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Environmental Justice Policy
DRAFT DISCUSSION DOCUMENT
II. Enforcement Environmental Justice Policy Discussion Draft II. Enforcement ______________________________________________________________________________
II. Enforcement: This small group work is focused on your thinking about enforcement issues.
A. What should be done with corporations who keep violating the laws, pay their fines, and then violate the law again? (Habitual violators)
1. Temporary suspension of any permits
2. Increasing fines that have a mandatory number
3. Impose criminal liability
4. Make the CEO pay the fines
5. Shut them down, then company must show that it is working on a corrected plan before starting up again; shut them down while legal process is going on
6. Criminal liability for executives, plus use the three strikes you go to jail approach - just like citizens who commit crimes
8. Strengthen legislation
9. Use publicity to expose bad behavior – such as the company pays for full page ad in local paper to admit the problem and say how they will fix it
10. Provide incentives to corporations to stay in compliance
11. The CEO and others should be criminally and civilly liable (go to jail)
12. Establish independent committee
14. Probation on permits
15. Grade violations
16. Permit period needs to be shorter (? years) (annual permit)
17. Like DUI – treated the same; Increasing fines & penalties– jail time – remove license same as DUI
18. Injunctive relief and enforce current laws
21. Get rid of loopholes
22. Enforce the enforcers (consequences for regulating agencies if they don’t uphold law)
23. Corporate owners and CEOs need to be held responsible, receive special penalties due to their level/nature of responsibility
25. Publication of violations w/CEOs’ pictures
26. Community service
27. Limit the number of variances for pollution violations
28. Eliminate modifications of permits
29. Stop work authority
B. What role should residents have when negotiations are going on with a corporation bout violations/fines?
1. Process should be transparent or open
2. Settlements should require community input or approval/involvement before it is accepted (not in a public meeting after parties agree)
3. Weekend enforcement squad should be established as compensation because that is when the pollution increases
4. Double fines on weekend and after usual business hours
5. Mandate community representative from designated neighborhood at private meetings
6. Because too often the community that is being polluted does not work in the industry/facility that is polluting – part of the settlement should include they get priority hiring and are properly trained to work there. It’s a dual violation when you have no job and some corporation is trying to poison you!
7. Local people should be at the negotiation and should have 100% control over decision
8. Self-defense laws should apply; reparations for harm
9. Labor and small business and families at the table
10. Established mandatory fine system with citizen oversight (no negotiation)
11. Cleanups costs separate from fine
12. Needs public interest review by local people (who decides who the members are?)
13. Community awareness through public meetings, request 3 public meetings
14. Percent of community on corporate boards and on government agency boards (fines could help subsidize paid board placement)
15. Victims’ Rights, testimony by victims at sentencing
16. Community member(s) must have sign-off and input on violations consequences
17. Watchdog committee paid by corporation to alert community
18. Community defined by stakeholders
19. PAID community ombudsman
20. Community roles should provide checks and balances at all levels of government and corporate activity
21. All public documents, consent Decree, stakeholder impacts, need to be assessed by bi-partisan interpretation
C. When a corporation must pay a fine, where should that money go? Establish Citizens fund for use by EJ community?
1. Money from fines should be put into a state citizen’s fund for communities.
2. Fines should stay in the community; money from fines should be put into a fund that can only be used locally
3. EJ Committee should be governed by a majority of EJ leaders
4. Funds should be managed by a “trusted” Non-profit organization
5. Largest funds to the most impacted/less funds to the least impacted
6. Funds used for local testing
7. Fines funds could be used for healthcare of local people
8. Funds to go to legal defense funds
9. Watchdog group local to the situation
10. Some to statewide fund (like REACH), governed by community leaders: OEPA – 5%, Local – 40%, State Program – 55%
11. % of fines to state fund, % to local community for local battles
13. Use for paid ombudsman
D. What could the EJ community use the funds for?
1. Legal work/support for community
2. Education
3. Research
4. Health studies of communities
5. Establish a grant process
6. Incentives for private enforcement actions
7. Given to community and they should decide not pick off a list
8. Provide companies with compliance workshops especially the smaller ones
9. Community gardens, healthy food to impacted community
10. Local people to obtain jobs w/training for work on lead abatement, stream cleanups and other
12. Pick from the various grassroots groups to make decisions – only victims receive funds
13. Legal defense/offense
14. Environmental/Health testing/monitoring; experts
16. Preemptive legal actions
18. Green, clean business initiated
19. % corp. develop clean energy
20. School curriculum
21. Health protections
23. Fund paid positions (community members on corporate boards, watchdog committee, and ombudsman)
25. Random and regular environmental assessments (done by independent experts)
26. Violating corporations could also fund environmental summits and annual reports to community
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