The Kinder Morgan facility sits on the banks of the Mississippi River, where it receives, transports, and stores fuel. Environmental and civil rights groups argue that the DNR’s permit didn’t take into account how emissions from the facility would disproportionately expose low-income communities of color in St. Louis, after the state agency issued an extension of an operating permit for a fuel transport site run by the energy infrastructure company Kinder Morgan. The case stems from a Title VI complaint filed by the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, based in St. The EPA quietly released its preliminary findings in March from an investigation of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, or DNR. “To the extent that the EPA’s taking its civil rights obligation, seriously,” he said, “that’s new, and it’s important.” “In the past, EPA has never really seriously enforced its obligations under the Civil Rights Act,” said Wyatt Sassman, an environmental law expert at the University of Denver. But experts say the decision in Missouri, along with the EPA’s recent comments voicing civil rights concern over a metal scrapyard in Chicago, are indicative of the possible shift under the Biden administration toward prioritizing environmental justice. In fact, 90 percent of civil rights complaints brought to the EPA aren’t even investigated, according to reporting from the Center for Public Integrity. The ruling marks one of just a few times in the EPA’s 50-year history that the agency has made a finding of noncompliance in a Title VI complaint. Federal investigators found that the state agency failed to comply with several nondiscrimination requirements, such as ensuring that everyone - including those who aren’t proficient in English - can participate in public comment periods, not having a staff person for handling Title VI complaints, and lacking an official notice of nondiscrimination. Environmental Protection Agency has preliminarily ruled that the Missouri Department of Natural Resources is in violation of Title VI under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
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