What’s the Issue?

The environmental justice movement uses the ideals, tactics, and strategies of the civil rights movement, while also drawing from feminist, Indigenous, antiwar and antinuclear movements, and the mainstream environmental movement to address the problems of environmental racism and the systemic link between environmental degradation and its unequal impacts on working class and communities of color. The term environmental racism describes how the lives of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are disproportionately impacted through heightened exposure to environmental and health risks, both in their neighborhoods and their workplaces. Robert Bullard, a founder of the environmental justice (EJ) movement, describes these communities as “environmental sacrifice zones” where industry and the state site undesirable, often toxic plants and processing sites in the neighborhoods of poor communities of color, causing cumulative and pervasive impacts to the soil, air, and water.  

Protests in Warren County, North Carolina sparked the environmental justice movement in the early 1980s. Black residents opposed the siting of a sanitary landfill near their community that contained soil with high levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). The landmark study by the United Church of Christ Commission on Racial Justice in 1987, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, identified race as an important factor across a slew of environmentally dangerous exposures, even when holding economic class constant. While African Americans comprised only 20 percent of the population of eight states in the south, 75 percent of hazardous commercial waste landfills existed in Black majority communities in those states. The study helped formalize the reality that greater environmental health risks are borne by people of color and low-income people.  

In 1991, the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit convened in Washington, D.C. The event, sponsored by the United Church of Christ Commission, brought together over 1,000 community organizers from across all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, Mexico, Chile, and the Marshall Islands. This group of delegates drafted and adopted the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice, which continues to serve as a guiding framework for the grassroots EJ movement.

Federal Action on Environmental Justice

The environmental justice movement has relied on direct action, protest, and community organizing strategies, while also engaging within the regulatory and judicial systems across all levels of government. President Clinton’s Executive Order 12898 and subsequent federal environmental justice (EJ) policies and programs have faced significant challenges in implementation. Some factors include scientific uncertainty, the social complexity of EJ issues, lack of clear policy guidance, and weak regulatory enforcement. Under the Biden Administration, renewed focus on federal responsiveness to EJ issues can be seen in the “Justice40” initiative, which aims to provide 40% of certain Federal investments to disadvantaged communities. The White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council’s (WHEJAC) final recommendations for Justice40 include ensuring “safe drinking water by replacing all lead water pipes in frontline communities across America by 2030.” Other water-related recommendations of the WHEJAC include the creation of a permanent federal low-income water and sewer bill assistance program, testing and replacement of lead water pipe infrastructure in EJ communities, investment in flood mitigation and climate resilience infrastructure, and ensuring every home has a wastewater system and indoor plumbing.  

Water and Environmental Justice

What does environmental justice have to do with water? As the Covid-19 pandemic shows, water access and affordability are crucial for public health- and the consequences of environmental pollution are dire. Water shutoff moratoriums during the early months of the pandemic reduced the likelihood of infection and death.  The enforcement of water policies and regulations are not evenly distributed- NRDC found that Safe Drinking Water Act Violations are more likely to occur in communities of color, low-income communities, and communities with fewer housing and transportation options. The history of redlining and discriminatory land-use planning means that lead contamination in drinking water is frequently more common in communities of color than in predominantly white communities. Well maintained and functioning infrastructure is essential to clean and safe water access. When we talk about equitable water infrastructure investment, a key component is ensuring that funds are “Distributed in a way that supports the communities that are most at-risk for environmental harm and have historically lacked investment, chiefly low-income communities and communities of color.” 

Environmental justice principles may be embedded within a range of state policies, but for the purposes of the State Policy Hub, we focus on policies that explicitly address environmental justice. EJ-specific policies often focus on the permitting process for polluting facilities, expanding public participation, defining “environmental justice community,” and establishing mechanisms for accountability and corrective action.  

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Examples of State Policy

• New Jersey: After several iterations of Executive Orders established EJ guidance and advisory councils, a landmark EJ law (S 232) became law in September 2020. Notably, it gives the Department of Environmental Protection the authority to deny permits if an environmental justice analysis determines a new facility will have a disproportionately negative impact on overburdened communities. Explore the Deep Dive to learn more.

New Jersey’s EJ Policy Milestones

• Oregon’s EJ law (SB 420), passed in 2007, established an Environmental Justice Task Force which developed best practices for natural resources agencies. Recent legislation (HB 4077 & HB 3293) and a visionary resolution expanded the scope of SB 420 to apply to all agencies and specifically directs agencies to provide funding to local organizations and governments for public participation and community engagement efforts related to water projects in disproportionately impacted communities. 
• California’s legislature has passed several EJ-related bills over the past two decades. This includes SB 1000 in 2016, which updated the General Plan Guidelines for cities and counties to include integration of environmental justice considerations in disadvantaged communities, providing local-level planning parameters for environmental justice concerns. California’s Department of Justice is settling with the City of Huntington Park to facilitate compliance with the law after multiple attempts to address the noncompliance of the city’s General Plan.  AB 1628 revised the state’s definition of environmental justice in 2019.  
  • Federal-State partnerships: On September 10, 2021, the CalEPA and US EPA (Region 9) pledged to a five-year memorandum of understanding to jointly address environmental justice activities, the first–of–its–kind partnership for regulators at the state and federal level to address compliance concerns in overburdened communities.  
• New York‘s cumulative impact law mirrors New Jersey’s, and the state’s efforts through the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (2019) include robust public participation, including around the development of disadvantaged communities criteria.

Lessons from the Network

Additional Resources

• Environmental Justice State By State, a law library of EJ laws, policies, mapping tools, and definitions, created via a collaboration of American University, Environmental Justice Clinic at Vermont Law & Graduate School, Lone Star Legal Aid, Taproot Earth, Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School, UC College of the Law, San Francisco, University of Texas School of Law, Austin Environmental Clinic
• Tishman Environment and Design Center’s Defining Environmental Justice Communities for Policy includes an interactive map and a chart showcasing environmental justice definitions at state and local levels.
• Pro Bono Clearinghouse, by the Environmental Law Institute, connects attorneys and communities to solve pressing environmental problems.
• Watered Down Justice, NRDC, Coming Clean, and Environmental Justice Health Alliance (2019)
  • Examines nationwide violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and the relationship between drinking water violations and sociodemographic characteristics.
• EJSCREEN is the EPA’s environmental justice screening and mapping tool. Trainings and user guides exist to help learn to use the tool.
• Compendium of State Regulatory Activities on Environmental Justice, Integral Consulting, Inc. (2021)
  • Outlines the presence of EJ program mission statements, screening or mapping tools, agency and program names and contacts, and regulations in all 50 states, D.C., and US territories.
• Covid-19 and Environmental Justice video by Politico.
• State Information on Environmental Justice, Community Engagement, and Title VI, ECOS
• Environmental Justice during Covid-19: Communities bear extra burden, Great Lakes Now (2020)
• Water and Environmental Justice by Amy Vanderwarker in A Twenty-first Century U.S. Water Policy
• Federal and State Water and Equity Mapping Tools River Network
• An Assessment of Environmental Justice Policy in U.S. Climate Alliance States, Ania Ty, Jonah Kurman-Faber, and Ruby Wincele for ClimateXChange (2021)
  • Tracks 24 states’ EJ action: 1) How each state defines an environmental justice community; 2) each state’s environmental justice mapping capabilities; and 3) the existence of permanent environmental justice staff and/or advisory bodies in each state
• The Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership, by Rosa González of Facilitating Power (2020) is a powerful tool to assess levels of public participation in policy making processes and program development (and more!).
• Emerging State-Level Environmental Justice Laws, New York Law Journal (May 2021)
• The People’s Justice40+ Community Benefit Playbook: A Guide to Capturing Federal Infrastructure Investments 2022, Emerald Cities Collaborative (2022)
  • This playbook offers frontline groups and community organizations guidance for developing a People’s Justice40+ Community Benefit Plan (CBP) and includes a specific playbook on Water Justice and one on Environmental and Climate Justice as well.

Environmental Justice Policy Database