The Shapiro administration recently released its interim final environmental justice policy DEP ID: 015-0501-002 (Interim Final Policy) (follow link to Environmental Justice Policy.PDF) (last visited Sept. 23)), along with a link to the latest environmental justice mapping and screening tool (PennEnviroScreen) (available online at https://gis.dep.pa.gov/PennEnviroScreen/ (last visited Sept. 23.)). The policy took effect on Sept. 16, when official notice of the interim final rulemaking was published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. See 53 Pa. Bull. 5854 (Sept. 16).

Pennsylvania’s Environmental Justice Policy

The commonwealth first adopted an environmental justice policy (EJ policy) in 2004 to provide citizens in EJ communities enhanced public participation opportunities during certain DEP permit application processes. In 2018, the DEP circulated a draft revised policy for public comment, but ultimately withdrew the proposed revisions in 2020 following receipt of public comments. After conducting further outreach in 2021, the DEP proposed an updated policy that would refine and expand the scope of the withdrawn 2018 revisions. On March 12, 2022, the DEP released a draft of the EJ policy for public comment, and subsequently received more than 1,200 comments during the comment period. The interim final policy is the latest version of the EJ policy to have been released by the DEP since the comment period closed last spring.

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