Summit II Resource/Policy Papers All communities are not created
equal. After much prodding from environmental justice advocates,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acknowledged its
mandate to protect all Americans. The EPA defines environmental
justice as: "The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of
all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income
with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement
of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment
means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or
socio-economic groups should bear a disproportionate share of
the negative environmental consequences resulting from
industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the
execution of federal, state, local, and tribal programs and
policies." In order to have substantive resource materials going
into and coming out of the Summit II, a national call for papers
was made resulting in over two-dozen papers. The resource papers
were written by the na