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Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice
Federal Interagency Working Group
EJ IWG Members
Environmental Protection Agency (Chair)
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of Commerce
- Department of Defense
- Department of Education
- Department of Energy
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Department of Interior
- Department of Justice
- Department of Labor
- Department of State
- Department of Transportation
- Department of Veteran's Affairs
- General Services Administration
- Small Business Administration
- White House Offices
“We want to put an end to the days when public health and economic potential are harmed by disproportionate exposure to pollution... Our continued success relies on close collaboration with our federal partners and strong input from the groups and individuals engaged at the community level.”
- Overview
- Responses to Comments Received at 2011 Alaska Forum on the Environment
- 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). 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.
Responses to Comments Received at 2011 Alaska Forum on the Environment
The EJ IWG conducted 18 community dialogues across the country from February 2011 to November 2011. Comments and concerns of the community were recorded at each meeting. The IWG's commitment was that its agency partners would provide responses to communities about the concerns that were raised during these meetings.
Read the responses to public comments received at the 2011 Alaska Forum (PDF) (33 pp, 200K)
EJ IWG Members Sign Memorandum of Understanding, Renewing EJ Commitments
On August 4, 2011, heads of 17 federal agencies and White House offices 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 additional agencies, requires each agency to publish an environmental justice strategy, adopts an EJ IWG Charter (PDF) (4 pp, 33K), and articulates additional commitments made by member agencies.
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 – This page provides a list of upcoming meetings throughout the county that will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss best practices and model programs. This list will be updated as more meetings are scheduled.
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 (PDF) (5 pp, 125K) to showcase collaborative partnerships among federal agencies and other stakeholders in the area of community revitalization and environmental justice.
Resources
- Interagency Working Group Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 1.6MB)
- 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) 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.