{"id":20217,"date":"2017-03-14T00:17:01","date_gmt":"2017-03-14T04:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=20217"},"modified":"2017-03-14T12:22:57","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T16:22:57","slug":"epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(<em>Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, March 14, 2017) \u00a0The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is opening an investigation into whether the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) and the state Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) are discriminating against Native Hawaiians in their administration of the state\u2019s pesticide program. The investigation comes after a number of local community groups, represented by the nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice, <a href=\"http:\/\/earthjustice.org\/sites\/default\/files\/files\/Complaint_0.pdf\">filed a complaint in September 2016<\/a> asking EPA to take action against systemic abuses of Native Hawaiian peoples. Local efforts to protect pesticide-exposed communities have been repeatedly stymied by giant pesticide corporations operating on the island, which filed <a href=\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2016\/11\/federal-judge-knocks-local-health-protective-laws-hawaii\/\">lawsuits that ultimately struck down local laws<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13938\" src=\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" align=\"right\" \/>EPA&#8217;s investigation will focus on the state\u2019s activity on the islands of Kauai and Moloka\u2019i. \u201cThe External Civil Rights Compliance Office will investigate whether in administering the pesticides program and the leasing and licensing of the state land program the HDOA and\/or ADC discriminated on the basis of race and\/or national origin against farm workers and residents of West Kauai and Molokai, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and EPA\u2019s implementing regulation,\u201d wrote Lilian Dorka, director of EPA\u2019s External Civil Rights Compliance Office(ERCO), in a <a href=\"http:\/\/earthjustice.org\/sites\/default\/files\/files\/2017.03.09-Admin-Complaint-Acceptance-Ltr-HI-Dept-AG-ADE-44RNO16R9.pdf\">letter to Earthjustice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/crt\/fcs\/TitleVI-Overview\">Title VI of the Civil Rights Act<\/a>, any recipient of federal funds is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. In their original letter to EPA, community groups and Earthjustice assert that despite the fact that agrichemical companies have concentrated their pesticide-intensive seed production operations in western Kauai and Molokai, where more than four times the statewide percentage of Native Hawaiians live, the state has failed to limit the registration of harmful pesticides, and failed to require protective buffer zones between pesticide use and local communities. EPA will also be investigating the fact that, as revealed in <a href=\"http:\/\/earthjustice.org\/sites\/default\/files\/files\/Complaint_0.pdf\">letters sent to Earthjustice in spring 2016<\/a>, neither HDOA nor ADC have a Title VI compliance program, which is also part of federal funding requirements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am a Native Hawaiian mother of two children who have had to be tested for pesticide exposure,\u201d said Malia Chun, member of community group Moms on a Mission (MOM) Hui in an <a href=\"http:\/\/earthjustice.org\/news\/press\/2017\/epa-opens-civil-rights-investigation-over-pesticide-use-in-hawai-i\">Earthjustice press release<\/a>. \u201cBoth my children tested positive for 32 different pesticides. I come from a community with one of the highest populations of Native Hawaiian and native speakers in the state of Hawai\u02bbi. We are surrounded by test fields for genetically modified crops that have restricted-use pesticides sprayed on them daily. We need action to protect my community\u2019s health and wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After a nearly decade long battle against <a href=\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2013\/07\/giants-corps-have-set-up-shop-in-hawaii-and-theyre-wrecking-the-place\/\">multinational pesticide corporations<\/a> on the islands, Native Hawaiian communities subject to excessive and incessant pesticide spray have seen little recourse. The passage of historic local legislation in the face of intense industry pressure did little to change the way state departments deal with pesticide use on the islands. Data released in 2014 reveal that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/grist.org\/business-technology\/gmo-companies-are-dousing-hawaiian-island-with-toxic-pesticides\/\">high levels of restricted use pesticides<\/a>, in some cases almost double the pounds per acre average of other states, are being used in Kauai County. According to the Center for Food Safety, in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.isb.vt.edu\/\">2014 alone<\/a>, there were 1,381 field test sites in Hawaii, compared to only 178 sites in California, a large agricultural state. Most of these field test sites are used for crops genetically engineered to be herbicide-tolerant. Testing these crops means repeated spraying of dangerous chemicals in Native Hawaiian communities.<\/p>\n<p>HDOA has been criticized for its embrace of a voluntary \u201cGood Neighbor\u201d reporting program pushed by Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow AgroSciences, and other agrichemical companies on the islands. Despite recent expansions to that program, advocates say it is simply not enough to ensure real protections for people that live, work, and go to school near these toxic sites. Ashley Lukens, PhD, program director at the Hawaii Center for Food Safety, noted in a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/2017\/03\/hawaii-expands-voluntary-pesticide-reporting-program\/\">Civil Beat article<\/a>, \u201cVoluntary programs have an abysmal history of regulatory failure, particularly when it comes to environmental protection. I think more transparency is always an improvement, but this is in no way a replacement for mandatory disclosure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite a renewed focus on state-level action after local protections were struck down, state legislators have yet to take any significant action to address this issue. Late last week, a measure to implement mandatory public disclosure <a href=\"http:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/2017\/03\/house-uses-sleight-of-hand-to-kill-pesticide-disclosure-bill\/\">was struck down<\/a> through surreptitious legislative maneuvering. Chemical companies continue to advocate for the status quo, which allows them to maintain current levels of pesticide use with little oversight.<\/p>\n<p>Advocates hope this new EPA investigation will result in a mechanism to enact long-sought protections in Hawaii for Native peoples. &#8220;We are pleased the EPA has agreed to investigate these practices,\u201d said Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff in a press release. \u201cThe spraying of toxic chemicals on and near Hawaii\u2019s affluent neighborhoods would not be tolerated. It\u2019s not acceptable in these neighborhoods, either. Native Hawaiians deserve much more than the State\u2019s vague assurances and voluntary gestures from pesticide users.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the history and background of the fight for sensible pesticide protections in Hawaii, see <a href=\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/category\/statelocal\/hawaii\/\">Beyond Pesticides\u2019 Daily News Blog entries<\/a> on the state.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/earthjustice.org\/news\/press\/2017\/epa-opens-civil-rights-investigation-over-pesticide-use-in-hawai-i\">Earthjustice PR<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.civilbeat.org\/2017\/03\/hawaii-expands-voluntary-pesticide-reporting-program\/\">Civil Beat<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Beyond Pesticides, March 14, 2017) \u00a0The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is opening an investigation into whether the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) and the state Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) are discriminating against Native Hawaiians in their administration of the state\u2019s pesticide program. The investigation comes after a number of local community groups, represented by the nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice, filed a complaint in September 2016 asking EPA to take action against systemic abuses of Native Hawaiian peoples. Local efforts to protect pesticide-exposed communities have been repeatedly stymied by giant pesticide corporations operating on the island, which filed lawsuits that ultimately struck down local laws. EPA&#8217;s investigation will focus on the state\u2019s activity on the islands of Kauai and Moloka\u2019i. \u201cThe External Civil Rights Compliance Office will investigate whether in administering the pesticides program and the leasing and licensing of the state land program the HDOA and\/or ADC discriminated on the basis of race and\/or national origin against farm workers and residents of West Kauai and Molokai, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and EPA\u2019s implementing regulation,\u201d wrote Lilian Dorka, director of EPA\u2019s External Civil Rights Compliance Office(ERCO), in a letter to Earthjustice. Under Title [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[249,124,199,4,25,65,284,60,354,5,130,68,10,19,166,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-announcements","category-biomonitoring","category-childrenschools","category-corporations","category-dow","category-dupont","category-environmental-justice","category-environmental-protection-agency-epa","category-genetic-engineering","category-hawaii","category-monsanto","category-pesticide-regulation","category-statelocal","category-syngenta","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Beyond Pesticides, March 14, 2017) \u00a0The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is opening an investigation into whether the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) and the state Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) are discriminating against Native Hawaiians in their administration of the state\u2019s pesticide program. The investigation comes after a number of local community groups, represented by the nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice, filed a complaint in September 2016 asking EPA to take action against systemic abuses of Native Hawaiian peoples. Local efforts to protect pesticide-exposed communities have been repeatedly stymied by giant pesticide corporations operating on the island, which filed lawsuits that ultimately struck down local laws. EPA&#8217;s investigation will focus on the state\u2019s activity on the islands of Kauai and Moloka\u2019i. \u201cThe External Civil Rights Compliance Office will investigate whether in administering the pesticides program and the leasing and licensing of the state land program the HDOA and\/or ADC discriminated on the basis of race and\/or national origin against farm workers and residents of West Kauai and Molokai, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and EPA\u2019s implementing regulation,\u201d wrote Lilian Dorka, director of EPA\u2019s External Civil Rights Compliance Office(ERCO), in a letter to Earthjustice. Under Title [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-14T04:17:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-14T16:22:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Pesticides\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ByondPesticides\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ByondPesticides\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Beyond Pesticides\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Beyond Pesticides\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/1b5c0a0981b549cc5b628770073031f4\"},\"headline\":\"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-14T04:17:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-14T16:22:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/\"},\"wordCount\":882,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Agriculture\",\"Announcements\",\"Biomonitoring\",\"Children\/Schools\",\"Corporations\",\"Dow Chemical\",\"DuPont\",\"Environmental Justice\",\"Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)\",\"Genetic Engineering\",\"Hawaii\",\"Monsanto\",\"Pesticide Regulation\",\"State\/Local\",\"Syngenta\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/\",\"name\":\"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-14T04:17:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-14T16:22:57+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/\",\"name\":\"Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog\",\"description\":\"News on Pesticide Science, Policy and Activism\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Beyond Pesticides\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeyondPesticides-Logo-Stacked-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeyondPesticides-Logo-Stacked-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":2501,\"caption\":\"Beyond Pesticides\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/ByondPesticides\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/beyondpesticides\/?hl=en\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/beyond-pesticides\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/bpncamp\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/1b5c0a0981b549cc5b628770073031f4\",\"name\":\"Beyond Pesticides\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26b7558fcb265e244c6e159abe5f0aab551822dc82fd0b1607e809bdfbed20a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26b7558fcb265e244c6e159abe5f0aab551822dc82fd0b1607e809bdfbed20a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Beyond Pesticides\"},\"description\":\"Beyond Pesticides is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., which works with allies in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. The founders, who established Beyond Pesticides (originally as National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides) as a nonprofit membership organization in 1981, felt that without the existence of such an organized, national network, local, state and national pesticide policy would become, under chemical industry pressure, increasingly unresponsive to public health and environmental concerns. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly. We believe decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision-makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them. Learn more about our work, read A Year in Review\u20142021, our accomplishments are your victories! Beyond Pesticides seeks to protect healthy air, water, land, and food for ourselves and future generations. By forging ties with governments, nonprofits, and people who rely on these natural resources, we reduce the need for unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health and the environment. Beyond Pesticides provides hands-on services to the public and supports local action by: identifying and interpreting hazards; and, designing safe pest management programs. With the information provided by Beyond Pesticides, people may not only be able to make informed choices and adopt practices that protect themselves and their families from unnecessary exposure to pesticides, but they will be able to effect changes on community-wide pest management decisions and policies that govern pesticide use, such as pesticide uses in parks, schools, for community insect control and along roadsides. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions which affect them directly.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.beyondpesticides.org\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/beyondpesticides\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/beyond-pesticides\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/ByondPesticides\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/bpncamp\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/author\/beyond-pesticides\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","og_description":"(Beyond Pesticides, March 14, 2017) \u00a0The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is opening an investigation into whether the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) and the state Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) are discriminating against Native Hawaiians in their administration of the state\u2019s pesticide program. The investigation comes after a number of local community groups, represented by the nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice, filed a complaint in September 2016 asking EPA to take action against systemic abuses of Native Hawaiian peoples. Local efforts to protect pesticide-exposed communities have been repeatedly stymied by giant pesticide corporations operating on the island, which filed lawsuits that ultimately struck down local laws. EPA&#8217;s investigation will focus on the state\u2019s activity on the islands of Kauai and Moloka\u2019i. \u201cThe External Civil Rights Compliance Office will investigate whether in administering the pesticides program and the leasing and licensing of the state land program the HDOA and\/or ADC discriminated on the basis of race and\/or national origin against farm workers and residents of West Kauai and Molokai, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and EPA\u2019s implementing regulation,\u201d wrote Lilian Dorka, director of EPA\u2019s External Civil Rights Compliance Office(ERCO), in a letter to Earthjustice. Under Title [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/","og_site_name":"Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\/","article_published_time":"2017-03-14T04:17:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-14T16:22:57+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Beyond Pesticides","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ByondPesticides","twitter_site":"@ByondPesticides","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Beyond Pesticides","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/"},"author":{"name":"Beyond Pesticides","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/1b5c0a0981b549cc5b628770073031f4"},"headline":"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii","datePublished":"2017-03-14T04:17:01+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-14T16:22:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/"},"wordCount":882,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg","articleSection":["Agriculture","Announcements","Biomonitoring","Children\/Schools","Corporations","Dow Chemical","DuPont","Environmental Justice","Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)","Genetic Engineering","Hawaii","Monsanto","Pesticide Regulation","State\/Local","Syngenta"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/","url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/","name":"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg","datePublished":"2017-03-14T04:17:01+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-14T16:22:57+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/hawaii.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2017\/03\/epa-investigate-civil-rights-abuses-pesticide-use-hawaii\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"EPA to Investigate Civil Rights Abuses Over Pesticide Use in Hawaii"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/","name":"Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","description":"News on Pesticide Science, Policy and Activism","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization","name":"Beyond Pesticides","url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeyondPesticides-Logo-Stacked-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeyondPesticides-Logo-Stacked-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":2501,"caption":"Beyond Pesticides"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides","https:\/\/x.com\/ByondPesticides","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/beyondpesticides\/?hl=en","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/beyond-pesticides","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/bpncamp"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/1b5c0a0981b549cc5b628770073031f4","name":"Beyond Pesticides","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26b7558fcb265e244c6e159abe5f0aab551822dc82fd0b1607e809bdfbed20a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26b7558fcb265e244c6e159abe5f0aab551822dc82fd0b1607e809bdfbed20a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Beyond Pesticides"},"description":"Beyond Pesticides is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., which works with allies in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. The founders, who established Beyond Pesticides (originally as National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides) as a nonprofit membership organization in 1981, felt that without the existence of such an organized, national network, local, state and national pesticide policy would become, under chemical industry pressure, increasingly unresponsive to public health and environmental concerns. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly. We believe decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision-makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them. Learn more about our work, read A Year in Review\u20142021, our accomplishments are your victories! Beyond Pesticides seeks to protect healthy air, water, land, and food for ourselves and future generations. By forging ties with governments, nonprofits, and people who rely on these natural resources, we reduce the need for unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health and the environment. Beyond Pesticides provides hands-on services to the public and supports local action by: identifying and interpreting hazards; and, designing safe pest management programs. With the information provided by Beyond Pesticides, people may not only be able to make informed choices and adopt practices that protect themselves and their families from unnecessary exposure to pesticides, but they will be able to effect changes on community-wide pest management decisions and policies that govern pesticide use, such as pesticide uses in parks, schools, for community insect control and along roadsides. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions which affect them directly.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.beyondpesticides.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/beyondpesticides\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/beyond-pesticides\/","https:\/\/x.com\/ByondPesticides","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/bpncamp\/"],"url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/author\/beyond-pesticides\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20217"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20226,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20217\/revisions\/20226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}