Obama administration strengthens environmental justice efforts

ENS: Federal agencies today released environmental justice strategies, implementation plans and progress reports, outlining steps they will take to protect communities facing serious health and environmental risks, particularly low-income, minority and tribal populations.

Led by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the agency heads say these strategies will integrate environmental justice into federal decision making and transportation, labor, health services and housing programs.

"Working together we have been able to make environmental justice a focus not just for EPA, but for agencies across the administration," said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson. "Each of our federal partners plays a unique role in serving the American people, and each has a unique opportunity to ensure that our communities get the health and environmental protections they deserve."

"If we aspire to build an economy and a society that works for every American, we can't allow the heaviest burdens of pollution and health threats to fall on our poorest citizens," said Jackson. "Bringing together our federal partners to tackle these challenges is a major step toward health, environmental and economic benefits in communities across the nation."...

The Valley of the Drums, a toxic waste dump in northern Bullitt County, Kentucky. This site was one of the reasons the the U.S. Superfund law was enacted.