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As part of Mr. Biden’s new initiative, the EPA will revive a program that allows companies to reduce the penalty for certain violations in exchange for subsidizing initiatives with a positive environmental impact. The Trump administration shelved this program.

However, EPA is basically a regulatory and rule-making agency. He has addressed racial issues, but lacks the legal and investigative firepower of Mr. Garland’s department.

The Department of Justice has a strong civil rights division responsible for enforcing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VIProhibit federally funded states, territories, and universities from discriminating against people “on the basis of race, color, or national origin.”

Activists began pressing the Department of Justice during the Obama administration to use Title VI in environmental cases. But that effort stalled, and the Trump administration quickly threw the policy out.

That all changed in November when Ms. Clarke announced, to the surprise of local officials, that she would launch a Title VI investigation into the actions of the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department.

The Republican-controlled state government has done little for years to fix the problem on its own. But local residents have also complained about actions by local Black officials who failed to address a sanitation and water management system that routinely results in sewer backups on the streets of towns like Hayneville.

Catherine Coleman Flowers, a friend of MacArthur 2020 book, “Waste” He praised the office creation, noting the crisis in Alabama. But the final test, he said, will be whether Mr Garland is willing to withstand political backlash to act tough on governments, especially in states with conservative leanings.

“Environmental justice must be done like any other research the ministry does,” said Ms. Flowers, interviewed by investigators, just like a corruption case. “They can compromise, but when people do something wrong, they should be punished. There has to be real punishments, or there will be no fear of repercussions.”