EPA’s Decision to Shutter Its Environmental Justice and Civil Rights Office Puts Communities at Risk

As newly confirmed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin begins to outline his vision for the agency, EPA did something that should concern every community and citizen across the country. It was announced that the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) placed more than 170 staff members under administrative leave. Founded in 1992 under George H.W. Bush as the Office of Environmental Justice and expanded under both Democratic and Republican administrations, OEJECR enforces the representation of all communities—specifically, the long-suffering ones with pollution and toxic exposures—in environmental policy. 

Halting the operations of OEJECR is not merely a move to affect some form of bureaucratic reshuffling—it directly threatens the health and safety of millions of people across the country. In addition to closing the EJ office, the expectation is that 65% or more EPA employees working on environmental programs will be cut. That would decrease staff from around 15,000 to about 5,000. To put that into perspective, when EPA was founded in 1970, it had about 4,000 employees—and environmental justice was not addressed through a recognized office until 22 years later.

Living in the Shadow of Pollution 

Pollution from toxic emissions and hazardous chemicals does not recognize political boundaries. A toxic chemical spill in one town can poison drinking water for an entire region. Air pollution from industrial plants does not stop at the city limits or at the fenceline between a facility and a community. The people most victimized by these environmental hazards are those who live on the frontlines—next to chemical plants, landfills, power plants, and other facilities that emit dangerous pollutants into the air and water.

More than 20 million people live within one mile of a toxic waste site, while one in six live within three miles of a toxic waste site. That is more than 60 million people in the United States. These communities are always in the shadow of any focus on clean air, safe drinking water, and other forms of environmental protection. 

Under the federal Superfund program, the EPA has identified and committed to clean up the most contaminated sites across the country, from abandoned mines to former factory sites. As a result of systemic racism and sanctioned discriminatory laws and practices, low-income communities and communities of color have been victimized by the arbitrary siting of polluting industries in their neighborhoods.

In many instances, subsidized and affordable housing has been placed on or close to Superfund sites. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) either owns, operates, or subsidizes 18,158 properties that are located within one mile of Superfund sites. The majority of HUD households are also residents of color. On a related note, Black Americans are 75% more likely to live near polluting facilities when compared to the average White American. 

Living near contaminated sites also negatively impacts health, especially that of children. In fact, children born near Superfund sites are more likely to repeat a grade, have lower test scores, and be suspended from school. Because Superfund sites include abandoned mines, radioactive landfills, closed military laboratories, and factories, they are more likely to release harmful metals into the environment, which can adversely affect the health of children and adults.  

This latest move to dismantle the EPA’s lone environmental justice office signals the low priority given to these frontline and fenceline communities, at a time when climate change solutions are urgently needed. It means fewer investigations into environmental discrimination, fewer resources for communities battered by pollution and other cumulative impacts, and fewer federal watchdogs to protect communities from the rollbacks in pollution standards, all of which only benefit corporations.

The Cost of Deregulation on Rural and Urban Communities 

OEJECR’s importance in advancing environmental justice since its inception cannot be overstated. Without the oversight and enforcement that OEJECR has provided for decades, industries will operate with greater impunity, increasing emissions of toxic pollutants into the air and water. This would mean more unregulated industrial agriculture pollution in rural communities especially, more frequent contamination of drinking water sources, and an increased risk of environmental disasters—essentially without any accountability for those responsible. 

The loss of regulatory oversight also means fewer safeguards for rural families and farmers, threatening the sustainability of rural water supplies. For communities already overburdened by decades of environmental harm, this rollback in protections will further exacerbate existing health and economic disparities in rural areas.

In urban areas, air quality would deteriorate because pollution sources, like industrial plants and vehicle emissions, would operate with less strict regulation. Similar to rural regions, asthma and various other respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease, and cancer would increase in frequency. In both rural and urban regions, these conditions historically have devastated Black, Latino, Indigenous, and low-wealth communities through decades of cumulative impacts from environmental injustice.

Ultimately, eliminating this office erases hard-won environmental protections that have taken years, if not decades, to establish. It is a step backward in efforts to ensure clean air, safe water, and a healthy environment for all communities. It grants polluters a license to dump their poisons with impunity, leaving the most vulnerable communities bereft of necessary safeguards to protect them from life-threatening harm and ensure their right to thrive.

Environmental Justice is for Posterity, Not Politics

The EPA’s decision should be viewed exactly for what it is and not allowed to stand unchallenged. Every person who cares about the health of their family and community needs to make their voices heard, demanding accountability from the new EPA Administrator and seeking intervention from Congress. Environmental justice organizations, community leaders, and advocates will continue to press ahead in pursuit of protections for the most vulnerable people to ensure that federal agencies prioritize public health and do not leave their citizens in limbo—the stakes are too high to ignore. 

The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land we live on should not be contaminated solely because of our neighborhoods, socioeconomic conditions, or skin color. The EPA Administrator and this Administration’s choice to close OEJECR would mean that communities would have even less protection from toxins and pollutants and the opportunity to hold polluters accountable.

Without a dedicated office to address historic and ongoing environmental racism and injustice, there is no clear mechanism under this administration to ensure that federal resources reach and protect the communities that need them the most.

Read the National Wildlife Federation’s official statement: Shuttering EPA Office of Environmental Justice ‘Would be Immense Setback’. Join Us in Advancing Environmental Justice. Sign up for the Environmental Justice, Health, and Community Resilience and Revitalization Program’s quarterly newsletter and follow us on Instagram.