U.S. EPA environmental justice plan falls short.

• Author: Prugh, Tom
• Position: Environmental Protection Agency - Brief Article

A draft environmental justice plan released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has alarmed critics, who charge that the plan will stall any further progress toward remedying the disproportionate pollution load suffered by minority populations.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The critics say that the nominally "colorblind" language of the draft plan ignores the harsh reality of the distribution of pollutants and other environmental problems in the United States.

Numerous government and academic studies have shown that U.S. minority communities host more than their share of landfills, power plants, sewage treatment plants, and other unwelcome facilities, that enforcement of environmental regulations in such communities is significantly more lax than in mostly white communities, and that Latinos and blacks have higher rates of disease and death from pollution-related causes. In 1994, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order that specifically mentioned...