Environmental Justice, US Law And Government Action

I noticed that there are comments in a posting about SEWRPC that showed misunderstanding of environmental justice.

Here's some history.

And more information from the US Environmental Protection Agency, which created an office of environmental justice under President George H. W. Bush in 1992.

The US Federal Transit Administration and Federal Highway Administration also follow environmental justice principles.

You can read all about that history and law, here.

And those agencies also pass millions of dollars in our seven-county region through SEWRPC, and monitor SEWRPC's performance every four years to make sure SEWRPC is in compliance with federal policies.

Which is why SEWRPC, after a contentious federal hearing in 2004 related to the agency's continuing regional role in transportation planning and spending, established its Environmental Justice Task Force in 2007.