By meaningfully involving public stakeholders from these affected communities in cleanup decisions, agencies can begin to address their cleanup needs and build more positive relationships. Executive Order 12898 requires federal agencies to address environmental justice concerns in all of their programs, policies, and activities. Building on this, this report contains recommendations regarding special efforts that should be made to ensure that affected communities, particularly communities of color, indigenous peoples, and low-income communities, understand and participate in the cleanup process, and that their values are reflected in the actions taken. In some cases, local governments have not been adequately involved in the cleanup decision-making process. Local governments play a critical role because they interact with federal facility cleanups on many different levels, including as the regulating agency of certain wastes, as the emergency responder, and as the responsible authority for land use planning.
Several factors limit local government participation in federal facilities cleanup decision making.
Because federal agencies often are not fully aware of local government functions and responsibilities, there is a lack of guidance and formal mechanisms for interactions between local governments and federal agencies. As a result, local governments' role in cleanup advisory boards, and other stakeholder involvement mechanisms is sometimes unclear. Local government participation has also been hampered because communities sometimes mistrust local governments' ability to integrate environmental and economic objectives, and because local governments' capacity and willingness to participate in cleanup decisions in some instances has been limited. Addressing these barriers is important, because local governments, in many cases, are the institutional authority that will address the effects of cleanup decisions long after the federal cleanup agency has withdrawn from the community. This report also contains recommendations regarding the role that local governments play in the federal facility cleanup decision-making process.