EJ 2020: The Next Generation of Environmental Justice at EPA
By Gina McCarthy
I got my start working at community health centers in Canton, Massachusetts. That was more than 35 years ago. What motivated me then, and still drives me today, is my desire to help people lead healthier, safer lives.
Far too often, I’ve seen how minority, low-income, and indigenous groups are most affected by environmental and public health challenges. I’m proud that for more than twenty years, EPA has worked to ensure that these overburdened communities benefit from the same environmental protections as other communities. This has been a priority of mine since my first days working in Canton, and it’s been a top priority for us here at EPA.
We’ve made tremendous progress over the past eight years. Through EJ 2014 – EPA’s first strategic plan – we built stronger relationships with local and community leaders. We integrated environmental justice into every EPA program. And we strengthened our partnerships across the federal family.
This progress is important, but we still have a lot of work to do. With EJ 2020, EPA’s next four-year strategic plan for environmental justice, we’re building on this foundation as we work together to turn this progress into even more action. This plan was developed based on robust public input – through thousands of comments on previous drafts, from more than one hundred meetings across the country, and four national webinars.
EJ 2020 has three overarching goals:
- To deepen environmental justice practice in EPA’s programs that improve the health and environment of overburdened communities;
- To work with federal, state, tribal, community, and industry partners to expand our impact across the country; and
- To measure the progress we’re making on our most significant environmental justice challenges.
Each of these goals supports our efforts to expand our on-the-ground work and make an even greater and lasting impact where our help is needed the most. And as we develop more comprehensive ways to gauge our progress, we will better ensure that every American enjoys the benefits of living in a cleaner and healthier community.
Confronting our shared challenges requires innovative solutions and unwavering dedication. In a period of increasing challenges related to climate change and crumbling infrastructure, our capacity to confront our obstacles depends on the strength of our partnerships. EJ 2020 provides a roadmap for us to move forward, together, in a more productive and holistic way. This means listening to community leaders and residents and better understanding the burdens they face so that we strategically focus our resources. This is how we will truly make a difference in our country’s most overburdened communities.
EJ 2020 isn’t just about having words on paper. It’s about having concrete strategies that guide us through the next four years and beyond. And when I think back to the lessons I learned in Canton, I am proud of the lives that EPA has changed and the communities we’ve strengthened both in my hometown and in hometowns across the country. Everything we’ve accomplished makes me even more optimistic about our shared future.
Oct 27, 2016 @ 16:00:23
EPIC- “undertaking, that our U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has spent seasons and years CULTIVATING almost with surgical precision of the simple yet / complicated task of LISTENING”. Especially to the poor and/ or Low-to-Moderate INCOME dwellers, so often our elected leadership at the local, state and federal level are so busy doing what they do: OFTEN remembering those who suffer and endure personal, private, professional, public and even financial hardships of neglect or negated acceptance that those NOT inside the LOOPS and THRESHOLDS of power broker- CIRCLES.
We are more fortunate and more BLESSED to have our ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE Divisions to turn too, because the local Health department is preoccupied conducting their routine agendas, as well as state governing bodies regarding the Health and Environmental – or Energy issues. Our E.J. coordinators and the E.P.A. through the E.J. Executive Order and now the 2020 E.J. PLAN advances Humanitarian FUTURES, that over-rides obstacles that just because a peoples may be POOR, Black or UNDER SERVED, we still MATTER and our information / concerns are at least look at, listened too and possibly those INTERROGATIVES will get a second look for consideration: which in the norm of things: is gigantic.
Many entities, private and public sectors still do not comply with ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE outlays, but at the same TIME, we GALAXIES ahead of where we were before the ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE Industries were given form and policy to help the LEAST of THEM, which is and are us [ the poor and disconnected ]. God’s continued BLESSINGS to the E.P.A. for helping, caring and LISTENING.
We have so much more to do, we haven’t another MOMENT to WASTE, noTHING in the WORLD ever stands still: and with this 2020 PLAN we can re-begin all over again- to rebuild the fragile, fragmented species of HUMAN KINDNESS- together. THANKS to our E.P.A. !!!
Marvin S. Robinson, II
QUINDARO RUINS / Underground Railroad- Exercise 2017
Oct 31, 2016 @ 21:40:52
I would be interested to understand the distribution and density of the overburdened communities. Is this information known and is it available?
I would like to also understand the definition and scope of the term “overburdened community”. Does this have a strict definition or is it a more quitative term?
Nov 02, 2016 @ 18:04:34
EJ 2020 IS STRATEGIC PLAN UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, AGENCY, EPA; PROMOTING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FROM YEARS 2016 – 2020. THE AGENCY IS FACING ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH.
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Nov 05, 2016 @ 13:56:06
Very good discussion and very informative.
Nov 11, 2016 @ 09:39:01
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Nov 13, 2016 @ 18:19:18
very informative post, thanks for sharing
Nov 17, 2016 @ 21:32:13
For the safety and assurity of pure lives environmental protection is a must.
Nov 22, 2016 @ 02:16:19
Obviously, we should protect our environment. Nice article and well explained.
Nov 28, 2016 @ 04:16:08
Very good discussion and very informative.
Nov 29, 2016 @ 00:30:18
it is very nice , thanks for publishing this post
Dec 02, 2016 @ 11:46:28
Sad to see this document released with NO MENTION of including prisoners as a uniquely over-burdened EJ community, despite 140 organizations and over 15,000 comments urging them to do so. Perhaps the EJ 2020 team will explain this when they release a “response to comments document” supposedly later this month.
Dec 05, 2016 @ 12:48:18
very usefull information thank you.
Dec 05, 2016 @ 12:48:56
very usefull information, thank you for sharing.
Dec 15, 2016 @ 04:28:41
It is rightly mentioned that underprivileged are the ones getting affected the most by environmental challenges.
Congratulations to EPA for wonder work.
Harshad Patel
Dec 20, 2016 @ 02:29:04
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