An investigation by Streetlight, a nonprofit news outlet based in Oklahoma City, found that most information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on facilities under its oversight excluded data on Black residents who live within one mile of factories, Superfund sites and other toxic sites. This omission affected a majority-Black neighborhood in Oklahoma City that has fought for better environmental conditions for decades. It also affected EPA’s data for eight majority-Black cities reviewed by Streetlight, with support from the Fund, including Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; and Detroit, Michigan. As a result of Streetlight’s reporting, the data was restored by the EPA, which attributed the omission to a coding “bug.”
EPA excluded data on Black people who live closest to toxic sites; grantee reporting leads EPA to restore data
