OPAL Board Chair Ben Duncan briefs EPA Region 10 Administrator Dennis McLerran on statewide EJ issues
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon was part of a delegation honored by the Environmental Protection Agency for its work with the Governor’s Task Force on Environmental Justice in Salem on December 16, 2011. OPAL is represented by Board Chair Ben Duncan, who serves as the Task Force’s Chair (and represents the Multnomah County Health Department on the Task Force), and Executive Director Jonathan Ostar, who serves as the Task Force’s Vice-Chair. The EJ Task Force was created by 2007 legislation sponsored by former Senator Avel Gordly, and imposes environmental justice obligations on the state’s natural resource agencies, with the Task Force serving as an advisory body to the Governor and as a liaison and partner for the agencies. The EPA presented the Task Force with its Environmental Justice National Achievement Award for its work developing cultural competency standards for agency management and institutionalizing demographic mapping tools to better identify and assess environmental justice issues and concerns related to agency programs and decisions.
