Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis

The purpose of this document, the Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis (referred to throughout this document as the EJ Technical Guidance), is to outline particular technical approaches and methods to help Agency analysts (including economists, risk assessors, and others) analyze potential EJ concerns for regulatory actions.4 Senior EPA managers will also find this document useful for understanding analytic expectations and ensuring that potential EJ concerns are appropriately considered and addressed in the development of regulatory actions. The guidance recommends analysts use a screening analysis to identify the extent to which a regulatory action may raise potential EJ concerns that need further evaluation, and what level of analysis is feasible and appropriate (see Section 3.2). Factors that can be used in determining the appropriate level and type of analysis include proximity of sources to low-income populations, minority populations, and/or indigenous peoples; unique exposure pathways; and a history of EJ concerns associated with the pollutant being regulated (see Sections 4.2 and 6.1 for more detail). Based on the results of this screening, this guidance provides a suite of methods that can be applied depending on the type of available data, availability of resources, and time needed to conduct the analysis.