
justice issues of most concern to Region 5 communities. The
forum was conducted May 17-19, 1996, at the Lutheran
Theological Seminary in southeast Chicago.
| 9/95 |
Awarded grant to PCR. |
| 9/95-4/96 |
Worked in partnership with PCR to
support the environmental justice public forum. |
| 5/96 |
Public forum conducted. |
Margaret Millard, (312) 353-1440
Region 6 developed plans for a joint Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA)-Superfund environmental justice
public forum in a geographic area with high levels of
environmental justice concern/issues as determined through
input from various stakeholders. The public forum took place
in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in August 1995. Region 6 compiled
forum minutes and reported, published, and distributed them
to participants and other interested stakeholders.
| 6/94 |
Selected public forum site. |
| 8/95 |
Held forum. |
| 1/96 |
Prepared and distributed report. |
Verne McFarland, (214) 665-6617
Olivia Rodríguez Balandrán, (214) 665-6584
| Use Regional environmental education grants to
promote environmental justice education. |
EPA's Office of Environmental Education Grants funds
grants for $5,000 or less by Regions for environmental
education. Local education agencies, State education
agencies, colleges and universities, and not-for-profit
organizations and other groups are eligible recipients.
Region 4's Office of Environmental Justice has funded an
environmental justice project by Clark Atlanta University.
This project will provide workshops and a professional
development forum for faculty and students. The series will
promote dialogue and exchanges of information and ideas
regarding strategies for integrating environmental concerns
into curricula, community activities, and career preparation.
Region 4 will utilize the curricula developed for this
program to promote information exchange and take advantage of
outside training opportunities.
Jeaneanne Gettle, (404) 562-8570
An environmental grants writing workshop for Chicago
Public School facility members was conducted by Region 5
personnel. Part of the workshop was devoted to a presentation
about the environmental education grants and another portion
about environmental justice grant program.
| 12/94 |
Conduct grants writing workshop |
| 7/95 |
Conducted grant writing workshop at
a teacher institute in southeast Chicago. |
Suzanne Saric (312) 353-3209
| Develop program-specific and
community/minority-specific environmental justice
outreach strategies. |
Region 4 has developed and is in the process of completing
a pilot project in Tift County, Georgia, to address waste
sites located within the City of Tifton and throughout Tift
County. The pilot project encompasses several unique
initiatives to address waste facilities in specific
geographic areas, particularly where facilities are clustered
in low income and minority communities. These initiatives
seek to mitigate threats to human health and the environment
by emphasizing a holistic approach which will identify,
investigate, and remediate sites within the County.
Additionally, the initiatives emphasize maintaining an open
and active community relations program which involves and
empowers members of the community in Agency decision-making.
A public meeting was held on February 7, 1995, to get
input regarding a proposed Residential Sampling Plan. The
citizens made several suggestions which were incorporated
into the Plan. The meeting was attended by more than 200
community residents, whose concerns ranged from sampling to
health-related issues.
Region 4 plans to utilize the experiences gained and the
lessons learned from the Tift County project to provide a
knowledge base for similar projects and actions in the
Region.
| 2/95 |
Held public meeting on proposed
Residential Sampling Plan. |
Eddie Wright, (404) 562 -8669
Joanne Benante, (404) 562-8910
Region 6 maximizes Community Outreach by locating the most
accessible forms of media. A routine initial task during both
Superfund and RCRA community involvement is to identify media
and press outlets in the subject communities. In areas where
citizens indicate need or preference, these outlets are
heavily utilized to communicate information and opportunities
for public involvement in Agency activities/decision-making.
Region 6 is currently running a public service announcement
(PSA) in the Louisiana television market to make the public
aware of the Region 6 Superfund toll-free hotline. In
anticipation of expanding this PSA to other States in the
Region, many of which have high Hispanic populations, a
Spanish-language version of the PSA is already developed and
ready for use in those markets.
In development of informational materials, public notices,
PSAs, and flyers, an assessment of the languages spoken in
the target area is made, and the information is translated to
maximize its usefulness to as many members of the community
as practicable. In support of this, Headquarters has
committed to provide computer software to tailor written text
to various educational levels and translate English language
text into Spanish. Known environmental justice issues are
addressed whenever possible in these materials. Whenever
possible, EPA staff are enlisted to review informational
materials prior to release for possible problems regarding
cultural sensitivities, vocabulary, etc. Additionally, due to
concerns from Region 6 staff regarding literacy levels in
environmental justice communities, radio announcements and
interviews are utilized as needed to maximize distribution of
information.
Region 6 also maintains a Superfund toll-free information
line (which also, by necessity and for customer service,
partly serves as an all-EPA program information line) that is
staffed by Senior Environmental Employee enrollees. Should a
language barrier present itself, an appropriate EPA staff
person is enlisted to work with the caller to determine and
respond to their information needs.
Region 6 has selected the Agriculture Street Landfill
Superfund site in New Orleans, Louisiana, to pilot a CAG.
| 12/95 |
Established a CAG at the Brio
Refining Site, Houston, TX, and awarded $50,000 in
Superfund Technical Assistance Grant funds. |
| 9/96 |
Began discussions with key community
leaders at the RSR Smelter Site, Dallas, TX, on
establishing a CAG, possible award of grant funds for
technical assistance, and a role for the group in
coordinating hazardouse waste training for local
workers. |
Verne McFarland, (214) 665-6617
Region 9 has enhanced its community involvement in the
Verdese Carter Park area in East Oakland, California, and is
providing the community with an opportunity for meaningful
and early input into the site assessment process. The Region
has worked with local environmental groups to develop fact
sheets which were mailed out and distributed door-to-door
near the Park, developed a local repository of information,
and provided outreach to the community located near the Park,
which included holding a community meeting/open house. This
meeting was held to inform the residents of the results of
EPA's sampling, identify ways to minimize exposure, and
provide a schedule of upcoming events. The Region has
evaluated other CERCLIS sites within a four-mile radius,
completed an area database study of past and present
facilities that are being regulated, and conducted historical
aerial photography analysis to identify past industrial sites
that were replaced by residential areas.
| 3/95 |
Distributed fact sheets. |
| 3/95 |
Held community meeting. |
| 1/96 |
Conducted expanded Site Inspection. |
Mike Bellot, (415) 744-2364
Angeles Herrera, (415) 744-2183
| Develop a public education and outreach program
for communities likely to have OSWER-related
environmental justice concerns. |
Region 3 is conducting the Urban Environmental Initiative
in cooperation with the City of Baltimore and the Maryland
Department of the Environment to identify areas of
disproportionate risk in Baltimore City and initiate
community activities. The initiative supports activities
aimed at pollution prevention, risk reduction, public
awareness, and other environmental activities in areas with
environmental justice concerns within Baltimore City. The
initiative is divided into two tracks: short-term and
long-term. The short-term track uses the knowledge and
experience of the interagency team to identify areas of
immediate action. The team identified seven short-term areas:
lead contamination, hazardous materials incidents,
consumption of contaminated fish from Baltimore Harbor, air
toxics, ground-level ozone, hazardous levels of radon, and
indoor air pollution. The long-term track is designed to
gather comprehensive data to identify environmental justice
areas. All "Short-Term Track" activities have been
funded and are now under way.
Region 3 has been active in projects in the short-term
track. For the short-term lead project, the interagency team
produced and distributed lead-dust cleaning kits to Baltimore
residents in target areas. As of October 1996, the team had
distributed 2320 of a total of 2,500 kits for distribution to
trained community members and had completed a video on lead
for health care providers. Additionally, the team submitted
grant proposals for fish-consumption studies, the creation of
an ozone map and associated public information activities,
hazardous materials incident studies, and indoor air studies.
The Region completed the indoor air studies and has completed
a proposal to measure the effectiveness of training
procedures. Along with the Fire Department, the Region has
also completed the hazardous materials incident studies and
is currently identifying data gaps.
| 10/94 |
Held the Urban Environmental
Initiative planning team meeting. |
| 10/94 |
Completed short-term risk rankings. |
| 10/96 |
Distributed total of 2320 lead-dust
cleaning kits. |
Reginald Harris, (215) 566-2988
An environmental grants writing workshop for Chicago
Public School faculty members was conducted by Region 5
personnel. Part of the workshop was devoted to a presentation
about environmental education grants and another portion
concerned the environmental justice grant program.
| 7/95 |
Conducted grant writing workshop at
a teacher institute in southeast Chicago. |
Suzanne Saric, (312) 353-3209
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