Challenging EPA's Failure to Investigate Civil Rights Complaints

EPA’s delay allows these neighborhoods to continue to be harmed by the permits long after they were issued. Many of these facilities have already been built and are now on EPA’s “Significant Violators List” for their high levels of toxic pollutants.

Clients

Ashurst Bar / Smith Community OrganizationCAlifornians for Renewable EnergyCitizens for Alternatives to Radioactive DumpingMaurice & Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social JusticeSierra Club

Regional Office / Program

Case Overview

Communities across the country sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to investigate their civil rights complaints for more than a decade. The complaints involve discrimination by the states in granting permits that subject already overburdened low-income communities of color to more big-polluting facilities.

EPA accepted the complaints which are on permits for two gas-fired power plants in Pittsburg, Calif., a landfill in Tallassee, Ala., a hazardous waste facility in Chaves County, N.M., a wood-incinerator power station in Flint, Mich., and an oil-refinery expansion along the Texas Gulf Coast. These permits are for facilities in predominantly low-income African-American or Latino neighborhoods.

The complaints, filed between 1994 and 2003, argue that state agencies permitted these facilities through discriminatory actions, processes, patterns or practices. Many states failed to consider the environmental burden the facilities, like ExxonMobil’s refinery expansion in Beaumont, Texas, would have on residents who already suffer from elevated levels of asthma and breast cancer due to pollutants in the area. Others actively stopped residents from participating in public hearings on the permits, or provided them with inaccurate information.

EPA’s delay allows these neighborhoods to continue to be harmed by the permits long after they were issued. Many of these facilities have already been built and are now on EPA’s “Significant Violators List” for their high levels of toxic pollutants. Some are paying hefty fines for Clean Air Act violations.

The lawsuit, filed in 2015 on behalf of our clients by Earthjustice and the Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale Law School, sought to compel the EPA to fulfill its duties to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and called on the agency to finally investigate these discrimination cases and issue long overdue findings and recommendations.

Under pressure from the lawsuit, EPA finally started to pay attention to these civil rights complaints, but — like in most cases — ended up conducting only cursory investigations and closed the book on the cases.

In 2020, a federal court ruled that the EPA violated the law by waiting a decade or more to investigate the civil rights complaints.

The expansion of ExxonMobil’s Beaumont Refinery in Texas is one of the cases where the EPA failed to investigate civil rights complaints filed more than a decade ago.
The expansion of ExxonMobil’s Beaumont Refinery in Texas is one of the cases where the EPA failed to investigate civil rights complaints filed more than a decade ago. (Photo courtesy of Randy Edwards)

Case Updates

Pastor Ron Smith with his mother Ann Smith
October 2, 2020 Press Release

Federal Court Still Requires EPA to Enforce Civil Rights

Court rules in favor of communities, holding EPA accountable for failing to investigate civil rights complaints in a timely manner

Pastor Ron Smith with his mother Ann Smith, retired teacher and community leader, in Ann's office at her home near Tallassee, AL.
December 12, 2018 Press Release

EPA Slams Door To Justice On Historic Black Community

Despite significant evidence, EPA closes civil rights complaint against Alabama environmental agency

Residents of Tallassee, AL, are seeking relief from a landfill in the middle of their community.
April 6, 2018 Article

Judge to EPA: Do Your Job and Enforce Civil Rights Law

Communities of color have waited decades for the EPA to investigate their environmental discrimination complaints. A judge just ruled that the agency must pick up the pace.