Environmental Justice and Litigation

CBF’s Litigation Department works closely with communities throughout the watershed to identify opportunities to address and prevent environmental injustices. Combatting environmental injustice begins with ensuring that communities have equal access to the decision-making process and pushing regulators and polluters alike to take meaningful steps to evaluate potential impacts from proposed and existing projects in vulnerable communities.

Environmental justice recognizes that low-income communities, communities of color, and other vulnerable and marginalized populations bear a disproportionate amount of harmful environmental burdens. Often, infrastructure in these communities receives less scrutiny in the permitting process, leading to the development and operation of facilities that are detrimental to public health and the environment. Through litigation designed to assure equitable enforcement of federal and state environmental laws, CBF hopes to save the Bay—for everyone.

Title VI Administration Complaint

On May 28, 2024, CBF and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) filed a Title VI Administrative Complaint on behalf of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust with the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of External Civil Rights. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits recipients of federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The Complaint alleges discriminatory and disparate impacts resulting from Baltimore City and the Baltimore City Department of Public Works issuance of the 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan: 2024-2033. The complaint alleges that the Solid Waste Management Plan fails to adequately plan for a transition away from reliance on the Baltimore Refuse Energy Systems Company (BRESCO) municipal waste incinerator located in South Baltimore’s most disadvantaged communities. BRESCO is one of the largest stationary sources of industrial air pollution in Baltimore City and the continued operation contributes to unequal health risks faced by those living in the surrounding communities.

CBF’s environmental justice work has been recognized in the following legal publications:

• In May 2022, an article by then-CBF Vice President of Litigation Jon Mueller and Environmental Justice Staff Attorney Taylor Lilley was published in the Public Interest Law Review. “Forty Years of Environmental Justice: Where is the Justice?” examines the history of environmental justice (or EJ) primarily through the lens of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the White House, and evaluates the progress made in terms of regulations and permitting. It also examines recent administrative and judicial decisions addressing EJ claims and, in conclusion, provides recommendations for ways in which EJ issues can be better presented and addressed.
• Wortzel, Andrea and De Las Casas, Viktoriia (Summer 2021) State Laws Provide New Pathways for Environmental Justice Claims, Natural Resources & Environment, Volume 36, Number 1,  American Bar Association
• Farah, Niina (October 4, 2021) Landmark EJ Ruling Sparks Legislative Reckoning in Virginia, E&E News Energywire