Environmental Justice Law

Many metropolitan areas have grappled with the task of better integrating environmental justice considerations into their regional transportation planning process, it would appear that most of these efforts have been ad hoc. A systematic approach to addressing environmental justice issues in the transportation planning process has not yet been devised. In terms of securing public input to planning and decision-making, citizens are invited to public hearings on projects, but often feel that by the time these meetings are staged, the critical decisions have already been made. Similarly, analytic tools suited to addressing the fine-grained nuance of how issues impact particular subpopulations have not evolved into common practice and use to support planning and decision-making.

Several elements appear to be missing in the existing state of the practice for integrating environmental justice fully and systematically in the regional transportation planning and decision-making process:

· Public Outreach: While agencies are doing a much better job of seeking out and engaging the public meaningfully in the planning process, there are still real questions as to how completely the four steps of public involvement articulated in the EPA’s policy statement are being realized. A means for confidently reaching, informing and involving the right population groups (stakeholders) with the right questions at the right time of the process is clearly needed.

· Documentation: Reliably hearing and accurately recording the issues and concerns gathered from these discussions, such that the process and responses are well documented for future reviewers.

· Consistent Performance Indicators: Developing a linkage between the issues and concerns raised and the impact or effectiveness of plans, projects or mitigation strategies through a consistent, meaningful and appropriately sensitive set of performance indicators.

Although government action to eliminate discrimination in federally-funded activities dates back to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the official introduction of “Environmental Justice” (or EJ) as a federal requirement did not occur until 1994. In that year, President Clinton signed Presidential Executive Order 12898 entitled “Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority and Low-Income Populations.” Because of the environmental impetus behind E.O. 12898, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was assigned implementation leadership. The EPA subsequently defined environmental justice as:

“The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people, including a racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local or tribal programs and policies.

Meaningful involvement means that: (1) potentially affected community residents have an appropriate opportunity to participate in decisions about a proposed activity that will affect their environment and/or health; (2) the public’s contribution can influence the regulatory agency’s decisions; (3) the concerns of all participants involved will be considered in the decision making process; and (4) the decision makers seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected. In sum, environmental justice is achieved when everyone, regardless of race, culture or income, enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn and work.”