Environmental Justice at ODA
The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) is tcommitted to the principles of environmental justice and to ensuring that the agency's actions address the interests of Oregon's communities, as much as state and federal laws allow.
To learn more about ODA's Environmental Justice work, see ODA's annual reports.
Environmental Justice in Oregon
In 2022, the Oregon Legislature passed
HB 4077 that renamed and restructured the existing Environmental Justice Task Force (EJTF) as the Environmental Justice Council (EJC). The EJC, established within the Office of the Governor, is a 13-member statewide council responsible for advising the Governor and state natural resource agencies on environmental justice (EJ) issues.
The statute directs the council to:
- (a) Advise and provide a biannual report to the Governor on environmental justice issues
- (b) Advise natural resource agencies on environmental justice issues, including community concerns and public participation processes
- (c) Identify, in cooperation with natural resource agencies, environmental justice communities
- (d) Meet with environmental justice communities and make recommendations to the Governor regarding concerns raised by these communities
- (e) Define environmental justice issues in the state
- (f) Upon the request of a natural resource agency, provide consultation and review of a natural resource agency's proposed administrative rules under
ORS 183.333.
Additionally,
182.545 states that in order to provide greater public participation and to ensure that all persons affected by decisions of the natural resource agencies have a voice in those decisions, each natural resource agency shall:
- (1) In making a determination whether and how to act, consider the effects of the action on environmental justice issues.
- (2) Hold hearings at times and in locations that are convenient for people in the communities that will be affected by the decisions stemming from the hearings
- (3) Engage in public outreach activities in the communities that will be affected by decisions of the agency.
- (4) Create a public advocate position that is responsible for:
- (a) Encouraging public participation;
- (b) Ensuring that the agency considers environmental justice issues; and
- (c) Informing the agency of the effect of its decisions on environmental justice communities.
Environmental Justice Mapping Tool
HB 4077 additionally created a pathway to create an environmental justice mapping tool to provide geospatial information about EJ impacts and to develop guidance for state agencies when adopting rules and policies. Once established, natural resource agencies may use the environmental justice mapping tool to:
- (a) Identify environmental justice communities affected by agency programs;
- (b) Conduct outreach and engagement activities with environmental justice communities to inform the development, adoption, implementation or enforcement of environmental laws, administrative rules or agency policies;
- (c) Establish measurable goals for reducing environmental health disparities within agency programs; and
- (d) Prioritize agency funding to help address identified impacts on environmental justice communities.
The environmental justice mapping tool may inform agency policies and programs as they relate to community engagement and outreach, investments and funding and impacts to environmental justice communities, and may be a source of information to the public. The mapping tool is informational only and may not be used in agency decision making on individual permits or applications unless otherwise required by federal or state law.
Resources
Environmental justice: Best practices for Oregon's natural resource agencies
Created by Oregon's Environmental Justice Task Force to provide specific tools and approaches to better identify potential disparate impacts and engage in intentional, targeted outreach to all stakeholders to ensure equitable outcomes and equal opportunity for meaningful participation.
Environmental justice best practices handbook
Rural Data Portal.org
Provides demographic, social, economic and housing data.
The rural data portal
The EJ 2020 Action Agenda
EPA's strategic plan for advancing environmental justice from the years 2016-2020, plays an integral part in fulfilling the agency's mission by focusing our attention on the environmental and public health issues and challenges confronting the nation's minority, low-income, tribal and indigenous populations.
EPA environmental justice strategic plan