Bush-era EPA: Appeals court finds widespread failure to investigate civil rights complaints

"The city used EPA funding to improve affluent areas and neglected the disadvantaged neighborhoods."

U.S. EPA's Office of Civil Rights has shown a systemic refusal to address allegations of discrimination in the use of agency funds, according to a unanimous three-judge panel on the…

"What the district court initially classified as an 'isolated instance of untimeliness' has since bloomed into a consistent pattern of delay by the EPA," Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote for the court. "[Rosemere Neighborhood Association] has twice encountered that pattern whereby it files a complaint, hears nothing for months, and then only after filing a lawsuit does the EPA respond.

The decision stems from a 2003 Title VI environmental justice complaint filed with EPA's OCR by Rosemere, a nonprofit community organization. The complaint was filed against the city of Vancouver, Wash.

OCR is charged with enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from using that money in a way that has a discriminatory impact based on race, color or national origin. EPA has established an administrative process whereby local communities can file complaints to address discrimination in the use of federal funds.

Rosemere alleged that the city had discriminated against low-income and minority neighborhoods by refusing to address failing septic systems, the lack of a comprehensive sewer network, contaminated ground and surface waters, poor air quality and industrial pollutants.

"The city used EPA funding to improve affluent areas and neglected the disadvantaged neighborhoods," said Christopher Winter, an attorney with the Portland-based nonprofit Crag Law Center, which eventually represented Rosemere in its lawsuit against the agency.

EPA: Appeals court finds widespread failure to investigate civil rights complaints

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