The Environmental Protection Agency is soliciting applications for $800,000 in grants to help low-income communities address environmental and public health concerns. EPA plans to award one to four grants of $20,000 each per region. Applications are due June 30, 2008. For more information, link to Environmental Justice Small Grants Program. (4-10-08)

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A new report published by the American Planning Association describes how the principles of environmental justice can be incorporated into land-use planning. The report, Fair and Healthy Land Use, cites an increase in lawsuits challenging the disproportionate effects of government decisions on low-income and minority communities. The report maintains that the principles adopted by grassroots environmental groups in opposing the siting of locally unwanted land uses in such communities are good planning principles: that individuals or neighborhoods should not be burdened by harmful environmental conditions, and that all persons should have the opportunity for meaningful participation in decisions affecting their community. The report is available for purchase on the APA website. (2-11-08)

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The Transportation Research Board has published 10 peer-reviewed papers that address various environmental justice-related issues in Issue No. 2013 of its Transportation Research Record journal. The papers explore subjects such as environmental justice analysis for metropolitan transportation planning, environmental justice assessments for transportation projects, long-term social sustainability of transport and land use strategies, and others. For more information, link to TRB’s Environmental Justice, Social and Economic Factors, Women’s Travel, and Accessibility and Mobility 2007. (1-29-08)

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The Environmental Protection Agency announces $1 million in grants to help low-income communities address environmental and public health concerns. EPA says 20 community organizations will receive grants of $50,000 each. For more information, link to Environmental Justice Small Grants Program 2007 Awards: Project Descriptions. (10-3-07)

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The U.S. Government Accountability Office has published testimony of John B. Stephenson, Director of GAO’s Natural Resources and Environment team, before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on superfund and environmental health issues. The testimony summarizes findings of a 2005 report to EPA (GAO-05-289) that found problems in EPA’s approach to ensuring that environmental justice is considered during the rulemaking process. The testimony also describes GAO’s recommendations to EPA for improvement and EPA’s responses in an August 2006 letter and provides an update on subsequent EPA actions. For more information, link to the highlights and the full testimony: Environmental Justice: Measuring Benchmarks Need to Gauge EPA Progress in Correcting Past Problems. (7-25-07)

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A report posted on the FHWA website describes tools and techniques that have been successfully used nationwide by Federal, State, MPO, and county agencies and their consultants to identify, locate, and engage low-literacy and limited-English-proficiency populations.  The report provides information on ways to access reliable data on literacy and limited English proficiency at the sub-State level, and ways to access documented indicators and/or surrogates of literacy and limited-English-proficiency at sub-Sate levels.  In addition, it identifies special approaches that are needed to achieve outreach with these populations, the best ways to contact these populations, the impact of low-literacy and limited English proficiency on these populations’ abilities and constraints to participate in public involvement, and how to engage these populations and provide them with meaningful access to decisionmaking information and opportunities.  For more information, link to How to Engage Low-Literacy and Limited-English-Proficiency Populations in Transportation Decisionmaking.

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