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Environmental Justice Virtual Roundtable Discussion

  • May 25, 2011

On Wednesday, May 25, the Institute for Policy Integrity and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hosted an Environmental Justice Virtual Roundtable Discussion. The session gathered a small group of leaders from local communities, businesses, government, and academia to focus on the concerns and challenges EPA faces in incorporating fairness and equity into decision-making. A particular emphasis was placed on how EPA can structure its decision-making both procedurally and substantively to better account for environmental justice concerns.

The discussion included topics such as determining the core questions that should be considered as environmental justice concerns are incorporated into rulemaking and the use of formal analysis and qualitative factors in weighing the environmental justice impacts of rules. Participants also explored the intersection of science and policy, weighing in on how the EPA should account for multiple exposures in risk assessment and whether or not the agency should expand beyond exposure to environmental pollutants in characterizing a community’s risk.

The roundtable event will inform the work of a Review Panel created by EPA as part of an ongoing effort to integrate environmental justice into regulatory development.