Justice Department Announces Agreement in Environmental Justice Investigation of Illegal Dumping in the City of Houston

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<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br &sol;>&NewLine; Tuesday&comma; June 6&comma; 2023<br &sol;>&NewLine; Justice Department Announces Agreement in Environmental Justice Investigation of Illegal Dumping in the City of Houston<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement in its environmental justice investigation into the City of Houston’s response to illegal dumping in Black and Latino neighborhoods&period; The agreement builds upon the city’s recently announced One Clean Houston initiative&comma; a comprehensive plan to address pervasive illegal dumping and its negative impacts on the health&comma; safety and quality of life of Houston residents&period; Today’s agreement memorializes the city’s cooperation with the Justice Department as it implements these new steps to combat illegal dumping and develops improved waste management services for residents across Houston&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Houston’s illegal dumpsites have contaminated water and soil&comma; attracted vermin and created blight in historically under-resourced neighborhoods across the city&comma;” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I appreciate Mayor Turner’s leadership in addressing these concerns and his resolve in developing One Clean Houston&period; This agreement will ensure that Houston fully addresses chronic illegal dumpsites&comma; provides access to adequate waste management services and improves quality of life in communities of color&period; The Justice Department will continue advancing environmental justice and ensuring that people of color across our nation live in safe&comma; clean and healthy communities&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;No one should have to live next to discarded tires&comma; bags of trash&comma; rotting carcasses&comma; infected soils and contaminated groundwater&comma; all caused by illegal dumping&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney Alamdar S&period; Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;For too long now&comma; Houston’s underserved and low-income communities have had to bear the health burdens of the inaction and misdeeds of others&period; My hope is that this resolution is an important step in remedying those wrongs&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In July 2022&comma; the Justice Department <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;pr&sol;justice-department-launches-environmental-justice-investigation-city-houston-texas" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">launched<&sol;a> its investigation after it received a civil rights complaint filed on behalf of Houston residents alleging that the city discriminated against Black and Latino residents of the Trinity&sol;Houston Gardens neighborhood in northeast Houston in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964&period; Title VI prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race&comma; color or national origin in their federally funded programs and activities&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The department’s ten-month investigation focused on Houston’s efforts to address illegal dumping&comma; a persistent and pervasive problem that occurs more frequently in the city’s Black and Latino neighborhoods&period; In March 2023&comma; the city announced its One Clean Houston initiative&period; One Clean Houston focuses on rapid cleanup&comma; better enforcement and prevention and education&period; In addition to confirming the city’s commitment to One Clean Houston&comma; the agreement establishes a three-year period of federal monitoring&semi; data reporting obligations&semi; enhanced community outreach with impacted neighborhoods&comma; including engagement with residents with limited English proficiency&semi; consideration of additional actions to combat commercial sources of illegal dumping and reduce restrictions for residents seeking to use waste depositories&semi; and a federal civil rights training program for specified city employees&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Civil Rights Division’s Federal Coordination and Compliance Section conducted this investigation in collaboration with the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Addressing discriminatory environmental and health impacts through enforcement of the nation’s civil rights laws is a top priority of the Civil Rights Division&period; Today’s announcement marks the second environmental justice settlement under federal civil rights statutes&period; Last month&comma; the division <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;pr&sol;departments-justice-and-health-and-human-services-announce-interim-resolution-agreement" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">announced the resolution of its environmental justice investigation<&sol;a> into the Alabama Department of Health and Lowndes County Health Department in Lowndes County&comma; Alabama&period; In April 2022&comma; the Justice Department <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;pr&sol;justice-department-launches-comprehensive-environmental-justice-strategy" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">launched<&sol;a> its Office on Environmental Justice and its Comprehensive Environmental Justice Enforcement Strategy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Individuals who believe their civil rights have been violated or have environmental justice concerns can file a complaint with the Civil Rights Division at <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;civilrights&period;justice&period;gov&sol;report&sol;" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">www&period;civilrights&period;justice&period;gov&sol;report&sol;<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> Attachment&lpar;s&rpar;&colon; <img title&equals;"application&sol;pdf" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;modules&sol;file&sol;icons&sol;application-pdf&period;png"&sol;> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;press-release&sol;file&sol;1586446&sol;download" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Download Settlement Agreement&period;pdf<&sol;a>Topic&lpar;s&rpar;&colon; Environmental JusticeCivil RightsComponent&lpar;s&rpar;&colon; <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;crt&sol;" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Civil Rights Division<&sol;a><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;crt&sol;about&sol;cor&sol;" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Civil Rights &&num;8211&semi; Federal Coordination and Compliance Section<&sol;a><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-sdtx" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">USAO &&num;8211&semi; Texas&comma; Southern<&sol;a>Press Release Number&colon; 23-631 <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> Updated June 6&comma; 2023<a href&equals;https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;opa&sol;pr&sol;justice-department-announces-agreement-environmental-justice-investigation-illegal-dumping>Original Article<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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