Recent reports from the Government Accountability Office and the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency have raised serious concerns about EPA's current commitment to environmental justice. The Clinton Administration issued an Executive Order in 1994 requiring the Federal Government to take action to address the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on minority and low-income populations, with the EPA in the lead.
The Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty report released by the United Church of Christ earlier this year, states taht out of the nine million Americans who live in communities with one or more hazardous waste facility, more than five million of them are people of color. In addition, a 2005 Associated Press analysis of EPA data noted that African Americans are 79 percent more likely than white populations to reside in neighborhoods where air pollution levels posed health risks. Latino children are twice as likely as non-Hispanic white children to have unsafe levels of lead in their blood. (Clinton Press Release)
Pictured at left: South Carolina State Senator Harold Mitchell and Sheila Dillard, of the U.S. Department of Energy. Pictured at right: Louisiana representatives at hearing.
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