EPA Contemplates Cumulative Impact Guidance for Civil Rights (1)

The EPA is developing a framework to guide how it will consider cumulative impacts as a possible civil rights violation, an agency official said Thursday.

Low-income people of color have voiced concerns about cumulative effects of agency decisions because many of their communities have been home to multiple, overlapping pollution sources for decades. But such an approach risks provoking criticism from businesses arguing they shouldn’t be responsible for the total burdens of environmental harms, including those that can’t be pinned directly on them.

The work must be done within a civil rights context, meaning “it’s not necessarily going to sweep ...