Environmental Justice Legacy Pollution Cleanup Act of 2020

Environmental Justice Legacy Pollution Cleanup Act of 2020

This bill provides for funding and permitting restrictions in relation to environmental cleanup and remediation of areas with public health threats.

Specifically, the bill provides supplemental appropriations for FY2020 to the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Agriculture, and the Indian Health Service for various environmental cleanup and remediation projects, including those that affect low-income and tribal communities. For example, the bill appropriates $30 billion to HUD to provide grants to local governments to evaluate and reduce lead-based paint hazards and other housing-related health and safety hazards in low-income housing.

The bill immediately prohibits the granting of a Title V permit for a major proposed source (relating to air pollution control requirements) for an overburdened census tract, which is an area that has been identified as having a specified amount of particulate matter and an identified heightened risk of cancer due to air pollution. The EPA must publish a list of overburdened census tracts and update the list annually based on the most recently available modeling and monitoring data.

After January 1, 2025, the bill also prohibits the renewal of Title V permits for major sources in an overburdened census tract.