Complaint Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, 40 C.F.R. Part 7, and 7 C.F.R. Part 15

Community groups Moms On a Mission Hui and Pō‘ai Wai Ola allege that HDOA and ADC have failed to implement Title VI compliance programs, leading to discriminatory adverse effects on Native Hawaiian populations. The complaint highlights the lack of pesticide registration limits, the absence of mandatory buffer zones, and a failure to enforce federal and state pesticide laws. It specifically points to the high concentration of genetically engineered seed crops in West Kaua‘i and Moloka‘i, where Native Hawaiian populations are proportionally higher than the state average. Additionally, the complaint cites ADC's operation of an unpermitted drainage ditch system on the Mānā Plain that discharges pollutants into waters used by Native Hawaiians. The complainants request that the EPA and USDA conduct compliance reviews and require the agencies to develop implementation plans to mitigate these discriminatory impacts.

• HDOA and ADC are alleged to be in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because they lack formal compliance programs to ensure their actions do not have discriminatory effects on communities of color, specifically Native Hawaiians.
• HDOA has failed to limit the registration of harmful pesticides despite documented health incidents, such as the 2016 exposure of 10 Syngenta Seeds fieldworkers to chlorpyrifos and a 2006 incident where 60 children and two teachers at Waimea Canyon Middle School suffered pesticide exposure symptoms.
• HDOA does not require mandatory protective buffer zones between pesticide application and communities, relying instead on voluntary programs like the "Kaua‘i Good Neighbor Program" which provides only a 100-foot buffer, significantly less than the 200 to 5,280-foot buffers found in other large U.S. agricultural counties.
• The EPA has repeatedly warned HDOA that its enforcement of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and state laws is inadequate, noting a significant backlog of inspection files, some dating back to 2008, and a lack of enforcement actions.
• ADC is accused of violating Title VI by leasing 64% of its managed lands in West Kaua‘i to pesticide-intensive seed companies without meaningful restrictions and by operating a 40-mile drainage ditch system on the Mānā Plain without a required National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
• Pesticide-intensive seed production is disproportionately concentrated in areas with high Native Hawaiian populations; for example, Moloka‘i's proportion of Native Hawaiians (61.6%) is nearly triple the statewide percentage (21.3%), and the Kekaha-Waimea region of Kaua‘i has a Native Hawaiian population of 37.2%, significantly exceeding the island-wide average of 23.9%.
• The complaint identifies several highly toxic Restricted Use Pesticides (RUPs) used in Hawai‘i, including chlorpyrifos, atrazine, metolachlor, bifenthrin, and paraquat dichloride, noting that chlorpyrifos application rates on Kaua‘i are 2.93 times the rate in the continental United States.

APA

Earthjustice (2016). Complaint Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, 40 C.F.R. Part 7, and 7 C.F.R. Part 15. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/complaint_0.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. Complaint Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, 40 C.F.R. Part 7, and 7 C.F.R. Part 15. 2016. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/complaint_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Earthjustice |title=Complaint Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, 40 C.F.R. Part 7, and 7 C.F.R. Part 15 |date=14 September 2016 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/complaint_0.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{earthjustice2016complaint, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Complaint Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, 40 C.F.R. Part 7, and 7 C.F.R. Part 15}}, publisher = {Earthjustice}, year = {2016}, month = sep, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/complaint_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }