Message from the Executive Director

At the heart of our nation’s environmental laws are promises that have stood the test of time and proved strong enough to confront new challenges.

These promises include the right of citizens to breathe air without risking asthma attacks, heart disease, or cancer.  Americans, rich and poor, have a right to water that is clean enough to drink, or to swim or fish in.  The Supreme Court has ruled that EPA must regulate global warming pollution.

A far-sighted Congress gave ordinary citizens the power to enforce environmental rules when bureaucracies stumble or polluters flout the law.   But it takes legal and technical know-how to exercise that power, especially when big agencies or well-connected polluters are on the other side of the table.  That’s where the Environmental Integrity Project comes in.  

We work to make the government hear the voices of the people they are supposed to protect when writing rules or issuing permits.  And we take action against power companies, refineries, factory farms, and other industries for violating laws that protect our health and the quality of our air or water.  

We are equally proud of our efforts to make sure the data on which all environmental rules depend is both accurate and available to the public.  If you open Ashtracker on our webpage, for example, you’ll find up-to-date information on groundwater contamination at some of the most polluted coal ash sites in the U.S., along with a plain-English explanation of what the numbers mean.

Our work is inspired by all the local activists willing to stand up, against the odds, to defend the environment and protect their communities when polluters or bureaucracies ride roughshod over the law.

-- Eric V. Schaeffer, Executive Director,
Environmental Integrity Project