Matthew Tresaugue, Houston Chronicle
The EPA has hired a Houston activist to help integrate the concept of environmental justice into the agency’s everyday decision-making.
Matthew Tejada, who has led Air Alliance Houston for five years, will start as director of the Office of Environmental Justice in Washington, D.C., in March, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday.
Tejada, 33, is moving to the agency after helping organize low-income and minority communities in Houston and across Texas to address concerns over air pollution. Tejada also helped launch a website that allows Houstonians to see smog levels at specific locations in real time. He also worked to reduce the amount of tiny particles in the air around the Port of Houston.
Environmental justice is a movement rooted in the idea that the poor and minorities bear an unfair share of society’s toxic ills. For decades, certain urban and rural areas have served as magnets for industrial facilities and waste sites, in part, because residents have little leverage to block them.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has made the issue one of her top priorities, placing special emphasis on economic and racial factors in an area when making permit decisions and drafting and enforcing rules.
Jackson has said she plans to resign this month. Tejada said she made the hire now to keep the issue a priority even after she leaves the agency.
His primary role, he said, will be convincing people inside and outside the agency that the idea of environmental justice should be part of many decisions.
(Read more of this story at Chron.com)
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