The Biden administration has acknowledged the problem, but true progress would require going further.
By Isvett Verde Staff Editor |
Many Americans consider drawing clean water from a faucet or flushing a toilet to be a basic right. Yet for some, access to safe, running water, basic plumbing and sanitation remains elusive. As is so often the case with environmental and climate issues, communities of color, lower-income people in rural areas and tribal communities, among others, have been hit hardest. |
In a guest essay, the journalist Nick Tabor describes how in Lowndes County, Ala., where the poverty rate is double the national average, raw sewage runs into the yards and sometimes even the houses of many residents. In the last few years, this and other crises have prompted national outrage and called attention to the pollution and the lack of basic infrastructure in too many communities across the United States. Still, more than two million Americans lack access to clean, running water, indoor plumbing or wastewater service today. |
"Lowndes is hardly the only place in America plagued with sanitation problems," Tabor writes. "But during the Biden administration, the county's plight has become a symbol of environmental racism." |
In April, President Biden signed an executive order creating an Office of Environmental Justice, as part of an effort to reduce the burden of pollution on communities of color. He also built on a landmark executive order signed in 1994 by Bill Clinton, which required every federal agency to make environmental justice part of its mission. Then, in May, the Justice Department reached an interim agreement in Lowndes after an investigation revealed evidence of racial discrimination. |
While these can be viewed as triumphs for environmental justice, there is still much work to be done. Indeed, the 1994 executive order directed agencies to adopt an environmental justice strategy and then implement it, but not every federal agency fulfilled this mandate. If the executive order had stronger mechanisms to ensure it was followed, Tabor writes, "some of the worst public health crises of recent years might have been avoided." |
Now there will be a scorecard that will "assess progress federal agencies are making to advance environmental justice." There is perhaps real potential to achieve meaningful reform, but it remains to be seen what effect these measures will have. If the Biden administration is serious about righting past wrongs, Tabor argues, there need to be better enforcement mechanisms in place. |
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