"The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion in federal court Wednesday asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to follow through on upholding an environmental justice pledge."

"In an Aug. 23 lawsuit against the EPA, an Oxnard family argues that ongoing pesticide monitoring set up by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) isn't enough to protect their children from excessive exposure to pesticides.

The monitoring program is the result of a settlement agreement EPA reached with DPR in a 2011 settlement, which EPA celebrated as a crowning civil rights achievement.

That settlement came about after EPA spent a decade investigating a claim by a Pajaro mom, identified in court papers only as Angelita C., that non-white public school students faced higher pesticide exposures based on pesticide applications near their schools."

Sara Rubin reports for Monterey County Weekly November 20, 2013. [2]