House approves DeGette amendment to clean up communities most harmed by pollution

Statement

The U.S. House of Representatives today approved legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) that will require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to identify and clean up 100 communities across the nation that are disproportionally suffering from large amounts of pollution caused by nearby facilities.

The measure to promote environmental justice was approved as part of a group of amendments to a larger government spending bill that's currently being debated in the House. In addition to identify and cleaning up 100 heavily-polluted communities, it would also require the EPA to study the cumulative impact that multiple sources of pollution can have a community, and then incorporate that information into agency's health assessments going forward.

"When we fail to protect our environment, it is often the poorest among us who suffer the most," DeGette said on the House floor immediately before the vote. "This amendment would require that the EPA identify 100 communities across the country that are suffering from especially egregious violations of environmental law and clean them up."

In her remarks, DeGette, who chairs the House panel that directly oversees the EPA, specifically cited the situations in Elyria-Swansea and Globeville, two north-Denver neighborhoods that are often listed among the most heavily polluted communities in Colorado, as reasons why Congress needs to act.

"When we allow pipes to become contaminated, or when we allow companies to spew more toxins into the air, it is usually lower-income communities, and communities of color, that get hurt the most," DeGette said. "Communities like Elyria-Swansea, and neighboring Globeville, which are neighborhoods in the northern part of my district … This amendment is for them."

The amendment approved today is the latest in a series of steps DeGette has taken recently to try to help her constituents living in the two north-Denver neighborhoods.

In March, DeGette filed a separate piece of legislation that would require the EPA to set a maximum limit on the amount of hydrogen cyanide that refineries across the country can emit each year without harming the health of nearby residents.

In introducing that measure, DeGette specifically cited a SunCorp refinery located next to the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood that's been spewing 25,000 pounds of the highly toxic gas into the air each year.

Because the EPA has not yet set a limit on how much hydrogen cyanide facilities, such as the one just outside Elyria-Swansea, should be allowed to emit each year, these facilities have been allowed to set their own limits -- regardless of the potential health risks to nearby residents.

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