Enforcement and Compliance Annual Results for FY 2022: Environmental Justice
In response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14008 and Administrator Regan’s directive to “strengthen enforcement of violations of cornerstone environmental statutes and civil rights laws in communities overburdened by pollution,” OECA issued four policies.1 These policies provide direction to the civil regulatory, compliance assurance, criminal, and cleanup enforcement programs at EPA to center environmental justice (EJ) considerations throughout the enforcement process. In FY 2022, EPA began implementing actions to achieve those policy goals. The key elements of these strategies and successes in FY 2022 are highlighted here.
On this page:
- Inspections, Compliance Monitoring and Cleanup Oversight
- Timely and Comprehensive Relief
- Community Engagement and Crime Victims Assistance
- EJ Accomplishments Data Trends and Graphs
Inspections, Compliance Monitoring, and Cleanup Oversight
Increasing EPA’s presence in overburdened and vulnerable communities is a cornerstone of OECA’s EJ strategy. Inspections to assess compliance with legal requirements are critical to uncovering violations of environmental laws and deterring unlawful conduct that may harm communities, especially those that are overburdened or more vulnerable to the effects of contamination. For FY 22, OECA and the Regions committed to conduct 45% of our annual on-site inspections at facilities in communities with potential EJ concerns – we surpassed that goal, conducting over 56% of on-site inspections at facilities located in overburdened communities. OECA also centered EJ in the Agency’s National Enforcement Compliance Initiatives (NECIs), for example focusing more NECI inspections and compliance monitoring activities in overburdened or vulnerable communities.
Timely and Comprehensive Relief
To facilitate early action in situations that may pose immediate risks to overburdened communities, OECA and the Regions continues to improve cross-program coordination and planning that promotes the use of all enforcement authorities appropriate to a situation, including the use of imminent and substantial endangerment authorities. Use of these authorities can provide rapid relief for communities.
- In FY 2022, EPA issued 86 Safe Drinking Water Act orders to public water systems in vulnerable or overburdened communities, including in Indian country, to protect the health of residents. Many were emergency orders, all in overburdened communities, that protected over 12,000 individuals.
- In May of 2022, EPA took emergency actions under the hazardous waste statute to address serious issues at the Toa Alta landfill in Puerto Rico, requiring the municipality to address urgent human health and environmental concerns at the landfill.
EPA is also exercising the full breadth of our statutory authorities to pursue injunctive relief that prevents future violations and remediates past harm caused by excess pollution. EPA concluded approximately 1,650 civil judicial and administrative cases in FY 2022, and over 44% address facilities in areas with potential EJ concerns. This is the highest percentage since FY 2014. As part of these cases, EPA is vigorously pursuing case resolutions that reduce harm to overburdened communities. For example:
- Through an agreement finalized in November of 2021, the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) was ordered to properly monitor and control harmful air emissions from approximately 2,372 oil-fired boilers operated at New York City public school buildings. The NYCDOE’s failure to properly perform tune-ups resulted in excess emissions that will be reduced under the consent judgment. Many of the department’s boilers are located in disadvantaged communities whose residents are exposed to air pollution and its harmful effects. In addition to conducting regular tune-ups to monitor and repair its boilers as required by the Clean Air Act to control excess emissions, NYCDOE will mitigate past emissions by replacing or converting seven of its largest oil-fired boilers to natural gas, which will emit far less hazardous air pollutants. NYCDOE will also pay a civil penalty of $1 million.
- EPA also took action to resolve sewer discharge violations in the City of Fall River, Massachusetts, through an Administrative Order on Consent that will result in improved water quality, reduced flooding, and affordable rates for the community. In the agreement, the City committed to continue implementing an agreed-upon five-year plan (Integrated Plan) to perform wastewater infrastructure upgrades that will reduce and treat discharges into the Taunton River and Mount Hope Bay and benefit downstream communities. Specifically, under the agreement, the City will implement Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) separation, CSO storage, and infiltration/inflow reduction projects at an estimated cost of $127 million over the first six years of the plan. The City will also create a revised Integrated Plan addressing future CSO and wastewater treatment facility and collection system projects.
- As part of its efforts to protect communities from chemical accidents at chemical facilities, EPA entered into a consent decree with Formosa Plastics Corporation to address a series of fires, explosions and accidental releases at the Point Comfort plant that caused the release of extremely hazardous substances to the environment. Through the settlement, Formosa will be required to perform corrective actions based on audit results at an estimated cost of at least $1.4 million.
- OECA has also improved the process for dispute resolution at federal facility superfund sites to more quickly resolve outstanding disputes, including disputes near or in communities with environmental justice concerns. [cross-reference narrative in federal facilities section]
OECA is also integrating EJ considerations into every environmental crime investigation and prosecution. Thirty-two percent of the defendants sentenced in FY 2022 committed crimes that impacted overburdened or vulnerable communities. For criminal violations, EPA seeks punishments that serve as effective deterrents and that assure communities that illegal pollution is not recurring. For example, in a case involving violations of federal and New York State regulations intended to prevent human exposure to asbestos, five defendants were ordered to pay over $400,000 in restitution for victim medical monitoring and to EPA for its costs related to cleaning up a contaminated site in Kingston, NY, a community with potential EJ concerns. Read the complete case summary.
Community Engagement and Crime Victims Assistance
Early and frequent community engagement with pollution-burdened and underserved communities is an essential element of OECA’s and Regions’ efforts to address environmental injustice.
OECA has increased its efforts to listen to and engage with communities in order to investigate environmental threats of most concern to communities. For example, in response to concerns voiced by residents during Administrator Regan’s Journey to Justice tour in November 2021, OECA is investigating air quality concerns in overburdened communities visited by the Administrator. EPA deployed state-of-the-art air pollution monitoring equipment in areas of potential EJ concern to identify potential sources of air pollution and is working, in conjunction with our State partners, to address any violations found. Understanding communities’ concerns also better informs EPA’s ability to negotiate injunctive relief and cleanup work that is responsive to those concerns.
Our work to protect communities with EJ concerns is a shared goal and responsibility of EPA and our partner agencies. In March of 2022, Region 8 entered into an MOU with the State of Colorado to coordinate enforcement actions that advance the EJ goals of both agencies. The two agencies sought community feedback on a workplan to implement the MOU, which focuses on:
- strategically targeting inspections;
- collaborating on enforcement and compliance assurance; and
- creating equitable opportunities for communities across Colorado to learn and engage with the agencies about enforcement and compliance issues.
Also in FY 22, Region 9 worked with California Environmental Protection Agency to develop an 2023 Environmental Justice Enforcement Action Plan (pdf) to implement an MOU finalized in late FY 21 between the two agencies. Together they have created an Action Plan focused on (1)
- Enhanced, sustained community engagement;
- Creation of a Rapid Response Task Force; and
- Development of tools for coordinated enforcement engagement.
OECA revised its model cleanup settlement agreements to better address community concerns about impacts of cleanup work and to provide more information about the progress of cleanup to communities. Those new model provisions are being applied to Superfund site cleanups. For example, on August 1, 2022, a settlement was finalized for a remedial design/remedial action consent decree (RD/RA CD) between EPA, BNSF Railway Company, and Montana Rail to clean up contaminated soil within a two-acre railyard at the East Helena Superfund site in East Helena, Montana, an area of EJ concern. The settlement agreement includes new community engagement language from the 2021 revised RD/RA CD’s accompanying statement of work, which will better engage and empower impacted communities at this enforcement-lead Superfund site and requires the railroad to include dust and noise mitigation components to avoid impacts on the surrounding community. OECA is actively seeking opportunities to include community-focused provisions in other model cleanup settlement agreements. For more information visit the East Helena Superfund site profile page and the Agency’s webpage on the 2021 RD/RA CD model document.
Greater public access to compliance data can enable communities to better understand and manage risks and monitor compliance at facilities and sites in their area. In FY 22, two new online tools and EJ system enhancements were made available to the public that provide additional information on environmental enforcement and compliance in their communities. Through improved transparency, advanced technologies and community participation, these tools empower the public to help EPA assure compliance nationwide and protect public health and the environment:
- Members of the public can use EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) website to search for facilities in their community to assess their compliance with environmental regulations, now enhanced with integrated EJ metrics in the basic ECHO facility features.
- Additionally, there is a new Benzene Fenceline Monitoring Dashboard that tracks air monitoring results from petroleum refineries on a quarterly basis. There is also a new web tool, ECHO Notify, that empowers members of the public to stay informed about important environmental enforcement and compliance activities in their communities. Through ECHO Notify, launched in the spring of 2022, users can sign up to receive weekly emails when new information is available within the selected geographic area, such as when a violation or enforcement action has taken place at a nearby facility.
Enhanced community outreach is also essential to reach victims of environmental crimes, particularly in underserved communities. The Agency has used the application Nextdoor to conduct outreach to crime victims and vulnerable communities. In May of 2022, the Agency used Nextdoor to conduct outreach to one community in every EPA Region for a three-month period. During this period, over 17 million Nextdoor users viewed the ads and more than 78,000 users clicked on the ads. OECA is also publicizing the availability of the “Report a Violation” tool for members of the public to report suspected violations and exploring ways to make the tool more user-friendly.
Some of the EJ work accomplished in FY 2022 is not reflected in the graphs and charts in this report. For example, EPA has several enforcement programs where the location of the violation, or location of where EPA identified the violation (e.g., a company’s headquarters), is not sufficient for an EJ analysis. However, we know that these violations often impact already overburdened and vulnerable communities:
- In FY22, EPA kept misbranded pesticide products off the market through 23 pesticide cases. Misbranding can take many forms; some examples include incomplete or otherwise inadequate directions for use, lack of precautionary statements, false or misleading claims, and inadequate packaging and containers. These can lead to unsafe use or assumptions about the effectiveness of products that present risk to human health or the environment. Sellers often market misbranded products to consumers in EJ communities through multi-lingual labeling, targeted advertising, and selective distribution channels.
- In FY22, EPA also took actions to prevent community exposure to lead in pre-1978 housing, particularly multi-unit and subsidized housing (95 cases). As discussed in the lead section, many of these enforcement actions and activities addressed lead exposures in overburdened communities.
1
Strengthening Enforcement in Communities with Environmental Justice Concerns (pdf)
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Memorandum from Acting Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Larry Starfield, "Strengthening Environmental Justice Through Criminal Enforcement" (pdf)
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Memorandum from Acting Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Larry Starfield, "Strengthening Environmental Justice Through Cleanup Enforcement Actions" (pdf)
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Using All Appropriate Injunctive Relief Tools in Civil Enforcement Settlements (pdf)