# Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021

This bill directs the federal government to create detailed maps and collect comprehensive data about pollution and environmental hazards in communities across the country, with a special focus on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color that have historically been overlooked. The goal is to identify which areas face the worst environmental problems so that government agencies can better protect people's health and make fairer decisions about where to allow polluting industries.

Right now, information about pollution, toxic waste sites, and other environmental dangers is scattered across different agencies and hard for regular people to find or understand. This bill would bring all that information together into one accessible system that shows where pollution hotspots exist, what chemicals are present, and which neighborhoods are most affected. This matters because research shows that poor communities and communities of color are often disproportionately exposed to pollution from factories, highways, landfills, and other sources, yet they often don't have the resources or information to fight back against new polluting projects in their areas.

The bill would require federal agencies to work together to gather this data and make it publicly available in easy-to-understand formats. This information could help community members advocate for themselves, help local governments make better zoning decisions, and help federal agencies consider environmental justice when approving projects or setting pollution limits. Essentially, it's about shining a light on environmental inequality and giving communities the information they need to protect their own health and environment.

Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021

Markey, Edward J.

Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021 This bill establishes an interagency Environmental Justice Mapping Committee that must create a tool to identify environmental justice communities. Environmental justice communities are communities with significant representation of communities of color, low-income communities, or tribal and indigenous communities that experience, or are at risk of experiencing, higher or more adverse human health or environmental effects, as compared to other communities. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must establish an environmental justice data repository to maintain the data collected by the committee. The EPA must make the repository available to regional, state, local, and tribal governments.