Final Letter to EPA and DOJ on Environmental Justice and Civil Rights (Title VI Alliance, October 2023)

Link to the full pdf of this letter

 October 16, 2023 

 Dear DOJ and EPA leadership, 

We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, write to express deep dismay over the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) abrupt termination of three complaints filed under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) by Louisiana residents, as well as EPA’s subsequent wholly inadequate settlement of a Title VI complaint filed by residents of Flint, Michigan. 

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the EPA have a duty under Title VI to ensure that states comply with their statutory obligations to administer federal funds without discrimination. Louisiana state officials have long sacrificed the health, lives, and livelihoods of Black communities between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and in other industrialized areas in service of housing a quarter of this country’s petrochemical production. Michigan officials have resisted complying with past informal resolution agreements even after EPA issued formal findings of discrimination against the state’s environmental agency. Further, Michigan’s environmental agency has continued to issue permits that contribute to the cumulative burden in marginalized communities such as Flint, a community that suffered one of the worst public health crises this country has ever known. Neither state’s actions meet the requirements of Title VI. 

The Biden-Harris Administration has committed to advancing civil rights for communities long bearing the brunt of the cumulative impacts of racial segregation and extractive polluting industries. Notably, Executive Order 14096, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, issued on April 21, 2023, orders that the federal government 

must advance environmental justice for all by implementing and enforcing the Nation’s environmental and civil rights laws, preventing pollution, addressing climate change and its effects, and working to clean up legacy pollution that is harming human health and the environment[.] 

The EPA and DOJ have each made similar commitments to strengthening the enforcement of environmental and civil rights laws “to ensure violations in environmental justice communities don’t go unpunished[,]” as stated by EPA Administrator Michael Regan to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council in 2021. 

In spite of these commitments, the EPA’s disposition of these complaints occurred without providing meaningful relief to residents of St. John the Baptist and St. James Parishes in Louisiana and Flint, Michigan. Residents in these frontline communities have been advocating for decades to redress the cumulative impacts of legacy pollution in their communities. Together, EPA’s recent decisions send a message to state and local agencies and other recipients of federal funds that they can continue to ignore their obligations under Title VI and avoid accountability for their discriminatory actions. 

St. John the Baptist Parish, St. James Parish, and the Louisiana Industrial Corridor 

In January 2022, Concerned Citizens of St. John and the Sierra Club filed a Title VI complaint against the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) for actions that subjected Black residents of St. John the Baptist Parish to disproportionate air pollution, including ethylene oxide and chloroprene, both of which are carcinogenic. One month later, Stop the Wallace Grain Terminal, Inclusive Louisiana, RISE St. James, and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade filed a second Title VI complaint against LDEQ for failing to consider disproportionate pollution impacts on majority Black communities when issuing new and modified air permits. 

Read the full pdf here.