Whereas environmental injustice exists whenever governmental action or inaction causes environmental risks or harms to fall unfairly and disproportionately upon a particular group or community; Whereas racial minority, low-income, rural, indigenous, and other often-marginalized communities are especially likely to face environmental injustice; Whereas limited resources and lack of political power ensure that marginalized communities host pollution-producing or potentially toxic facilities, including power plants, pipelines, industrial sites, garbage transfer stations, incinerators, landfills, and sewage treatment plants, at disproportionate rates; Whereas marginalized communities suffer from systemic governmental failures to adequately invest in the kind of infrastructure and services that reduce the risk of environmental accidents or disasters, and that facilitate swift, effective responses to such occurrences; Whereas the presence of pollution-producing sites can compromise public health, safety, property values, and quality of life even if no accident or disaster occurs; Whereas air and water quality are often especially poor in marginalized communities, and governmental permitting and investment decisions directly contribute to this inequity; Whereas scientific evidence increasingly links poor environmental quality with disabilities and chronic illnesses, including cancer, asthma, neurobehavioral disorders, learning disabilities, and abnormal hormone functioning; Whereas environmental justice exists when public policies successfully prevent or correct unfair disparities in environmental quality, and resultant disparities in public health and quality of life; Whereas environmental justice is possible only if vulnerable groups and marginalized communities can express their needs and concerns, and only then if policymakers listen; Whereas the environmental justice movement seeks to address the unjust social, economic, and political marginalization of minority, low-income, rural, and indigenous communities