November 23, 2004

Dear Environmental Justice Stakeholder:

The Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is working with the California Environmental Protection Agency and its other boards, departments and office (BDOs) on a strategic planning process for environmental justice (EJ). As part of this process, DPR and the other BDOs are reviewing programs, policies and activities to identify and address any gaps that may impede the achievement of environmental justice.

Although I am new to DPR, the principles of environmental justice are not new to me. I believe in equity, enforcement, and the environment. And with the advantage of being new to the Department, I believe I can bring fresh perspective and energy. We have made some missteps in the past few years as we have moved slowly (and, some would say, occasionally stumbled) along the path to becoming more aware of our environmental justice responsibilities.

For example, when we released our draft EJ implementation plan for comment, we did not understand that we needed to bring the EJ community and other stakeholders into the process much earlier-at the beginning, in fact. Therefore, we are going to put aside our draft plan, and solicit community input as we develop a new one. We will ask Cal/EPA Environmental Justice Advisory Committee members for their thoughts, and rely on the Committee's extensive recommendations, made in a report last year. We will ask for stakeholder input in formal settings-for example, in meetings of the Pest Management Advisory Committee, our major advisory group-and in informal dialogue sessions to be held over the coming year in communities throughout the State. I also welcome your written comments and suggestions, if you prefer.

I think it is important to keep our long-term vision in mind, but we also need to set priorities. Therefore, our plan should have broad strategies along with short-term operational goals. With limited resources-and government resources are always limited in some fashion-we must make choices on what to do first. It is also one of Cal/EPA's founding principles to focus first on the most serious problems and concerns.

As part of this strategic planning process, DPR is developing an EJ strategy and work plan that reflects our programmatic responsibilities and priorities. Cal/EPA's EJ vision (determined by the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice, of which I am a member) is that "all Californians, regardless of race, age, culture, income, or geographic location, are protected from environmental and health hazards, and afforded accessibility to and fair treatment in our decision-making processes."

That is the institutional commitment at Cal/EPA and at DPR. But we need to go further, and for that, you have my personal commitment that I will do what is necessary to ensure that DPR's programs, policies and activities are conducted in a manner designed to promote equality and fairness, along with full access and full protection to all Californians.

As we work on developing our operational EJ goals, the attached "gap analysis" will be of great assistance. We held a series of informal EJ dialogue sessions around the State earlier this year. The meetings were very productive, and we gained a greater understanding of where we need to focus our regulatory improvement efforts to better address environmental justice issues. The gaps community members identified can be grouped around five general areas: public participation, outreach, enforcement, health effects, and precaution/prevention. The analysis is a snapshot in time, but represents a starting point for discussion as we work with you and others to develop our EJ operational goals.

If you have questions, please contact Veda Federighi, Assistant Director External Affairs, 916-445-3974, or email to .

I look forward to working with you on developing an effective strategic and operational environmental justice plan for DPR.

Sincerely,



Mary-Ann Warmerdam
Director

Attachment (PDF, 150 kb): Community Perspectives on How DPR's Regulatory Program Should Be Improved to Address Gaps That Impede Achievement of Environmental Justice