The Environmental Protection Agency and DNREC reach an agreement addressing a civil rights complaint.
The complaint filed in late 2022 alleged DNREC’s permitting process for the Bioenergy Development Company’s expansion project in Seaford discriminated against Black, Latino, and Haitian individuals.
"For DNREC's part related to the civil rights complaint we have already made progress in community engagement, but we're committed to doing more to ensure that all voices are heard, that's important to us. We'll continue to work with EPA to enhance our efforts, including a new grievance procedure and a language access plan," said DNREC spokeswoman Nikki Lavoie.
The complaint also alleged those living near the facility were not properly informed during the process, including Spanish and Haitian Creole speaking individuals with limited English proficiency.
"While the EPA had accepted the complaint for an investigation back in September 2023, DNREC had already taken significant steps to enhance its public engagement process, and that was noted in the EPA agreement," said Lavoie.
Some of those measures include hiring the state’s first ever environmental justice coordinator, adopting an environmental justice compliance policy and conducting 22 training and consultation sessions for staff to support its implementation, and developing a community engagement outline to help staff take steps to improve community engagement.
The EPA also acknowledges DNREC developed an environmental justice screening tool to allow staff to analyze demographics and make determinations as to whether additional outreach and/or translation services are necessary.
DNREC also created internal and external environmental justice webpages with information on community resources, data, and information DNREC uses as well as identifying ways the public can participate in DNREC activities and programs.
