Frequent Questions about EJScreen

What is EJScreen?

EJScreen is an environmental justice screening and mapping tool that utilizes standard and nationally-consistent data to highlight places that may have higher environmental burdens and vulnerable populations. The tool offers a variety of powerful data and mapping capabilities that enable users to access environmental and demographic information, at high geographic resolution, across the entire country; displayed in color-coded maps and standard data reports. These maps and reports show how a selected location compares to the rest of the nation, EPA region or state. The tool also combines environmental and demographic indicators to create EJ and supplemental indexes.

Why did EPA create an EJ screening tool?

EJScreen helps EPA meet the intent of Executive Order 12898, "Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations," to focus federal attention on the environmental and human health conditions of minority and low-income populations with the goal of achieving environmental protection for all communities. An important first step to ensuring environmental justice for all people in this country is to identify the potential areas where people are most vulnerable or likely to be exposed to different types of pollution. For this reason, EPA developed EJScreen to help aid in efforts to ensure programs, policies and resources are appropriately inclusive and consider the needs of communities most burdened by pollution.

What is an EJ or supplemental index?

The EJ and supplemental indexes are methods of combining demographic information with a single environmental indicator – such as proximity to traffic – that can help identify communities that may have a high combination of environmental burdens and vulnerable populations.

How does EPA use EJScreen?

EPA uses EJScreen to identify areas that may have higher environmental burdens and vulnerable populations as the Agency develops programs, policies and activities that may affect communities. A few examples of what EJScreen supports across the Agency include:

  • Informing outreach and engagement practices;
  • As an initial screen for voluntary programs, enhanced outreach in permitting, and prioritizing enforcement work;
  • Developing retrospective reports of EPA work; and
  • Enhancing place-based activities.

EJScreen is not used by EPA staff for any of the following:

  • As a means to identify or label an area as an “EJ community;”
  • To quantify specific risk values for a selected area; or
  • As the sole basis for EPA decision-making or making a determination regarding the existence or absence of EJ concerns.

Does EJScreen identify "EJ Communities?" 

EJScreen provides screening level indicators, not a determination of the existence of absence of EJ concerns. In terms of identification and designation, EPA believes in the importance of communities speaking for themselves. EPA’s strong belief in providing meaningful community involvement includes not identifying a community as EJ or not. EJScreen enables users to identify communities based on various socioeconomic and environmental factors. 

Does EPA use any filters, benchmarks, or thresholds, as a part of interpreting indicators or indexes found in reports, as part of the screening process?

In past screening experience, EPA has found it helpful to establish a suggested Agency starting point for the purpose of identifying geographic areas that may warrant further consideration, analysis or outreach. The use of an initial filter promotes consistency and provides a pragmatic first step for EPA programs and regions when interpreting screening results. For early applications of EJScreen, EPA identified the 80th percentile filter for one or more of the EJ or supplemental indexes when compared to the nation and/or state as that initial starting point. As EPA gains further experience and insight into the applicability of the tool for different uses, program offices and regions may opt to designate starting points that are more inclusive or specifically tailored to meet programmatic needs more effectively. For example, EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance uses at least one supplemental index above the 90th percentile for the US or state, in the facility's Census block group or a 1-mile average around it, to identify facilities that may need additional considerations for EJ concerns. Read the EJScreen Technical Documentation for more information on this topic.

What were the criteria for including these environmental indicators?

The environmental indicators included are those for which there are national, publically-available data at a sufficient geographic resolution. Other types of information, either not available at the appropriate spatial resolution (e.g., radon), or not available nationwide (e.g., local health data) could be overlaid on top of EJScreen maps by adding the relevant geospatial data layers.

Why are some datasets older than others?

The process for collecting data from across the country, modelling it, and inserting it into EJScreen varies across the different indicators. Some datasets, such as the air data, are also updated less frequently than others, resulting in varying years of vintages. EPA is committed to updating EJScreen annually as new datasets become available.

Why do you only consider proximity to some facilities and not emissions or risk from those facilities?

EJScreen does include some risk estimates, for example, the Air Toxics cancer risk, but these are aggregated risks from many sources that do not represent risk estimates for individual facilities. EJScreen also includes some environmental indicators highlighting potential exposure (e.g., ambient concentrations of PM2.5 and ozone (O3)). EJScreen uses distance weighted proximity as a proxy for the potential impact of specific types of facilities. Site-specific risk estimates would require much more data and analysis, beyond what could be reasonably be included in a national screening tool.

Why do only certain types of facilities or regulated sites have a proximity measure?

The intent of the proximity measures is to include facilities that are important and not covered in another environmental indicator.

  • Risk Management Plan (RMP) sites are included because of the potential severe effects of an accidental release of a highly hazardous substance into the air.
  • Treatment Storage and Disposal Facilities are included because they were the focus of much early EJ research and community action.
  • EPA National Priorities List (NPL)/ Superfund sites are included because of the concerns associated with being in close proximity to an NPL site.

Can I add my own data into EJScreen, such as other boundaries or locations?

There are a variety of ways to add your own data into EJScreen. Data can be added as a shapefile, mapservice or through EPA’s GeoPlatform. Please note, EJScreen will only display the added layer; it will not integrate the added information into the calculation of the indexes. For example, if you add a data layer that maps children’s blood lead levels, EJScreen will show this layer in addition to other EJScreen data. However, it will not provide quantitative information about the layer you added.

How do I cite EJScreen?

If you use information from EJScreen, please cite the information as follows: United States Environmental Protection Agency. 20xx version [cite the year of the version used]. EJScreen. Retrieved: [Enter Month, Day, Year, from url (the url cited should be the exact url you accessed) or www.epa.gov/ejscreen for a general citation.] To cite specific data content, please also use the citation contained within the relevant metadata.

To cite specific EJScreen publications (e.g., journal articles), please use the appropriate citation. For the EJScreen Technical Documentation, please cite as follows (using the relevant year to specify which version of documentation is being cited):

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2017[or use the latest year of documentation available]. EJScreen Technical Documentation.

Can EJScreen be used to look at changes over time?

EJScreen is updated regularly to ensure that the environmental and socioeconomic data are as up to date as possible. These updates occur annually (and sometimes more often) as new datasets become available. EPA also uses these opportunities to make other improvements to the useability and methodology of the tool based on community and user feedback, Science Advisory Board review, programmatic need, and other considerations. 

While these continuous improvements to the methodology help to make sure that the results users receive in EJScreen are as useful and accurate as possible, they make it difficult to conduct year to year comparisons. While there is no way to compare across time in the EJScreen tool, past years data are available for download on the Download EJScreen Data page. If users are interested in looking at changes in socioeconomic or environmental factors featured in EJScreen over time, they may search the data sources for those layers to access past years data. 

What amount of sea level rise should I look at in EJScreen and what does it represent?

Over the next 30 years, scientists expect most of the US coastline will see an increase of one to three feet in mean sea level (see the CO-OPS Technical Report (pdf) (75 pp, 6.7 MB, About PDF) for more information). EJScreen enables you to explore the risks an increase of up to six feet in mean sea level poses to coastal areas. The map depicts the land that could be permanently flooded if action isn’t taken to protect the coastline.

As one assesses the impacts sea level rise may have on coastal areas, it is important to remember the risks aren’t limited to increases in average sea level. Storm surges, such as those that occur during hurricanes or winter storms, can produce water levels much higher than normal high tide, resulting in more severe and extensive coastal and inland flooding. The impact of these and related types of extreme events are not captured by the displayed maps. For more in depth information on sea level rise, please visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Level Rise Viewer website.

What data is available for the US territories?

EJScreen features the addition of select environmental indicators (and associated indexes) as well as socioeconomic data for the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands. Due to different methods of Census data collection, it is not appropriate to compare territory data to all locations in the country. For that reason, territory data is only comparable to itself via the "Compare to State" functionality. This territory data provides for the consideration of EJ in all places within the country.

What are threshold maps?

The threshold map widget allows EJScreen users to look across all twelve indexes at once, providing a cumulative outlook on vulnerable populations facing higher pollution burdens. Users select a percentile range, for example the 80th to 100th percentile, and the tool then maps places where one or more of the indexes is within that range. The tool also allows users to select the number of indexes within the user-defined range or to select specific indicators of interest. Threshold maps are available for both the EJ indexes and the new supplemental indexes and are available for comparison at the national and state level.

What are the supplemental indexes?

The supplemental indexes are combinations of the twelve single environmental indicators with five socioeconomic factors. The supplemental indexes use the same EJScreen methodology and calculation as the EJ indexes but are based on a new five-factor supplemental demographic index, rather than the two-factor demographic index. The five demographic indicators that are considered in the supplemental demographic index are: percent low-income, percent linguistically isolated, percent less than high school education, percent unemployed, and low life expectancy.

Why did EPA create supplemental indexes in EJScreen?

The supplemental indexes offer a different perspective on community-level vulnerability across the country. The supplemental indexes do not include data on race and ethnicity and provide additional functionality for use in decision-making consideration, such as the allocation of government resources when awarding grants. For questions on the appropriate use of the EJ and supplemental indexes, please contact your servicing legal office.

What is the difference in EJScreen and CEJST?

The Climate and Economic Justice Screen Tool (CEJST) was purpose-built by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to identify "disadvantaged communities" that have been historically marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution for purposes of Justice40. 
EJScreen, on the other hand, was created by EPA and does not identify areas as disadvantaged or "EJ communities" but rather enables users to identify communities based on socioeconomic and environmental factors. 

EJScreen: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool

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Last updated on June 27, 2024