The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines “environmental justice” as the “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” In a 1992 report, EPA concluded that “racial minority and low-income populations experience higher than average exposures to selected air pollutants, hazardous waste facilities, contaminated fish and agricultural pesticides.” In 1993, Ben Chavis coined the term “environmental racism.” He described the term to mean “racial discrimination in environmental policy making and the unequal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations.” Environmental racism leads to minority and low-income populations bearing a disproportionate burden of negative environmental impacts. By 1995 this phenomenon was well established. Over sixty studies have documented the fact that low-income and minority communities suffer from exposure to toxic and hazardous waste disproportionately relative to their more affluent, mostly white counterparts.
The lack of political participation by these groups partially explains why this disproportionate burden of environmental impacts went unnoticed for decades. Low-income and minority communities usually lack the resources necessary to hire lawyers to represent them and consultants to assess the possible effects of projects. Further, they often lack knowledge of and experience with the political process. Moreover, language barriers often compound the effects of minimal education and experience. It was not until the late 1980s that the environmental justice movement gained national popularity. Lawyers, law professors and students, and politicians were the first to acknowledge environmental racism and to act as advocates for these groups.
Minority and low-income persons are more likely to live in areas where property values are lower. While the siting of waste and industrial facilities in minority and low-income communities can be attributed to the residents’ inability to ward off such projects, the presence of such facilities also diminishes surrounding property values. The result is a cyclic perpetuation of environmental injustice.
§ 20.1 Introduction
§ 20.1.1 Federal Commitment to Environmental Justice
§ 20.1.2 Colorado’s Environmental Justice Program § 20.1.3 Commitment Versus Statutory Requirement § 20.1.4 EPA’s Role § 20.1.5 The State of Colorado’s Role § 20.1.6 Implementation Efforts: Environmental Justice Program § 20.1.7 Public Involvement § 20.1.8 CEPPA’s Community-Based Environmental Justice Programs § 20.1.9 Environmental Justice Grants
Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program Environmental Justice Small Grants Program (EJSG)
§ 20.1.10 CEPPA Oversight and Assessment
§ 20.2 Contamination in Poor and Minority Communities
§ 20.2.1 Brownfield Revitalization
South Westminster Brownfields Project, City of Westminster, Colorado
§ 20.3 Siting and Permitting of Projects
§ 20.3.1 Comanche Unit 3 Project: Air Permit for Xcel’s Proposed Pueblo Coal Plant § 20.3.2 Community Involvement, Outreach, and Planning (CIOP) Initiative
Collaborative Forum on the Human Health Effects of Cotter Corporation Milling Uranium: Canon City, Colorado
§ 20.4 Existing Measures to Combat Environmental Injustice
§ 20.4.2 Citizen Suits § 20.4.3 Civil Rights Claims § 20.4.4 Land Use Planning Tools
KEVIN S. HANNON, ESQ. The Hannon Law Firm, LLC
Kevin S. Hannon received his law degree from Georgetown University in 1986 and is admitted to Colorado, Missouri, Washington, D.C. and federal courts. His practice emphasizes environmental law, personal injury, insurance bad faith and products liability. Two of Mr. Hannon’s environmental trials, Orjias v. Louisiana-Pacific and Escamilla v. Asarco, resulted in the largest jury awards in environmental cases in Colorado at the time of the verdict. In 1993, Mr. Hannon received the Trial Lawyer of the Year award from the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for his work in Escamilla. In 1996, Mr. Hannon received the Outstanding Young Trial Lawyer award from the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association. His practice now includes environmental class actions in several states. Mr. Hannon is a frequent author and lecturer on environmental litigation and discovery.
MARY BYRNE The Hannon Law Firm, LLC
Mary Byrne is a second year law student at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Her expected graduation date is May 2008. She began work on this paper while interning at The Hannon Law Firm, LLC in the fall of 2006. Mary is a member of the University of Denver Water Law Review, in which her court report on S.D. Warren Co. v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection, 126 S. Ct. 1843 (2006), will be published in the journal’s Spring 2007 edition. Mary received the Scholastic Excellence Award for Lawyering Process I and II. Mary is the Professional Event Coordinator of the Health Law Society and a member of the Natural Resources and Environmental Law Society. Mary graduated cum laude from the University of Vermont with a B.A. in Political Science and Environmental Studies in 1998. Her senior thesis was entitled, Nuclear Waste Siting: A Social and Political Analysis.
