NEJAC RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARY

The document outlines short-term and long-term strategies for the EPA to better address cumulative impacts, including expanding hyper-local pollution monitoring, enhancing polluter transparency via real-time apps, and integrating existing health data into cleanup thresholds and risk assessments.

• The NEJAC recommends that the EPA increase investment in "hyper-local" regulatory-grade air monitors to identify pollutant hotspots, as regional monitoring often misses these areas in overburdened communities.
• To improve accountability, the document suggests providing real-time data on air emissions and effluent discharges to communities through a mobile app featuring push notifications for compliance violations.
• The EPA is urged to evolve multisource standard attainment methods, such as State Implementation Plans (SIPs) and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) assessments, to account for local risks, past stressors, and non-chemical stressors like heat.
• The document proposes a 'presumptive approach' to permitting where pollution-control upgrades are required broadly across similar facilities rather than based on individual source analyses.
• Risk assessments and cleanup requirements should be informed by existing health condition data; specifically, areas with statistically elevated cancer rates should not be subject to 'safe' exposure levels for carcinogenic pollutants.
• The EPA should apply modification factors to Regional Screening Levels for Chemical Contaminants at Superfund Sites to account for exposures to both intentional and unintentional chemical mixtures.
• Under the Toxics Substance Control Act (TSCA), risk evaluations must consider factors increasing susceptibility to harm, including racial discrimination, material hardship, and lack of access to healthcare, housing, or healthy foods.

APA

Gehred, N., & Ellickson, K. (2025). NEJAC RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARY. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/NEJAC%20CI%20reccs_theme%203.pdf

Chicago

Gehred, Natalie, and Kristie Ellickson. NEJAC RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARY. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2025. https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/NEJAC%20CI%20reccs_theme%203.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gehred |first1=Natalie |last2=Ellickson |first2=Kristie |title=NEJAC RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARY |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=February 2025 |url=https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/NEJAC%20CI%20reccs_theme%203.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gehred2025nejac, author = {Gehred, Natalie and Ellickson, Kristie}, title = {{NEJAC RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARY}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/NEJAC%20CI%20reccs_theme%203.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }