New Draft Framework to Advance Consideration of Cumulative Impacts on Communities
EPA is seeking public comment and Tribal input on the Framework to ensure meaningful engagement
Today, November 21, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a draft of the Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts, providing agency programs and regional offices with tools and principles to consider cumulative impacts in their work. This work is based on the best available science on how pollution and other burdens interact to affect individuals’ and communities’ health and well-being. Cumulative impacts are defined scientifically by the totality of exposures to chemical and non-chemical stressors and their effects on health and quality of life outcomes. This may include several factors such as culture, subsistence practices, socioeconomics, and other social determinants of health.
The draft is now available for public comment to ensure meaningful engagement, including Tribal consultation, to help EPA develop and implement approaches to incorporate cumulative impacts in delivering public health and environmental protections for communities and Tribes. EPA is advancing the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to environmental justice, including through the Justice40 Initiative, and historic investments in communities overburdened by pollution and marginalized by under investment. The Framework is the latest step in a larger effort to integrate cumulative impacts research and work across the agency, and to advance its goals of meaningful engagement and Tribal consultation.
“Solving environmental inequities starts with acknowledging that not all communities face the same barriers and challenges. The Biden-Harris Administration and our office have made it a priority to ensure that the needs of the most overburdened and underserved communities in our nation are not overlooked,” said Theresa Segovia, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. “This framework is the result of years of hard work and dedication from our staff and sets a clear path for our agency to engage meaningfully with local communities and seek input from Tribes on cumulative impacts as we continue working to understand and address the cumulative impacts communities can face.”
“Over the past two years, the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council has engaged with EPA on the important issue of cumulative impacts because the issue is so central to addressing the environmental plight of overburdened communities,” said Jerome Shabazz, Overbrook Environmental Education Center. “I am excited that EPA is releasing this framework and eager to work with EPA to advance the concepts within it.”
“In communities like those I serve in Houston, people face shorter life expectancy and higher rates of diseases because of pollution and environmental inequalities. We owe it to them to take meaningful action to ensure everyone has access to clean air and water,” said Harris County, TX Attorney Christian Menefee. “I support the EPA's new framework, as we lay a foundation to tackle cumulative impacts. I’m excited to keep working with the EPA to make a real difference and improve the health and quality of life for all.”
The Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts describes principles for EPA to consider cumulative impacts in EPA decisions. These principles include:
- Centering cumulative impacts work on improving human health, quality of life, and the environment in all communities.
- Ensuring the disproportionate and adverse burden of cumulative impacts are not ignored or overlooked.
- Applying a fit-for-purpose approach grounded in science to assessing and addressing cumulative impacts.
- Engaging communities, consulting with Tribes, and considering and incorporating their lived experience.
- Using the best available data, science, and information to make decisions and take action.
- Operationalizing and integrating ways to highlight, consider and address cumulative impacts.
By evaluating and taking cumulative impacts into account, EPA can undertake actions and make decisions that help achieve the following goals:
- Communities are safe, healthy, and thriving.
- All people are protected from adverse environmental health effects and hazards, including cumulative impacts of environmental and other burdens.
- No community bears a disproportionate share of adverse environmental and public health impacts.
The Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts provides examples of EPA actions that incorporate some of the principles listed above and are protective of children who are especially vulnerable. These include water permitting processes that consider Tribal cultural and subsistence use of resources, more robust analysis for the recent air pollution rule on synthetic organic chemicals, which will protect the health of communities near facilities from cancer and other harm, and EPA’s updated residential soil lead guidance.
EPA has released a number of key tools to support this work, including Cumulative Impacts Research (pdf), a report issued by the Office of Research and Development with recommendations to enhance cumulative impacts research. Additionally, EPA programs and regions provide technical assistance and funding for cumulative impacts assessments to address long-standing environmental issues in rural and urban locations, including examples resulting in eight place-based demonstration efforts across the country. Learn more about cumulative impacts at EPA.
The release of the Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts furthers the agency’s efforts to take a comprehensive scientific view of cumulative impacts as outlined in the agency’s FY2022-FY2026 Strategic Plan. In addition, it advances the goals of Executive Order 14096, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, to ensure that all communities will be able to have access to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment.
EPA welcomes public feedback on the draft Framework by February 19, 2025, through the Federal Register notice, and the link that will be available at Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2024-0360 on Regulations.gov.
Read the Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts.
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