• EPA Rights Complaint Process Changes Fail To Ease Petitioner Concerns (reprinted w/permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

    This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on February 22, 2013. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Inside Washington Publishers. Copyright 2013. No further distribution is permitted.

    Click here to view article (pdf format): EPA Rights Complaint Process Changes Fail To Ease Petitioner Concerns

  • RNA Comments on EPA Draft Title VI Supplement

     
     
    On July 17, 2012, Rosemere Neighborhood Association submitted a public comments letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on EPA’s Draft Supplement: Advancing Environmental Justice Through Title VI of the Civil Rights Act

     
     

    The public comments letter in part includes:

    Despite Rosemere’s lawsuit and the subsequent national debate of the failures of the OCR, and despite your continued promises for EPA to increase efficiency in that office to make Environmental Justice a national priority, the OCR continues to fail in its intake and investigation guidelines in regard to Title VI complaints. To date, the EPA has ignored Rosemere’s various requests to meet with you and to voice our concerns and share our experiences in order to offer suggestions to improve OCR’s operations. And to date, only one case has ever attained a ruling of discrimination in support of Title VI claims [Angelita C. v. California Department of Pesticide Regulations] and it took more than ten years to achieve that result. Most cases are dismissed outright, claiming jurisdictional issues or other bureaucratic problems. Many groups across the country wonder why the OCR functions under such a dismal record, and this points succinctly to how OCR is disconnected from the disparate impacts that can be suffered by Environmental Justice populations nationwide.

    Environmental Justice Enforcement is a very important tool that should be used to address discrimination that can cause adverse health impacts and environmental harm to neighborhoods where low income and minorities live and work. Whereas we appreciate the Title VI Supplement’s attempt to begin to fine tune the various agency failures, we feel that the timelines are vague and deficient and that they need to be more detailed to ensure future compliance success. We offer the general comment that EPA’s enforcement model under the supplement attempts only gentle compliance — collaboration, and conciliation rather than the promise of clearly defined relief. For example, in the Angelita case, the state of California did not experience the withholding of federal funds as required under Title VI guidelines when a real first-time case discrimination was established. We acknowledge that the state of California is currently experiencing a serious budgetary crisis, and that a freeze of federal funds as mandated under Title VI could be very serious, but without consistent penalties for discriminatory behavior there can be no success in altering the on-the-ground conditions that contributed the disparate impacts.

    ***

    It is reasonable for the community to request EPA to be more open, to collaborate with the complainants as well as the agencies that are the target of complaints. Please don’t let this process degrade further into a debate limited to state’s rights of self government v. federal regulation. That argument is easily used to dismiss valid claims of discrimination and only points out how civil rights violations continue unabated in our nation.

    To view the letter in its entirety (pdf format):  Rosemere Neighborhood Association Comments on EPA Draft Title VI Supplement

  • EPA Plan Expected To Limit New Title VI Petitions (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

    This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on April 19, 2012. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Inside Washington Publishers. Copyright 2012. No further distribution is permitted.

    Click here to view article (pdf format): EPA Plan Expected to Limit New Title VI Petitions

  • EPA Takes Steps To Resolve Civil Rights Concerns But Hurdles Remain (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

    This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on January 27, 2012. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Inside Washington Publishers. Copyright 2012. No further distribution is permitted.

    Click here to view article (pdf format): EPA Takes Steps To Resolve Civil Rights Concerns IEPA 01-12.pdf

    View the DRAFT Report from EPA Civil Rights Executive Committee here: Recommendations for Developing a Model Civil Rights Program at The Environmental Protection Agency

  • PEAC Comments on Final Environmental Impact Statement for I-5 Columbia River Crossing Project

    I-5 Interstate Bridge Over Columbia River

    Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center (“PEAC”), the Environmental Legal Clinic of Lewis & Clark Law School, has submitted comments on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups on the Columbia River Crossing Project (“CRC”) Final Environmental Impact Statement.

    PEAC clients include Rosemere Neighborhood Association, Coalition for a Livable Future, the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, Northwest Environmental Defense Center, Columbia Riverkeeper, the Portland Audubon Society, Oregon Public Health Institute, Upstream Public Health, and Association of Oregon Rail and Trail Advocates. PEAC also states that although it specifically represents these groups, it is “in fact representing the concerns and views of a broad and diverse coalition of groups.”

    To date, CRC has established a pattern of ignoring input from these environmental and stakeholder groups concerned about the proposed bridge design impacts to our sole source aquifer, surface and groundwater resources, salmon, air quality, general public health concerns and other environmental impacts.

    In this document PEAC details all these concerns and the various technical reports behind them, finding,

    Overall it is remarkable how much incomplete and missing analysis is found when the public reviews this FEIS, which has already cost Oregon and Washington taxpayers more than $130 million. This would be Oregon’s largest public works project, and its taxpayers and the taxpayers of Washington are entitled to a much more thorough and complete analysis, a true comparison of all reasonable alternatives that “sharply defines the issues and provide[s] a clear basis of choice among options” (40 C.F.R. § 1502.14), and a meaningful opportunity to review and comment on all of those things in a supplemental DEIS.

    While the coalition is not “anti-bridge”, it does charge CRC with the responsibility to not harm our environment, destroy our resources or our community and to be fiscally responsible.

    PEAC concludes with,

    For all the reasons set forth above, PEAC respectfully requests, on behalf of its clients listed below, that the responsible federal agencies and the CRC Task Force withdraw the CRC FEIS and issue a corrected Supplemental DEIS for public comment.

    You can read the entire PEAC document “Comments on September 2011 Final Environmental Impact Statement for I-5 Columbia Crossing Project” here: PEAC_Comments_on_CRC_FEIS
    (pdf format – please note this is a fairly large document a may take a moment to open)

  • Equity Advocates Issue ‘Demands’ For EPA To Reform Civil Rights Agenda (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

    This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on September 2, 2011. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Inside Washington Publishers. Copyright 2011. No further distribution is permitted.

    Click here to view article (pdf format): Equity Advocates Issue ‘Demands’ For EPA To Reform Civil Rights Agenda

  • Agencies’ Pact Seen Forcing Action To Address Environmental Justice (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

    This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on August 12, 2011. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Inside Washington Publishers. Copyright 2011. No further distribution is permitted.

    Click here to view article (pdf format): Agencies’ Pact Seen Forcing Action To Address Environmental Justice

  • Despite Jackson’s Vows, EPA Faces New Suit For Stalled ‘Rights’ Petitions (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

    This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on July 8, 2011. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Inside Washington Publishers. Copyright 2011. No further distribution is permitted.

    Click here to view article (pdf format):  EPA Faces New Suit For Stalled ‘Rights’ Petitions

  • Report Attacks EPA Civil Rights Office As DOJ Fights Pollution Complaint (reprinted with permission from Inside Washington Publishers)

    This article originally appeared in Inside EPA Weekly Report on April 15, 2011. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, Inside Washington Publishers. Copyright 2011. No further distribution is permitted.

    Click here to view article (pdf format): Report Attacks EPA Civil Rights Office As DOJ Fights Pollution Complaint

  • Deloitte Consulting LLP Final Report on EPA Office of Civil Rights: “Poor Performance”

    EPA, under the direction of Administrator Lisa Jackson, has released a redacted version of the Deloitte Consulting LLP Final Report on the Evaluation of the EPA Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

    Rosemere Neighborhood Association (RNA) Title VI Complaint and subsequent Settlement Agreement between RNA and EPA of March 2010 figure prominently in the Report (See page 2 of Deloitte Report, link provided below):

    This situation has exposed EPA’s Civil Rights programs to significant consequences which have damaged its reputation internally and externally. In the Rosemere Neighborhood Association case regarding the timeliness of a Title VI complaint response, it was found that “OCR’s failure to process the Retaliation Complaint in accordance with the timeline set forth in 40 C.F.R. S7.115(c)(1) constitutes agency action unlawfully withheld pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C. S706(1).” 5 OCR’s performance has also damaged its reputation within EPA. It was noted repeatedly in interviews with EPA staff and management that OCR has been viewed as an organization that performs poorly and does not offer specialized expertise.

    Deloitte’s assessment reveals a bleak accounting of the anti-discrimination processes within the OCR, listing, among others, these issues:

    • The Office of Civil Rights lacks “the rudiments of organizational infrastructure,” such as established procedures, defined staff duties or the ability to track cases. Its handling of employee complaints “is known for poor investigative quality and a lack of responsiveness”;
    • Dismally “poor performance” with backlogs and long delays in investigations of discrimination complaints. A review of complaints from EPA employees found that none received a final agency decision on time, with many several months overdue; and
    • A confused “fire drill mentality has resulted in significant financial and reputational consequences for the Agency” in the form of large cash settlements from botched discrimination investigations. [Read More...]

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