EPA’s Action Development Process: Interim Guidance on Considering Environmental Justice During the Development of an Action

TThis step-by-step Guide (dated July 2010) will help EPA staff determine whether EPA actions raise possible environmental justice concerns and will encourage public participation in the rulemaking process. Further, the Guide will support us in meeting our responsibilities under Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions To Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-lncome Populations, and EPA's regulatory authorities to consider the needs of'minority, low-income, and indigenous populations overburdened by pollution.

The purpose of this Guide is to explicitly integrate Environmental Justice considerations into the fabric of EPA’s ADP—from rule inception through all the stages leading to promulgation and implementation—requiring that workgroups meaningfully engage with and consider the impacts on minority, low-income, and indigenous populations, and tribes.