President Joe Biden promised to overhaul the federal office that investigates complaints from people in minority communities who believe they have been unfairly harmed by industrial pollution or waste disposal when he made environmental protection a key part of his campaign.
WILMINGTON, DE - DECEMBER 19: President-elect Joe Biden announces members of his climate and energy appointments, including Congresswoman Deb Haaland, at the Queen theater on December 19, 2020 in Wilmington, DE. Secretary of Interior nominee Deb Haaland is the first Native American nominated to the presidential cabinet.
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EPA
Despite the fact that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) acknowledges that pollution affects disadvantaged communities disproportionately, hundreds of complaints to its civil rights office since the mid-1990s have resulted in only one formal finding of discrimination.
Civil Rights
The US Civil Rights Commission, the EPA's own Office of Inspector General, and citizens who have filed complaints that have gone unanswered for years - or decades - have all criticized the situation.
States, cities, and other entities that receive federal funds are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, or national origin under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Citizens who bear the brunt of industrial pollution can file a complaint if the project is funded with federal funds.
Complaints
Residents of Uniontown, Alabama, a predominantly Black town of 2,200 people, complained to the EPA in 2013 about the Alabama Department of Environmental Management's oversight of a massive landfill containing 4 million tons of coal ash, which they blame for respiratory, kidney, and other illnesses. The EPA dismissed the complaint five years later, claiming that the residents had failed to prove that the landfill was to blame for their health problems.
The EPA office's dismissal of the Uniontown complaint was dubbed "another distressing step in the wrong direction" by the US Civil Rights Commission.
The result was predictable.
The EPA's civil rights office has rarely found pollution to be harmful to human health in three decades of receiving complaints. Without such a finding, the agency will not even consider whether there was any illegal discrimination.
Marianne Engleman-Lado, who was recently appointed to the EPA's office of general counsel by the Biden administration, had assisted Uniontown residents with their case. She claims that the way the EPA evaluates such complaints makes it nearly impossible to win because proving that pollution causes disease with scientific certainty is a nearly insurmountable challenge.
Attorneys warned that discrimination claims usually go nowhere. Still, residents felt their evidence - which included photos and videos - was compelling, according to Ben Eaton, a Perry County Commissioner involved in the Uniontown complaint. "What is the point of having these agencies if they aren't going to do the job?" he asked.
Promises
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 03: U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) speaks with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator nominee Michael Regan at the conclusion of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee on February 3, 2021 in Washington, DC. Regan previously served as the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) is among those who believe the Environmental Protection Agency's civil rights office should do more. Booker mentioned meeting Alabama citizens suffering from tropical diseases they blame on sewage pollution, children with elevated lead levels in his own state, and families in Louisiana's so-called "cancer alley" who felt abandoned by their government during confirmation hearings for Michael Regan, Biden's nominee for EPA administrator.
According to the African-American senator, the EPA's human rights agency "has been eviscerated over the years." He said, "In my view, you're not really prepared to begin fighting these problems that concern millions of Americans."
Regan vowed to prioritize environmental justice by "restructuring and reorganizing" the civil rights office, which actually hires 12 full-time workers. "We'll need more resources..." he explained.
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