Environmental Justice in Enforcement and Compliance Assurance

Fair and robust enforcement provides a key component to EPA efforts to promote environmental justice in communities across America that have been overburdened by pollution and underserved in the past. For the first time ever, EPA is conducted the majority of its on-site inspections—61 percent during FY 23—in environmental justice communities; the majority of our case conclusions now occur in overburdened communities as well. Our commitment to promoting environmental justice seeks to deliver on the promise of clean air and safe drinking water, as well as communities free of toxic waste, for everyone living in the United States.

EPA defines environmental justice (EJ) as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.” EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) vigorously applies EJ considerations across all enforcement and compliance activities involving criminal, civil, federal facilities, and cleanup enforcement.

In January 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration issued Executive Order 13985 directing all federal agencies to advance racial equity and support for underserved communities. This directive was soon followed by the January 2021 Executive Order 14008, and EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s message to all EPA offices (titled, “Our Commitment to Environmental Justice”), which specifically called on EPA to strengthen enforcement to help advance the protection of communities overburdened by pollution.

EPA responded to the Administrator’s direction by issuing four memoranda directing enforcement staff to strengthen EJ considerations in the civil, criminal, and cleanup enforcement programs, and to use all available tools to do so:

Our work to protect communities with potential EJ concerns is a shared goal and responsibility of EPA and our partner agencies. EPA conducts joint planning with states and other co-regulators and, whenever possible, endeavors to perform enforcement and compliance work in partnership with them.

In August 2023, EPA announced the fiscal year (FY) 2024-2027 National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives (NECI) to focus its enforcement and compliance resources on the most serious environmental programs facing the country. All six initiatives incorporate environmental justice considerations, including focusing more NECI inspections and compliance monitoring activities in overburdened or vulnerable communities, to ensure that the benefits of our nation’s environmental laws can be shared by everyone living in the United States.

On this page:

FY 2023 EJ Enforcement and Compliance Accomplishments
Overview of Enforcement Actions to Protect Impacted Communities
Addressing Lead Contamination and Exposure
Community Engagement Highlights
Capacity Building for Local Drinking Water and Wastewater Systems
Increased Public Access to Information and Compliance Data

FY 2023 EJ Enforcement and Compliance Accomplishments

FY 2023 Enforcement and Compliance accomplishments that benefit communities with potential EJ concerns and are overburdened by pollution include the following highlights:

EPA committed to increasing the percentage of on-site inspections in communities with potential EJ concerns from 30% to 55% by FY 2026. EPA surpassed that goal during FY 2023, three years ahead of schedule. EPA conducted 61% of onsite inspections in communities overburdened with pollution during FY 2023.
In addition, 55% of completed civil cases addressed facilities in communities with potential EJ concerns. This is the highest percentage of finalized cases since EPA began tracking EJ statistics a decade ago and continues a steady increase since FY 2021. EPA finalized a total of 1,789 civil settlements, over 150 more than in FY 2022.
EPA finalized Superfund settlement agreements for cleanup work in communities where approximately 897,527 people live within a one-mile radius of a Superfund site with 85% (759,373) living in communities with potential EJ concerns. 84 sites with new Superfund enforcement cleanup work In FY 2023 80% of the completed enforcement instruments were at sites with communities located near or adjacent to communities with potential EJ concerns.

Overview of Enforcement Actions to Protect Impacted Communities

EPA’s enforcement and compliance program use all the tools available under the nation’s environmental statutes to act early to stem or reduce the harm to communities overburdened by pollution and with potential EJ concerns.

In FY 2023 EPA took early action to protect communities by issuing 203 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) orders to public water systems which collectively protected more than 1.9 million people. Eight SDWA § 1431 emergency orders were issued to protect almost 2,000 individuals in small, overburdened communities.

Action to Protect Communities Drinking Water

In FY 2023 EPA took early action to protect communities by issuing 203 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) orders

to public water systems which collectively protected more than 1.9 million people. Eight SDWA § 1431 emergency orders were issued to protect almost 2,000 individuals in small, overburdened communities.

Examples of SDWA enforcement activity include:

In November 2022, DOJ, on behalf of EPA, filed a SDWA complaint to address the emergency with the public water system in Jackson, Mississippi. The parties ultimately reached agreement on a proposed SDWA stipulated order which, among other things, included the appointment of an interim third-party manager to assist in the rehabilitation of the city of Jackson’s drinking water system.
EPA initiated sampling of private drinking water wells near military installations with known, significant per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination using the Department of Defense’s (DoD) public data published about PFAS contamination and demographic information about the surrounding communities with potential environmental justice (EJ) concerns. The Agency developed a list of high priority areas potentially impacting nearby drinking water and collaborated with its regional offices and state agencies to take samples sampling and work with community residents to access their private drinking water wells. Based on the sampling, elevated levels of PFAS were identified in drinking water and DoD has provided alternative water to the impacted households. This sampling work will continue in FY 2024.

Actions to Address Serious Air Pollution

Playground with an industrial site with visible air emissions in the background

In FY 2023 EPA took early action to protect communities using its Clean Air Act authorities. Examples of Clean Air Act enforcement actions include:

On February 28, 2023, EPA and the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint Denka Performance Elastomer’s (“Denka”) related to carcinogenic air pollution at its neoprene manufacturing facility in LaPlace, Louisiana, located in a community with potential environmental justice concerns. The complaint seeks to compel Denka to significantly reduce hazardous chloroprene emissions from its facility, and greatly reduce the exposure of chloroprene levels to the community. This action is a fulfillment of EPA Administrator Regan’s pledge during his Journey to Justice Tour to the LaPlace community to take strong action to address the harmful chloroprene pollution emissions from the facility. Read more about this case.
On May 17, 2023, EPA reached a settlement agreement with BP Products North America Inc., (BPP), a subsidiary of BP p.l.c,. for violating national emission standards at its Whiting Refinery in Whiting, Indiana. Under the agreement, BP will pay a $40 million civil penalty and commit to achieving emission reductions through capital investments estimated at $197 million. The settlement will result in reductions of benzene and other volatile organic compounds at the Whiting Refinery, which is surrounded by communities with potential EJ concerns. The $40 million penalty is the largest civil penalty for CAA stationary source violations. Additionally, the settlement includes a $5 million state supplemental environmental project (SEP) that requires BP to replace diesel transportation vehicles with cleaner fuel vehicles (e.g., electric, clean diesel, propane, compressed natural gas) in the surrounding communities of Hammond, East Chicago, Whiting, and Gary, Indiana. Read more about this case.

Actions to Address Significant Hazardous Waste Issues

Neighborhood showing homes and vehicles on the street with an industrial site in the background

In FY 2023, EPA took early action to protect communities to address pollution and contamination:

EPA’s Superfund enforcement work had a significant impact on communities overburdened with pollution with potential EJ concerns. Of the 84 Superfund sites with new enforcement agreements, 68% were adjacent to these communities. The 137 enforcement agreements finalized in FY 2023 impact approximately 897,527 people living within a one-mile radius of a Superfund site, with 85% (759,373) of the people living in communities with potential EJ concerns.

In a settlement with Union Pacific Railroad Company, the company will perform a removal assessment for potential contamination from a former wood preserving facility in Houston, Texas. The settlement will strengthen environmental and public health protections to Houston’s Greater Fifth Ward community with potential EJ concerns and of interest to several public entities. Under the agreement, Pacific Union will conduct approximately $6.9 million in removal assessment work that includes on- and off-site soil sampling, vapor intrusion investigations, evaluations of the off-site storm sewer system, and development of a proposal to support EPA’s community involvement plans, well as pay future response costs. Read more about this settlement.

Actions to Protect Victims and Communities from Environmental Crimes

In FY 2023, EPA too action to protect the victims and the communities they live in. For example:

On August 15, 2023, View, Inc. was sentenced to three years of probation, a $3 million fine and ordered to make a community service payment of $450,000 to DeSoto County Regional Utility Authority (DCRUA) to expand wastewater treatment capacity in DeSoto County. View also paid a $1.5 million civil penalty to the Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality. View, Inc., headquartered in Milpitas, California, manufactures electrochromic glass products used in commercial and industrial building applications.

Over a nine-year period, from mid-2012 to June 2021, View Inc.’s facility located in Olive Branch, Mississippi discharged 250,000 gallons per day of wastewater containing cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, and zinc into the county’s publicly owned treatment works (POTW) without a pretreatment permit. The discharges for View’s facility in Olive Branch, which employs between 300 and 400 people. was a major contributor to the permit limit violations committed by DCRUA and caused pass-through or interference at the POTW, resulting in actual harm to the environment. Read more about this case.

Addressing Lead Contamination and Exposure

EPA, working with other federal agencies, and its state, local, and tribal partners, use multiple environmental laws and regulations to prevent or reduce expose to lead in the air, water, and soil. The legacy of toxic lead exposure disproportionately affects communities with potential environmental justice concerns, especially those with a higher concentration of low-income households. The EPA uses its enforcement actions to correct this environmental injustice.

Over two-thirds of homes with both lead paint and children under the age of six are low-income households. In 2023, EPA issued the Environmental Justice Toolkit for Lead Paint Enforcement Programs. This toolkit provides enforcement strategies and best practices for engaging communities about lead paint enforcement activities, targeting inspections in overburdened communities; and seeking effective legal remedies to enhance environmental justice.

As part of the EPA’s 2023 Geographic Initiatives related to lead, EPA regional offices directed enforcement resources to communities to reduce people’s exposure to lead in homes. Examples include:

Providing compliance assistance to 31,000 entities In Hartford, New Haven, and Fairfield counties in Connecticut, including contractors and landlords, as well as to child-occupied facilities, and property management companies.
Running a 12-week lead paint awareness advertisement campaign using buses and bus shelters in communities located in Reading, Pennsylvania, Charlestown, West Virginia, Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia. Additionally, the EPA and the U.S. Department of Housing hosted a webinar about lead paint rules on October 26, 2023.
Focusing its outreach and compliance efforts in several communities with potential environmental justice concerns including Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska; Yakima, Everett and Tacoma, Washington; and Portland, Salem, and Milwaukee, Oregon and achieved over 70% of its 237 lead paint inspections this year in communities with potential environmental justice concerns.

More information on EPA’s efforts to protect communities from lead exposure is available on the Agency’s Enforcing Lead Laws and Regulations web page.

Promoting Greater Community Engagement

Early and frequent community engagement with communities overburdened is an essential element of EPA’s efforts to address environmental injustice. Understanding communities’ concerns also better informs EPA’s ability to negotiate injunctive relief and cleanup work that is responsive to those concerns.

Seeking Ideas for Projects to Potentially Use in Enforcement Settlements

On December 7, 2023, EPA announced a new initiative to support and encourage the public to share their ideas for environmentally beneficial projects, known as supplemental environmental projects (SEPs), that could potentially be included in future enforcement settlements. Thinking more creatively about how SEPs can tackle the adverse impact of environmental noncompliance can make a real difference in communities now and for generations to come.

EPA has long encouraged the inclusion of SEPs in enforcement settlements as a way to provide real environmental or public health benefits to communities impacted by violations of a federal environmental law or regulation. This is particularly important in underserved communities that have long been overburdened by environmental pollution.

Ideas for SEPs can be submitted to EPA at [email protected]. The following type of information would be useful to EPA and/or a defendant when evaluating a project idea:
- Short Title
- Detailed Description
- Public Health and/or Environmental Benefits
- Information about the Location
- Cost Information

More information about how to submit a SEP idea can be found on EPA’s SEP webpage.

Overview of Enforcement and Compliance Program Engagement Activities

A critical element of EPA’s enforcement and compliance program’s work is to incorporate environmental justice into all we do. Ensuring justice is served on vulnerable and overburdened communities requires strong communication and engagement opportunities with communities with potential EJ concerns. Community engagement activities in FY 2023 include:

Engaged with a National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) workgroup for work related to compliance monitoring under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act’s (FIFRA) Worker Protection Standards (WPS). The purpose is for NEJAC suggestions on how EPA’s enforcement and compliance program can incorporate deeper understanding of farmworker concerns about WPS inspections into training materials to help enhance EPA training and improve inspections and enforcement. Also received recommendation, on communication approaches, processes, or strategies to increase information sharing and build trust between WPS inspector and farmworkers.

Launched a bilingual advertising and social media campaign that resulted in millions of views to a National Pesticide Information Center educational website and partnered with the state to provide education and outreach publications on pest mitigation to all nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon. Additional activities included:
- Distributing compliance assistance materials on WPS to protect farmworkers from exposures to pesticides, in collaboration with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe Circuit Rider Program in Idaho, and the Yakama Nation in Washington State;
- Participating with the city of Seattle’s Parks and Recreation in three community outreach events; and
- Distributing hundreds of bilingual materials to families on pesticide safety, pollinator protection, children’s health, air quality, lead safety, and energy conservation.

In response to public comments on a proposed consent order with the U.S. Navy to oversee the defueling and closure of the Red Hill Fuel facility at the Red Hill and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, EPA developed unique requirements for the establishment of a “Community Representation Initiative” (CRI). The formation of the CRI developed through public meetings, community surveys, a public election of the 10 committee members. Under the final consent decree, the Navy is required to meet with the CRI community representatives twice a quarter to share information and receive input on critical decisions relating to defueling, closure, and drinking water.
EPA and California EPA (CalEPA) finalized an EJ enforcement action plan that identified five communities across the state where there would be a sustained commitment that focused on better addressing and communicating with communities on compliance with federal and state environmental laws and regulations. EPA and CalEPA have participated in or hosted dozens of public meetings and created activity logs summarizing regulatory roles at specific facilities of concern and developed a framework for a Rapid Enforcement Response Task Force to mobilize resources for urgent issues

Capacity Building for Local Drinking Water and Wastewater Systems

Compliance Advisors providing technical assistance in the field

To help small or rural towns and federally recognized Indian tribes that own or operate drinking water or wastewater treatment facilities comply with applicable drinking water or wastewater protection requirements, EPA established a “Compliance Advisor” program to provide hands-on technical assistance.

Since implementation in FY 2020, EPA has provided technical assistance to 245 small drinking systems and 64 wastewater systems that were in non-compliance.
Approximately 55 percent of the drinking water and wastewater facilities that EPA has provided with technical assistance under the Compliance Advisor program are in communities with potential EJ concerns.

Increased Public Access to Information and Compliance Data

Greater public access to compliance data can enable communities with potential EJ concerns to better understand and manage risks and monitor compliance at facilities and sites in their area. In FY 2023 more tools and EJ capabilities have been incorporated, advancing EPA’s goal to provide the public with improved access to enforcement data. Examples include:

OECA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) system provides the public with compliance and enforcement information for approximately 800,000 EPA-regulated facilities nationwide.

Clean Air Tracking Tool (ECATT) provides an integrated view of air pollution data, combining information on emissions, enforcement and compliance, environmental justice, air monitoring stations, and modeled toxic risks. Communities now have access to a tool that can be used to evaluate emissions at stationary sources and analyze general air quality in their communities.
PFAS Analytic Tools bring together national datasets into a searchable, map-themed webpage that allows user to filter, zoom in, and download information such as drinking water testing results, PFAS chemical production, regulated facilities that may use PFAS, PFAS detections at federal agencies, and toxic release/effluent discharges.
Benzene Fenceline Monitoring Dashboard provides self-reported benzene monitoring data from petroleum refineries. Benzene is a hazardous air pollutant that must be monitored under the 2015 Petroleum Refinery Sector Rule. Benzene data is collected along the perimeter of a refinery.