Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice

• Overview
• EJ IWG Members Sign Memorandum of Understanding, Renewing EJ Commitments
• Current Environmental Justice Efforts
• Past EJ IWG Initiatives
• Resources

Overview

The Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ IWG) was established in 1994 under Executive Order (EO) 12898 PDF (6 pp, 123K, About PDF). The role of the EJ IWG is to guide, support and enhance federal environmental justice and community-based activities. The EJ IWG is comprised of 17 federal agencies and several White House offices.

As one of its outreach efforts, the EJ IWG, has created two documents to assist communities with accessing information about federal agencies and their programs as a part of the ongoing effort to improve community participation in federal programs.

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EJ IWG Members Sign Memorandum of Understanding, Renewing EJ Commitments

On August 4, 2011, heads of 17 federal agencies took an important step in the Administration's effort to support environmental justice by signing the Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898 (EJ MOU) (PDF) (6 pp, 42K).

The EJ MOU broadens the EJ IWG, to include:

• Agencies not named in Executive Order 12898 as participants
• An EJ IWG Charter (PDF) (4 pp, 33K) to add more structure and efficiency to the Workgroup
• Formal environmental justice commitments that agencies have made over the past year
• A roadmap for agencies to better coordinate their efforts
• Processes and procedures to help communities more efficiently
• Effective engagement of agencies as they make decisions

Also, under the EJ MOU, each agency will be responsible for meeting various commitments, including:

• Finalizing and publicizing an environmental justice strategy; (see list of draft strategies)
• Providing the public with annual implementation reports that discuss progress in carrying out the Agency’s EJ commitments and responsibilities; and
• Focusing on, when appropriate, the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, implementation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, impacts from climate change, and impacts from commercial transportation and supporting infrastructure, or goods movement.

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Current Environmental Justice Efforts

• Plan EJ 2014 - A four-year roadmap to help EPA develop stronger community relationships and increase the Agency’s efforts to improve environmental and health conditions in overburdened communities. The plan identifies five cross-agency focus areas, including Fostering Administration-Wide Action on Environmental Justice.
  
  
• Sustainable Communities Partnership - A collaborative Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Transportation, and EPA partnership to improve access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment in communities nationwide.
  
  
• Stakeholder Dialogue Sessions – The IWG has been holding meetings throughout the country in 2011 to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss best practices and model programs
  
  

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Past EJ IWG Initiatives

• 2000: Development of the Integrated Federal Interagency Environmental Justice Action Agenda (PDF) (47 pp, 762K), which identifies the federal initiatives and resources that were used to help an initial set of 15 environmentally and economically distressed communities.
  
  
• 2001: Evaluation of six of the 15 Action Agenda projects to determine the value of using partnerships to address environmental justice issues (See Evaluating the Use of Partnerships to Address Environmental Justice Issues).
  
  
• 2002: Publication of the Status Report on Environmental Justice Collaborative Model (PDF) (67 pp, 4.3MB), which recounts the lessons learned and successful elements of the initial 15 Action Agenda projects. These projects helped define the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model now being used by EPA.
  
  
• 2003: Selection of 15 additional Revitalization Demonstration Projects (5 pp, 125K) to showcase collaborative partnerships among federal agencies and other stakeholders in the area of community revitalization and environmental justice.

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Resources

• The Environmental Justice Federal Interagency Directory (PDF) (52 pp, 886K) provides basic information about the role of the federal agencies contained in this publication including their organization chart and key contact information for agency program areas.
  
  
• The Community-Based Federal Environmental Justice Guide (PDF) (126 pp, 3MB) includes programs within agencies that may assist communities in reducing toxic exposures. The program may provide technical assistance, federal funding or a combination of both technical assistance and federal funding. Through this and other efforts, federal agencies are recommitting to improving the health and sustainability of communities across America.
  
  
• The IWG Compendium contains Federal strategies, policies, guidance documents and workplans for implementing the Executive Order.
  
  
• Protection of Sacred Sites is a compendium, by the Native American Task Force (PDF) (2pp, 257K, About PDF) containing federal memorandum, policies, executive orders, guidance, and statutes on Native American sacred places and cultural properties. The compendium identifies the tools which can be used to protect these resources.

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